The Molonglo Valley on Ngunnawal Country will be home to nearly 70,000 people by 2050. The Molonglo Town Centre will be at the heart of a new suburb called simply ‘Molonglo’ spanning over 97 hectares and stretching 5 kilometres along the Molonglo River.

The Suburban Land Agency will be designing, constructing, and releasing land in the Molonglo Town Centre over the coming 15 years. The project will run through a number of phases and stages and there will be many opportunities for the community and businesses to influence how this exciting project can best meet the needs of a growing population. The future Town Centre will be the primary commercial centre for the community, a place where people live, gather, shop, and enjoy life.

Thank you to everyone who has taken part in engagement to inform a shared community vision for the Molonglo Town Centre. Your ideas and feedback have led to five key themes:

1. Respect for culture, past and future
2. Connected, comfortable and inclusive
3. The best of urban life in the natural landscape
4. A meeting place for Molonglo Valley
5. Built for the future

To see more of what we heard, you can read the Molonglo Town Centre Listening Report.

Located on Ngunnawal Country on the western edge of the ACT, south of Belconnen and to the north of Weston Creek, the Molonglo Town Centre (formerly referred to as the Molonglo Group Centre) is nestled close to the beautiful Molonglo River and the suburb of Denman Prospect. It will be the fifth suburb within the Molonglo Valley and will become the new suburb named simply “Molonglo” across 97 hectares.

ACT Government has been talking with Canberrans about Molonglo since 2004 with development of the Canberra Spatial Plan, the development of the first Group Centre concepts in 2014, and during the development of the Molonglo Group Centre and Surrounds Concept Plan in 2022. Most recently Government also heard from community in developing the regions 2023 District Strategy, the new ACT Planning System and informing the Molonglo Valley Needs Assessment.

We have heard from local Ngunnawal and other First Nations people with connection to the land that the location of the Town Centre has deep meaning. As Molonglo develops, there are opportunities to honour both past and future Ngunnawal culture, acknowledge ancestors, share knowledge, care for non-human kin, and create interconnected cultural landscapes.

Community inputs over many years have already begun to guide our strategy and the early concept plans. Under the 2008 Territory Plan, the Molonglo Valley District Policy was developed. In 2008 the Molonglo and North Weston Structure Plan was established to develop the suburbs of North Weston, Coombs, Wright, Denman Prospect and Whitlam. In 2011, the Molonglo Valley Strategic Assessment was prepared.

In December 2021 the Molonglo Group Centre and Surrounds Draft Concept Plan was formed. These plans were developed in the policy context of whole of government strategies: the ACT Planning Strategy (2018); the ACT Transport Strategy (2020); and the ACT Climate Change Strategy (2019-25).

In November 2023 the interim new ACT Territory Plan, introduced an outcomes-based planning system, a new Planning Act (2023), new District Strategies, new Design Guides, and a range of additional supporting materials. As part of the interim new Territory Plan, a high-level Molonglo Valley District Strategy was prepared to guide future District development.

In February 2024 the Minister for Planning announced the planned Molonglo Group Centre would be upgraded to a Town Centre and this process has been finalised in late September 2024.

We undertook the below in-person and online community engagements between 11 November and 20 December 2024. The Listening Report located in the document library outlines what we heard in the first phase of consultation.

What you have told us is informing the future suburb of Molonglo and the Molonglo Town Centre. Your feedback is reflected in the Listening Report which can be found in the document library. Five key themes provide a cohesive Community Vision which will be reflected in the Masterplan and inform preparation of the Subdivision Design Applications (SDAs).

We will keep talking with community as the area takes shape into the future. The Community Vision will anchor these conversations.