Bridge to Bridge Canberra
This walk around Lake Burley Griffin is a great introduction to Australia’s capital city, Canberra.
As you walk around the lake you’ll pass or see, many of the city’s major attractions including Parliament House (old and new), the National Museum, the National Library and the War Memorial. You’ll wander through the International Flag Display and along the Australians of the Year walkway. And you’ll be tempted off the path to explore various others points of interest too, some featured below.
The National Library
The Trail
The walk can be started at any point - I started from the south side of the Commonwealth Avenue Bridge, parking in Lennox Gardens. There are other (mostly paid) parking bays at various points along the way.
Bubblers and toilets can be found at regular intervals along the path and you’ll pass by or near a number of cafes and restaurants, some attached to museums.
If you just walk the loop you can be done in under an hour but there are a few places where a slight diversion is worth the extra time.
Points of Interest
Commonwealth Park
This beautiful big green space on the northside of the river covers an area of around 35 hectares. Dotted with sculptures and seating, it has a series of meandering paths that wander past pretty ponds, stately trees and landscaped gardens.
In the springtime Commonwealth Park is alive with the colours of Floriade, a festival of flowers with a sideshow of entertainment, arts and crafts and gourmet food. Autumn brings colour of a different kind though equally beautiful.
The park is home to a growing family of rabbits and attracts birds of all shapes, size and colour. There’s a large outdoor stage in the park, as well as an amphitheatre. There’s also a great little stone playground, a chess space and more. A deviation into Commonwealth Park is highly recommended.
Blundell’s Cottage
Step off the path to wander the perimeter of this heritage-listed farm house, a well-maintained reminder of Canberra’s rural past. It is one of the last remaining stone buildings of its kind in Canberra and the only pre-Federal Capital building in the National Triangle.
Blundell’s Cottage is managed by the National Capital Authority (NCA) as a house museum. When it was built in 1858, it overlooked the Molonglo River and was surrounded by paddocks.
Visitors to the cottage (weekends 10am - 2pm) can see rooms displaying furniture and household items in keeping with its use as a rural dwelling spanning 100 years. There is also a period-style vegetable garden located to the north of the slab shed.
Blundell’s Cottage c1858
NGA Sculpture Garden
Another worthwhile diversion, not far off the main path, is the National Gallery of Australia’s Sculpture Garden. The garden, landscaped with plants native to Canberra, covers an area of over three hectares and includes a separate wing at the front of the main building (accessed via Parkes Place).
Showcased in the garden are over thirty works by Australian artists and many more by international artists. Most of the sculptures were bought and placed in the garden around the time of the mueum’s opening in the early 1980s though there are some recent additions with more planned.
Lennox Gardens is another lakeside park just off the Bridge to Bridge Walking Track. It’s a nice spot for a picnic and is home to The Canberra Nara Peace Park and the Beijing Garden, both gifts from Canberra’s sister cities.
The traditional Japanese-themed garden features a traditional wooden gate and gazebo, stone lanterns and cherry blossom trees. The Beijing Garden is designed in the imperial Chinese garden style of the Qing Dynasty. It features a Chinese pavilion and traditional welcome gate, rock gardens and various stone sculptures.
