Never heard of this place? You’re probably not alone. Photo: James Coleman.
Should Oaks Estate and Kowen Forest be absorbed by Queanbeyan, in exchange for the NSW Government handing over Parkwood on the ACT’s northwest border?
It’s a deal the mayor of Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council (QPRC) says has potential.
Kenrick Winchester floated the idea as the ACT Government starts work on a five-year strategic plan for Oaks Estate – a small suburb of around 400 people tucked away on the ACT’s far east, between the Queanbeyan railway line and the Molonglo River.
“It’s not something that has ever been talked about within council openly but, to my mind, it’s a quirk of history that Oaks Estate ever became part of the ACT over 100 years ago,” Mr Winchester told Region.
“They should have used the river as the border and not the railway line, and it should always have remained part of NSW and part of Queanbeyan.”
Oaks Estate started life as ‘The Oaks’, part of Robert Campbell’s Duntroon sheep station, before it was divvied up in 1908. The northern blocks went to the ACT and the southern blocks became part of Queanbeyan.
Today, up to 47 per cent of Oaks Estate’s properties are social housing.
Earlier this year, the Oaks Estate Residents Association – with support from a broad mix of local politicians, including the Canberra Liberals and ACT Greens – pressured the ACT Government into coming up with a plan to tackle the area’s rampant crime and inadequate services.
“Residents are constantly finding people trespassing on their properties, and sheds and homes being broken into,” president Fiona McGregor wrote in a letter to Chief Minister Andrew Barr.
“Residents can often hear shouting and screaming sounds from individuals who are experiencing severe mental health episodes, and at times people have felt unsafe due to mentally ill people using threatening behaviour toward them in the street.”
The government is now engaging with residents on the ‘Oaks Estate Strategic Plan’, with an eye to improve “housing, safety, transport, health, education, and public spaces”.
Mr Winchester argues this is the perfect time to discuss borders.
“This is an opportunity for us to look at the borders and ask: Did they get them right over 100 years ago?
“Oaks Estate is about 40 hectares and 400 people, and literally attached to Queanbeyan – its residents use our doctors. They go to our shops. The kids already go to our schools. They literally rely on Queanbeyan for just about everything. It just makes sense they should become part of our town.”
Oaks Estate Residents Association Fiona McGregor and Inner South Canberra Community Council chair Colin Walters. Photo: James Coleman.
The question has been posed countless times over the years, but the Residents Association fears the council’s finances are in such a shape they’d end up worse off under Queanbeyan.
“Like most NSW councils, it’s struggling financially,” Ms McGregor told Region earlier this year.
“What would be the incentive for the Queanbeyan council to take over Oaks Estate and all our public housing and try to manage what’s going on here?”
Mr Winchester, however, estimates Oaks Estate would “be like a one per cent increase in terms of population”.
“Obviously, there’d be issues in terms of some vehicles and businesses currently registered in the ACT, and public housing would need to be moved from the ACT to the NSW department,” he said.
“It’s not a simple click of the fingers – it’d be years and years of planning – but if you can move Hong Kong from Britain to China, surely we can move a town of 400 people to where they belong.”
The ACT Government is currently negotiating a deal with NSW to expand our north-western border to include Parkwood, which Mr Winchester suggests could be used as a sweetener.
“For every square metre Yass Valley gives up of Parkwood, Queanbeyan could move in from the ACT’s eastern flank,” he laughed.
In exchange, NSW would also take Kowen Forest, an area the Canberra Liberals had earmarked for the ACT’s 10th district if they came to power at the last election (imagine a new Molonglo Valley).
“It’s mainly pine plantation, and I assume could easily move from the ACT to NSW, and that would put an end to any speculation there’s going to be 5000 homes built there,” Mr Winchester said.
Ultimately, however, he admitted it would all come down to what the locals want.
“If they came forward and said this is actually something we’d like to see pursued, then we can start having a conversation. If they categorically say, thanks but no thanks, then we just leave it and get on with making the best of their situation with the ACT.”
Should Kowen Forest go to NSW too? Photo: ACT Government.
The ACT Government, however, is having none of it.
In a statement to Region, a spokesperson said it remains committed to developing a five-year plan for Oaks Estate, and the only negotiation in the works concerns Parkwood.
“The ACT Government has not been approached by the NSW Government regarding any proposed change to the border, land swap or transfer of Oaks Estate,” the spokesperson said.
“Any change to the ACT-NSW border presents a complex process involving formal agreement between both jurisdictions and the Australian Government, as the ACT’s boundaries are defined under Commonwealth legislation.
“The only proposal under active consideration has been well canvassed in recent years, it is the expansion of the territory’s border in the north-west to incorporate Parkwood land into the ACT.
“As a suburb of the ACT, we are committed to supporting the Oaks Estate community and delivering local services.”
Oaks Estate residents can submit feedback to the strategic plan on the ACT Government website until 24 August 2025.
