The joint funding, announced during the federal election campaign earlier this year, will result in a new Canberra Aquatic Centre in Civic and a Convention and Entertainment Precinct on the site of the existing Canberra Olympic Pool.
The new aquatic centre has been allocated the bulk of the first $100 million, receiving $68.9 million for design and construction, while $31.1 million has been allocated to planning and detailed design work for the convention centre precinct. The convention centre funding will get the project ready for the construction phase.
“The new Canberra Aquatic Centre in Commonwealth Park, located next to the new light rail stops on Commonwealth Avenue, will provide a modern aquatic facility for the territory and bring more people into the park,” said Chief Minister Andrew Barr.
“It also unlocks the land needed to deliver the Convention and Entertainment Precinct, with a larger convention centre and an integrated 8,000 seat Entertainment Centre for live music, entertainment and indoor sporting events.
“This precinct will enable Canberra’s place on the live music touring circuit and as a destination for business events, growing our economy and creating more jobs.
“These investments reflect the ambition of the National Capital Investment Framework, developed in partnership with the Albanese Government. It sets out a clear, collaborative roadmap to deliver the infrastructure our national capital needs, now and into the future.”
The ACT Government says the existing National Convention Centre Canberra (NCCC) is already at capacity.
The NCCC’s general manager, Stephen Wood, told micenet for our February edition that the centre is turning away “significant amounts of business”.
“We’re denying a lot of business. And then there’s a lot of business that already knows what our capacity is…so there’s an awful lot of business that knows it can’t fit into Canberra at the moment and absolutely would come to Canberra if the facility was big enough for them.
“There’s a lot of pent up demand just waiting for a larger facility.”
The $200 million in funding for the new pool and Convention and Entertainment Precinct is being contributed equally between the Commonwealth Government and the territory, with the ACT to allocate funds to the two projects in the 2025-2026 budget, due out later this month, and in future budgets.
