Weston Creek Rotary Club vice-president Graham Giles and Weston Creek Community Council president Simone Hunter. Photos: James Coleman.
At least today, it’s cold. There’s little sun. What wind makes it through forms little flurries with the fallen leaves.
Wisteria rises from a dome of cracked pavement, twisting its branches around a faded metal frame. But there are no flowers. That would be too much colour.
The only sign of life is a centre employee, huddled over their lunch on one of the metal park benches — itself studded by chipped paint and apple stickers.
You get the picture: the space outside the Weston Creek Community Centre at Cooleman Court is not especially welcoming. To the point it’s dubbed the “Smokers’ Courtyard”.
But locals see something else: a blank canvas of opportunity.
The ”Smokers’ Courtyard” at Cooleman Court.
With Cooleman Court set to receive $2.5 million from the ACT Government as part of a $65 million shopping centre upgrade program, Weston Creek residents are pushing for investment to transform the precinct into a village-style destination more akin to Manuka than to a suburban retail hub.
“We’d like to see this more like old Kingston or Manuka,” Weston Creek Community Council president Simone Hunter told Region.
“We want to keep a village vibe here and attract some more smaller retail to the area, but we need a bit of development to support that.”
Cooleman Court is among several centres earmarked for upgrades in the 2026-27 ACT Budget, alongside Charnwood, Kippax, Chisholm and Kingston.
ACT Minister for Government and City Services Tara Cheyne said the works would focus on public spaces.
“We know that there’s more to do in the public realm,” she said.
“It’s trees, it’s shade, it’s seating — all things that make a public space feel welcoming and easy to move through.”
Some parts of Cooleman Court are fresher than others — like here in Brierly Street.
For Ms Hunter, the priority is fixing ageing infrastructure before anything else.
“We have quite an older population here, and there are plenty of quite serious issues with accessibility, including a lot of trip hazards in the pavement and tarmac,” she said.
“A lot of the walking areas are subsided and angled towards the road, so there’s significant work that needs to be done all the way around to make it level.”
The community council surveyed residents last year, receiving more than 80 responses. Requests ranged from improved parking and bike facilities to graffiti removal and safer footpaths.
The tarmac is crumbling in much of Cooleman Court’s main carpark.
The shared zone outside the shopping centre’s main entrance was repeatedly identified as a problem.
“It’s chaos at the moment, and the tarmac is all crumbling and the painted ‘Shared Zone’ text is all fading,” Ms Hunter said.
The council also wants to inject life into the ”Smokers’ Courtyard” with regular markets, live music gigs, table tennis tables and maybe even a future cafe.
“This could be a lovely space, but at the moment it’s all uneven surfaces and rubbish,” Ms Hunter said while standing in the courtyard.
“But this space, along with the playground and green space just around the corner, is ripe for activation for community use.”
Graham Giles, from the Weston Creek Rotary Club, told Region of the club’s plans to establish a “Memory Lane Cafe” for people with dementia.
“There’s a few of them around in Australia, and later this month, some of us are going to attend one of these, based in a public environment like this,” he said.
The vision comes with one firm condition: protecting nearby green space.
Previous plans for a temporary carpark on the corner of Brierly and Parkinson streets sparked fierce community opposition and were eventually abandoned by the ACT Government.
Weston Creek Community Council president Simone Hunter.
Ms Hunter said residents remained determined to keep that area free from parking expansion.
“It’s a green space. Changing that would be insane.”
She said additional parking spaces would be welcome elsewhere, but more importantly, the time limits in the existing carparks needed to be increased beyond two hours.
“There’s definitely a need for more long-stay car parking here.”
The Weston Creek Community Council envisages regular markets taking place here.
While welcoming the funding, she believes the allocation will only go so far.
“The $2.5 million we’re getting isn’t quite enough. It’s not going to go very far here.”
Still, residents hope the investment can help build on what they already see as Cooleman Court’s greatest strength.
“People love Weston Creek because it’s got a village vibe,” Ms Hunter said.
“We want to build on that. We don’t need it to be overdeveloped; we want it to be right-size developed, and in an inclusive manner that meets the market.”
