The proposed new light rail stop at Hopetoun Circuit, Deakin. Image: ACT Government.
Light rail may face its fiercest opposition in the Valley of the Shadow of Death on Adelaide Avenue between two suburbs “not enamoured” of the project at all.
Already, the ACT Government has had to go back to the drawing board on the location of a ‘Traction Power Station’, a huge 40-by-6-by-10-metre box designed to convert AC power into the DC power needed by light rail vehicles.
It has to be placed within 200 metres of the track, so initially an empty green space on the Yarralumla side of Adelaide Avenue looked perfect – at least until the Yarralumla Residents Association (YRA) launched a petition against it.
The Yarralumla Residents Association’s Robert Herrick led a campaign earlier this year to save this green area from a light rail power station. Photo: James Coleman.
Lead Robert Herrick argued it would not only destroy habitat for threatened species like the Golden Sun Moth and Diamond Firetail, but also remove a much-loved recreational site and one that carries a once-in-100-year flood risk.
“Imagine three of those B-double trailers parked side by side, and that’s going to be put on this open parkland,” he told Region earlier this year.
“There are lots of risks we’re all concerned about.”
This week, Deakin residents have been letterbox-dropped with a proposal to place the power station next to a carpark off Denison Street, near the Royal Bhutanese Embassy, instead.
And so far, early reactions from residents suggest it will go ahead – if only because it’s the least of their concerns when it comes to Stage 2B of light rail.
“The original proposal on the Yarralumla side was just plain ridiculous – goodness knows whoever dreamt that up,” Deakin Residents Association (DRA) president George Wilson says.
He says residents are broadly okay with the new proposed site, but it will be more of a question for local businesses.
The government maintains the open-air carpark will remain open, except for partial closures during the early stages of construction.
“It’s not close to a residential area, which it was before [in Yarralumla] … but it will be how it affects those businesses adjacent to it, and the whole amenity of the area that’s the problem.”
It’s also the tip of the iceberg.
Residents on both sides of Adelaide Avenue are preparing for years of traffic disruption as light rail journeys along State Circle and onto Adelaide Avenue, on its path to Woden, for what they perceive as very little return.
“The disruption will be massive for Stage 2B,” DRA vice-president John Bell adds.
“Deakin residents are not enamoured with light rail … and Yarralumla residents are even less enamoured. The thing is, most residents won’t benefit from this at all. The idea that someone will walk from the back of Deakin all the way down to Adelaide Avenue to catch light rail is just stupid and isn’t going to happen.”
The proposed new site for the Traction Power Station in Deakin. Photo: ACT Government.
Both Wilson and Bell are also concerned about all of the bridges that will need to be rebuilt along Adelaide Avenue and Yarra Glen, because light rail will need to run straight down the middle of the median strip – where many of the original supports stand.
They also mention the biodiversity at risk on the State Circle side of the development, including a proposal to install a new set of traffic lights at the Adelaide Avenue intersection and “cut down a whole lot of trees” at the bottom of Melbourne Avenue.
“The real reason we’re concerned about light rail is the cost,” says Bell, who has done his own cost analysis of the project.
“We’ve worked with a team of engineers who have costed this at over $5 billion … and the government is pushing the rates up as fast as they can to get away with it.”
In the last ACT Budget, rates increased on average by 3.75 per cent across the ACT, with Inner South suburbs bearing a far higher burden.
Units in Deakin rose by 6 per cent, and houses by 8 per cent. In Yarralumla, the average rate increases were 6 per cent for units and 10 per cent for houses. Only Forrest and Red Hill saw larger increases – 18 and 11 per cent for houses, respectively. Deakin house owners are now paying an average $7425 in rates per year, while those in Yarralumla are paying $8664.
Bell expects rates to double by 2031.
“There have been some big increases, and we’re not happy about this,” he says.
The entrance to the Denison Street carpark. Photo: Google Maps.
The ACT Government’s draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on light rail Stage 2B, on public exhibition between July and September, did admit impacts to flora and fauna along the route would be “significant”, mostly around Parliament House and Yarra Glen.
The government’s development agency, Infrastructure Canberra, says all feedback will be taken on board to develop a revised, final EIS for submission to the Australian and ACT governments in 2026.
It says the proposed Denison Street site “would offer reduced impacts on the habitat of threatened species and improved integration with the surrounding environment” compared to Yarralumla.
It’s now accepting feedback via email (lightrailtowoden@act.gov.au) and at two community pop-up information sessions. These will be held at the Denison Street carpark on Wednesday, 10 December, from 4:30 to 6 pm, and on Thursday, 11 December, from 8 am to 9:30 am.
