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City Facts

Ever wondered how some of the roads and laneways got their names?

Hillside Lane – was named after Hillside Hostel, Capital Hill.

Hillside Hostel was constructed on Capital Hill in 1952 and lodged men working on the construction of Canberra until 1968. Women and children were located in Westlake cottages near Lotus Bay.

Odgers Lane – named after James (Jim) Odgers, born in Adelaide. He came to Canberra in 1937 to take up a position with the Australian Parliament as a Hansard reporter. He reached the position of clerk of the Senate – a position he held until his retirement in 1979.

Riverside Lane – was named after Riverside hostel which was opened in 1947 and closed in 1952. This hostel was pavilion style and housed 360 guests in single rooms – each 7.6 feet by 13.6 feet. There was a dining room and a large reception room with a fire place and a public telephone. The building was removed in the early 1990’s.

Tocumwal Lane – is named after the Tocumwal Houses, O’Connor. The Tocumwal airfield was built as an inland defence against a possible Japanese invasion in early 1942. The base was built to look like a residential suburb and was designed to stage bombing raids, reconnaissance flights and training.

After the Second World War the development of Canberra as the national capital was revitalized at a time of extreme shortage of material. A number of the Tocumwal houses were transported to O’Connor and is now known as the Tocumwal heritage precinct.

Verity Lane – named after Dr Verity Fitzhardinge (nee Hewitt) who owned and operated the first serious bookstore in Canberra. Verity’s bookstore VERITY HEWITT, BOOKSELLER was opened in the Sydney Building in 1938. In the early days the shop moved several times, from the Sydney Building to beside the Blue Moon Café (which was opposite the then Hotel Civic), then to London Circuit in two locations and settled upstairs in Garema Arcade.

King O’Malley – the politician involved in the development of Canberra

When Labor gained power in the 1910 election, King O’Malley was elected by caucus and appointed minister for home affair.

O’Malley was responsible for the planning of the new national capital and he threw himself into the task with enthusiasm. This might be considered slightly contradictory given that he had previously been heard to say that the Federal government should remain in Melbourne and that the site selected was ‘a howling wilderness’.

Controversy over the design of the new city was resolved when O’Malley endorsed the view of a majority of the selection committee, approving the plan of fellow-American Walter Burley Griffin. Through all his troubles in Australia, Griffin had a firm supporter in his friend.

O’Malley had hoped that the capital would be named Shakespeare or Myola.

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