A2ZACT With Brent Ford – Coombs
Coombs is one of the newer suburbs of Canberra, located in the Molonglo Valley. Brent Ford continues his alphabetical running project.
It is named in honour of H. C. “Nugget” Coombs, a prominent public servant, economist, and the first Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia. Suburbs are named after notable public servants. #A2ZACT pic.twitter.com/VvILEif4Ep
— Brent Ford (@BrentFord26) January 28, 2021
With a life spanning most of the 20th century, HC “Nugget” Coombs certainly oversaw a lot of changes in Australia. Among being a leading pioneer for the arts, an advocate for Indigenous affairs and a long and influential career in the Australian Public Service. His work in founding of the Australian National University is noted in the Coombs building. You can get more detail about the building in this book.
As for the suburb itself, Coombs backs onto the Molonglo River, with Mt Stromlo overlooking it. The Coombs shops has been a long running debacle, with land sold for shops more than five years ago, but barely any shops there as yet. The neighbouring suburb is Wright, named after Judith Wright. The pair remain together in memorial after both passing away. There looks to be space for a suburb of “Sulman“, but this has not eventuated yet, or has been left off the map.
From above, you can see a large kangaroo made out of grasses, promoting the work being done in the nature reserve.
On a bike or by walking, you can cross over the Molonglo from near the Canberra Zoo to enter Coombs. There are a wide variety of tracks to explore downstream of Scrivener Dam. There are also quite a few playgrounds throughout the suburb. You can have an expanded view of acitve play areas across the Molonglo Valley here. You can also see some thoughts on the cycling setup of the area here.
I wasn’t sure if the suburb would have made it into the Feel The Power project, but the partly built suburb (in 2016) made it in. You can see more of a writeup on the suburb here.
About the Author
Daniel Boyle Founder of @sportslashlife. Australian living in Chile. Freestyle footbag player and passionate sports fan.
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