On 7 October 2025 the Government announced that it had lodged a Draft Major Plan Amendment (DPA-06) to rezone various Blocks comprising Throsby Park and the parking area behind Griffith shops to permit the construction of the proposed Inner South Canberra Health Centre. The DPA is open for public comment until 19 November 2025. Details can be found here (https://www.planning.act.gov.au/professionals/our-planning-system/the-territory-plan/major-plan-amendments)
The DPA involves the rezoning of
· The whole of Block 39, Section 78 Griffith from its current zoning of PRZ1 (Urban Open Space) to CFZ (Community Facility Zoning). Block 39 is probably better known as the old works depot, or Studio Map;
· Part (773m2) of Block 33 from its current zoning of PRZ1 to CFZ. Block 33 is the former tennis courts site;
· The remaining portion of Block 33 (2,402m2) from its current zoning of PRZ2 (Restricted Access Recreation) to CFZ.
These will be merged with the CF zoned portion of Block 34 (the old Throsby Preschool site) that is currently used as car parking for the Griffith shops. The remainder of Block 34 zoned PRZ1 will be left as parkland but will be the site of a stormwater retardation basin planned for construction in 2026. The total area of the eventual CF zoned land holding the Health Centre will be 6,889m2, not the 7,027m2 erroneously claimed in the Traffic Impact Assessment Report. A plan of the blocks and their relation to the shops is here.
The Government proposes to commence work on the Centre in early 2027 (after completion of work on the stormwater retardation basin) and for it to open sometime in 2028.
What we know of the proposed Health Centre is limited. It will not be a Walk-In Centre; all patients will need to make an appointment. It will only be open during office hours on weekdays. No doctors will be in attendance, only salaried nurses, and other health professionals.
Services available will be dental services, post-acute care management, ACT Pathology collection services, Chronic Disease Management, and Breast Cancer Screening. A more detailed listing of services to be provided, and why the need for dental services favours a Griffith location, is provided here.
There will be 50 salaried nurses and 28 “points of care”. The proposed building is described as “a single storey health facility with minor second level for staff and plant and a surface car park.” Media reports suggest that the Centre will cost $22 million. The building will be quite large, about as long as 70% of the distance from Gryphons to Shop-Rite. There will be 78 rooms, with 71 of these on the Ground Floor. (Click here for the Ground Floor plans and here for First Floor plans of the Centre.
At present there are 59 car parking spaces on the site of the Centre. The plan shows that while some existing parking spaces will go, they will be replaced elsewhere around the site, with 87 public spaces available, an increase of 28 public spaces. Health Centre staff will have a dedicated controlled access two storey parking area with 32 spaces, and 6 EV charging stations. Only 2 EV chargers will be provided for the public, although there will be provision for installation of a further 5 EV chargers.
The Traffic Impact Assessment Report, released together with the papers for the Plan Amendment, is confident that the additional parking will be adequate, but the report is not always entirely clear about the quality of its data or in its methodology. We remain unconvinced that its projections are realistic rather than an expression of optimism. If the patient/health service professional ratio is greater than one (ie each health employee is dealing with more than one patient, including those in the waiting rooms, at a time) then with 50 employees it would seem likely that more than 28 extra parking spaces would be required. The Traffic Impact Assessment Report suggests that any overflow demand could park in nearby streets. It seems far more likely that vehicular traffic trying to patronise Griffith shops will merely drive on the Manuka or Kingston if they cannot find convenient adjacent parking, rather than parking some minutes’ walk away. There is a significant risk of trade at the Griffith shops being damaged if the Traffic Report has underestimated parking demand.
Should the provision of parking be adequate some Griffith shop businesses should benefit from additional custom once the centre is opened. However, construction of the centre can be expected to take a year, or more. During this period parking at the shops may be reduced due to the use of some areas for construction, storage of materials, and parking for construction workers and trades. Workers on the site may offset to some extent the loss of previous customers. As a result of these difficulties some customers may go elsewhere, as was the case during the Red Hill redevelopment.
A similar impact on parking at the shops can be expected during the construction of the Storm Water Retarding Basin in Throsby Park, scheduled for the second half of 2026, following the moving of the Childrens’ Playground to Blaxland Park near the shops in the first half of 2026.
We will make sure the Government is aware of these risks and work to minimise the impacts.
Although not richly supplied with public transport the Griffith shops are served by one bus route down Stuart St. If the Government expects people of limited mobility to attend by bus, appropriate pathways to the Health Centre will need to be provided for the bus stops on each side of Stuart St. The street is about 3.52m higher than the floor level of the Centre (FFL 578.7).
It appears that somewhere between 22 and 28 trees will be removed to make way for the Centre. A tree report has clearly been conducted (all the trees on the plan have numbers) but this hasn’t been released Consequently we have little knowledge of the species and condition of the trees proposed for removal.
Many of the trees to be removed are in the area to the south of the proposed centre, between the Centre and Throsby Crescent. The Plans show this area as being converted into a parking area with 12 parking spaces. These trees could be retained if this area was left undisturbed and the 12 proposed parking spaces were moved to the end of Throsby Lane beyond the roundabout leading to the former gate to the works depot, now unnecessary with the entrance to the Health centre off Throsby Lane before the roundabout. It seems likely that space for an additional 12 spaces could be found in this area. The return of this currently CF zoned but not used for parking area to PRZ1 zoning to Throsby Park would at least partially make up for the loss of the 773m2 of PRZ1 land in Block 33 discussed above.
The GNCA believe that it is important that the Centre not serve to divide what remains of Throsby Park from Blaxland Park. Consequently, the GNCA will ask that the Government ensure that a pram suitable path be constructed between the Health Centre and Bishopsbourne Court connecting the path from Griffith shops to Frome St through to Throsby Park.
The GNCA is yet to be convinced that the construction of a new structure is the best and most efficient way to service the needs the Centre is intended to address, and the best use of $22 million (or whatever the true cost is) drawn from an already tight ACT Health budget. On the information available to date, it appears that the decision to locate a Health Centre in the Inner South was taken before any analysis of just what the Centre would offer. The Have Your Say What We Heard Report on what services the public sought from a health centre indicate that “dental health” was nineth out of twelve issues the public wanted serviced. The most popular was “medical services and chronic disease management”. Consequently, the strong emphasis on dental services in the Services to be Offered document referenced above is surprising. There was a general expectation that the Centre would be walk in, as with Weston Creek, and the absence of this will no doubt lead to much disappointment Another popular service was medical imaging, which we understand the Government has not made a decision, except to rule out MRI imaging.
The second paragraph of this document states “Demographic data shows that the highest number of eligible adult clients for oral health services are concentrated in the south of Canberra”. Given the relatively recent demolition of large public housing complexes at Manuka, Gowrie Court, and Red Hill the greatest number of public tenants is likely to be located east of Sturt Av in Old Narrabundah. It seems to most efficient and quickest way to offer dental services to this group would be to rent a vacant shop at the Narrabundah shops, outfit it as a dental surgery, and arrange a free Uber service to bring in eligible patients from other parts of the inner south such as Oaks Estate. Under the current proposal residents of Oaks Estate with have no access to the facility at all, which seems a perverse outcome.
If the Government is determined to build a purpose built structure, the GNCA is unconvinced that Throsby Park is the best possible location, Griffith is not the population centre of the Inner South, and the CF zoned land next to MOCCA in Manuka, or part of the undeveloped portion of Kingston Foreshore, would be more central to more people. If the Centre were located in Throsby Park, Canberra Hospital would be closer to residents of Yarralumla and Deakin, casting doubt on the idea that this is to be an Inner South Canberra health centre rather than a Griffith/Narrabundah health centre.
While Throsby Park might not be the best site, it appears to be where the Government wishes to build the inner south health centre. The GNCA will continue to work to minimise disruption to the shops during and after construction, minimise the loss of parking, parkland, and trees, and try to ensure that any losses are made up elsewhere.
The GNCA welcomes the idea of a new Health Centre for Inner South Canberra, and believes that if it were implemented appropriately this could bring many benefits to the residents of the inner south.
However, the completely unconvincing nature of the parking analysis, and the restricted nature of the times and services offered by the centre cast serious doubts on whether this offers any real net benefits to residents of Griffith and Narrabundah.
We would welcome any comments by email to info@gnca.org.au.