20+ reasons to explore the 2021 Canberra and Region Heritage Festival

Posted on 15 March, 2021

This past year has given many of us a renewed love of Canberra—of its seasons, its space, its nature and its community.

But the 2021 Canberra and Region Heritage Festival shows us that there’s even more for us to learn and explore.

From 6-26 April, tour the streets of Canberra packed with significant design, discover ways for kids to see their city in a new light, delight in events for design-junkies and green thumbs, and remember your childhood with a celebration of our iconic Girl Guides.

Festival Coordinator Linda Roberts says there’s no room for boredom here. In fact, it’ll be a challenge fitting everything in.

“There are around 165 events and of those, around 56 are tours, 42 are talks or workshops, 28 are exhibitions, 20 are open days and we have 10 Indigenous events and five virtual events.”

“At heart, we’re all stickybeaks,” laughs Linda. “We love to see things that aren’t normally open to the public, and you’ll certainly see that this Festival. We’re celebrating our natural heritage, our Indigenous heritage and our built heritage.”

Canberra Modern

Happening in tandem with the Heritage Festival will be Canberra Modern, a celebration of all things mid-century in and around Canberra. With their own unique program of talks, walks and tours. Canberra Modern is a design (and retro) lover’s paradise.

“Canberra Modern is an advocacy platform to celebrate mid-century modernism in Canberra,” explains Canberra Modern Founder Amy Jarvis.

“From the planning of the city to the buildings and the bravery and optimism of that mid-century period in which Canberra ‘grew up’.”

Harvest Day Out

Head to Lanyon Homestead for a celebration of autumn and the harvest on Sunday 18 April. With a huge line up of tours, performances, talks, workshops and kids’ activities, it’s your chance to explore one of Canberra’s most historic homesteads.

Highlights include an Aboriginal Walk with Ngunnawal custodian Wally Bell which will explore the significance of the Canoe Tree to the Ngunnawal people.

18 April from 10 am–4 pm | Lanyon Homestead, Tharwa Drive, Tharwa | Free | Find more information here

Growing up Modern

“This talk will focus on people who have grown up in Canberra,” says Amy. “How living in a planned and designed city affected their childhood and shaped their career trajectories.”

“We’ve got singers, architects and curators—and people who come along can share their experiences too. We’ll also be doing a social media call out for people to share their own photographs and anecdotes of growing up in Canberra.”

7 April from 5.30-7.30 pm | Venue TBC | Find more information here.

Dive into Canberra’s Aboriginal heritage

The Festival has engaged a variety of Indigenous experts and custodians to deliver a series of tours, walks and workshops that will allow Canberrans to dive into our region’s rich Indigenous heritage.

Don’t miss the Indigenous Plant Use Walk at the Australian National Botanic Gardens on 19 April, the Indigenous Australian Heritage Art workshop at the National Arboretum on 10 April or the exhibitions at Yarralumla’s Burrunju Art Gallery.

Find more information here.

Brindabella Sunset

It’s time to kick back and relax in one of Canberra’s most scenic locations. Watch the sun set over the Brindabella Ranges as you enjoy food and drinks from social enterprise Café Stepping Stone with picnic basket dinners available.

This family-friendly event is all-ages and you can event take in an exhibition by artist Carolyn Fitzpatrick in the Strathnairn Wool Shed while you’re there!

18 April from 5–7 pm | Strathnairn Wool Shed, 90 Stockdill Drive, Holt | Free | Find more information here

Discover hidden architectural gems (Tour)

“Not a lot of people know about Swinger Hill,” says Amy—and if that’s you, you’ll find Swinger Hill tucked away between O’Malley and Mawson, just off Yamba Drive.

Amy explains that Swinger Hill was actually an experiment in medium-density housing and holds a lot of significant mid-century architectural gems.

An early drawing of Swinger Hill.

Evan Crescent is another architecturally significant street, this time in leafy Griffith. Canberra Modern will be running walking tours of both of these streets with researcher Martin Miles (Swinger Hill) and architect Peter Freeman (Griffith), so you can discover some of Canberra’s hidden architectural gems.

Marvellous Medium Density: The Swinger Hill Experiment | 18 April from 10 am–12 pm | Find more information here.

Thoroughly Modern: Moir and Sutherland’s Evan Crescent Houses | 17 April from 3–5 pm | Find more information here.

Regional Events

Don’t miss the chance to explore plenty of events happening over the Territory border—it is the Canberra and Region Heritage Festival after all!

With events in Goulburn, Bungendore, Hall, Bungonia, Yass and Queanbeyan, there’s never been a better time to plan a road trip.

Explore regional events here

Collecting Modernism

Love mid-century design? This is an event you won’t want to miss.

Canberra Modern, along with Canberra Museum and Gallery and The Modern Object will give you the lowdown on buying, selling, curating and collecting decorative mid-century pieces and it’s all happening in The Modern Object’s beautiful new shop. Win/win!

8 April from 5.30-7.30 | The Modern Object, Building 3, 1 Dairy Road, Fyshwick | $25 per person | Find more information here.

Suburb walks

Linda reflects that we’ve probably become quite accustomed to walking our suburbs in the last 12 months. However, she says there’s always new things to learn.

“People can learn even more secrets about what’s in their local suburbs.”

Tours include Ginninderry Stories, A Short Walk Around Yarralumla, Canberra’s War Stories, Braddon Modern History Tour, Walk along the Old Gundaroo Road In Forde, the Long and Short of Reid’s Pebble Posts and Follow the Signs of Forrest.

Find more information here

Plenty for the little ones

Rock Valley Picnic 2019.

Explore Googong and Tidbinbilla as you’ve never seen them before with two family-friendly events.

“A delightful event is at Tidbinbilla—the Rock Valley Picnic,” says Linda, which is happening on 18 April. “Rock Valley is a heritage-listed building which was restored after the 2003 fires and it’s the perfect opportunity to bring a picnic and enjoy some ‘olden day’ style games.”

Googong Woolshed.

Meanwhile, on the same day, Googong will come alive with the Googong Heritage Day where families can explore the London Bridge Homestead.

Find more information on both events here

Girl Guide Uniform Exhibition

A nod to the childhoods of many Canberrans, a collection of Girl Guides uniforms and memorabilia will be on display at the Girl Guide Hall in Yarralumla, harking back to when they first started in the Territory in 1927.

“It’s something a bit different,” admits Linda with a laugh, adding that it will likely allow Canberrans to step back into the shoes (or boots) of their younger selves.

10 April from 11 am–3 pm | Girl Guide Hall, 16 Newman Street, Yarralumla | Free |Find more information here

A Garden for a Modernist House

Canberra is a garden city—but this is no more apparent than in planned mid-century gardens.

“We’ve partnered with the Australian Garden History Society to show people a fantastic modernist garden designed by Theo Bishoff in Campbell,” says Amy.

One for green thumbs and design lovers alike!

10 April | Venue provided at time of booking | $15 per person |Find more information here.