Suburb # 9 Bonner

Despite the heat, we managed a second suburb today thanks to a refreshing air-conditioned lunch with a Gungahlin resident. This time it was Bonner.

Bonner is named after indigenous Senator Neville Bonner. It is 16km from the centre of Canberra and hence I hereby decree that anyone who lives out here should have to work less hours to make up for the travel time!

Despite being one of these new suburbs which insists on having a crazy new sign (instead of a white sign with black print as is appropriate in Canberra), it is pretty cool for a place that was basically a sheep paddock in the 1800s (though I guess some would say that about the whole of Canberra...).

Something tells me that the Antique Salon at the shops is not that old :p but I loved the old letter boxes on the outskirts of the suburb (almost in New South Wales).

 

Most of Bonner is of course new - but this sculpture is so "new" that the park around it is still being finished. It was good to see its not the inner city that gets "gifted" with Canberra's modern sculpture efforts.

I am starting to think  that the most Canberra thing of all is to be able to see the Telstra tower from some angle or another...

Unexpectedly, there is an awesome Indian supermarket at Bonner shops - really interesting selection and friendly staff. I will be coming back here for all the weird ingredients in my cook book that I can never find.

 I also love that these new suburbs seem to be making a real effort to keep their pretty trees :)

As an addition, our lunch hostess mentioned that all the street signs in Bonner have a house with a cat on them to remind people that they need to keep their cats inside here to protect the local wildlife. So cute....and how cool would it be to live on Mumshirl St (both because it sounds awesome and is named after someone we should all admire).

 

And just  as an aside... I really wish I had a category for fake grass efforts, as we are seeing some amazing ones. But this one wins so far :)