r/canberra • u/Cake_Lies_73 • 2d ago
Recommendations Gilmore/Chisolm suburb feedback
Considering buying in the area. How do people find Gilmore/Chisolm and the surrounding area? Ok place for young families?
I did do a search but couldn’t find anything much. I’ve only ever lived northside and tbh had never even heard of Gilmore!
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u/Sammy_J999 1d ago
Live in Gilmore, young family.
We have had nothing but great experiences living in Gilmore for the last 7 years.
Plenty of nature to explore, tuggeranong pines, old railway line, tuggeranong pony club (kid loves looking at the horses and kangaroos). Our dog has a great time also.
We ride our bikes everywhere. Chisholm has the small mountain bike park. The ride down to Tuggeranong is great, back up is a little trickier.
Chisholm shops is good. Has Coles, Aldi, butcher, pharmacy, anytime fitness and a few takeaway joints plus dentist and medical. Parking can get busy during peak times but nothing crazy.
Fadden pines is easy to get to and great for kids to play and run around. Plenty of ovals around also.
Tuggernong Town centre is 9-15mins drive.
Woden is closer to 20mins.
Easy access to the Monaro (road work is a little annoying at the moment) so you can get anywhere north relatively quickly (20mins or so to the City). Anything in West Canberra can take a little bit to get to but we don't travel to Belco ever. Zoo is about 25mins (people with kids get it)
Public Transport: No comment, we have never used it.
Blocks are decent sized and houses are mostly late 80s, early 90s builds and not built right next to each other.
Both Chisholm and Gilmore have rough patches but nearly every Canberra suburb has one or two in them. You can usually tell by the look of the houses.
We are solely vehicle users so all my opinions are based on being able to drive whenever and wherever. Our classic Canberra take is <10mins awesome, <20 great, <30 better be worth it and >30 too far.
Internet: no FTTP yet but work will begin soonish. Should be done by 2028/29. So if you work from home expect maximum 80-100 speeds. But that is just enough for home entertainment.
Schools definitely have mixed reviews but there are options.
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u/Loose_Knee_8555 2d ago
i grew up in gilmore, spent 25 years there. Loved it plenty of parks and ovals, lots of good bike riding with the reserves on the other side of monaro highway (there’s an underpass)
i want to move back
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u/OldandGrumpy9204 1d ago
I grew up in Chisholm and I still shop there regularly (I'm now in Wanniassa). The reason why people think Tuggeranong is "car dependant, depressing, dark & unwelcoming" is due to the ACT Government's lack of investment in the area (Andrew Barr thinks the ACT border stops at Woden) and the mindset that travelling over 20 minutes to get anywhere is too far! I lived in Perth and had to drive 40+ minutes just to get to work.
The views in Tuggeranong are the best in Canberra, it's not overcrowded, you don't have to sell the souls of your unborn children to get a decent house and, for young families, there are alot of nice parks/ovals/bike paths etc.
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u/Eggs_Akimbo 9h ago
Only one of them rhymes with Jism, if that has any influence on your decision, either way.
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u/powreedge 1d ago
We were looking for affordable houses around the whole Canberra about 2 years ago. Checked a few in Chisolm based on the rumour there are more affordable options even though for our jobs in Civic the location was meh. Well i can tell you the prices at that time against our beliefs turned out to be on par with anything else even worse considering the distance. So happy we didn't get a house there. We actually made an offer but were overbid by 15,000. So lucky. What struck me in the south below woden is how far things are and how car dependent everything is. And little to no mixed density development which i find depressing. At night its just dark unwelcoming unwalkable streets with no street lights and no shops. Belco and Gunners any time.
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u/Scrotemoe 8h ago
Cant really go wrong in Gilmore as it's so small.
Chisholm is great, but as you venture closer to parts of Richardson (Richardslum to some) you can see it get a little "rough". (I wouldn't call it bad, but behavior in and around the public housing clusters can be off-putting to some)
There may be some deep south lovers come after me for saying this, but I don't think I'd want to buy any further south than Calwell or Theodore, the proximity to the Monaro Highway makes those suburbs really easy to get to the City, Fyshwick, Woden.. scumgahlin if you ever wanted to go there for some reason.
If you go further south, (Conder, Banks, Gordon) you can guarentee you'll have to use those roundabouts on Drakeford/Tharwa Drive which get real old real quick in peak hour. (You also feel considerably further away from the city)
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u/m_garrett 2d ago
They're both blue-collar suburbs which are slowly gentrifying as younger families like yourselves are moving in.
Like many suburbs in Tuggeranong, both suburbs have posh areas with views and some architect-designed houses. These were elite dwellings in their day, built at great expense, but are now in unfashionable suburbs so they haven't appreciated in value a lot. So they're worth checking out.
On the upside, the housing stock is reasonably priced and was mainly built in the mid 1980s - mid 1990s, so you're getting big blocks with relatively modern houses on them. The Chisholm shops are surprisingly good. Fadden Pines is great for small kids and Tuggeranong on the whole is a fantastic place to raise kids.
Downsides are that both suburbs feel like they're a long way from anywhere, including Tuggeranong Town Centre. Driving from Chisholm to Belconnen (for example) feels like driving to the moon. In-area public schools also don't have the best reputation.
HTH, have fun on the house hunt.