Commonwealth Park
Parkes, Canberra, Australia Capital Authority, 2600
A 63-acre (25.5-hectare) park on the northern shore of Canberra’s Lake Burley Griffin, Commonwealth Park has landscaping and play areas that attract everyone from joggers to families to dog walkers. The park hosts Floriade, a major Canberra festival each spring, which sees more than 1 million flowers bloom over a month.
The basics
Canberra is a planned city, and Commonwealth Park was carefully built, beginning in 1964, to provide views of some of the capital’s main landmarks, including the Australian Parliament (on the other side of the lake) and the Captain Cook Memorial fountain, which shoots jets of water up into the sky a few times per day. Attractions within the park include the visitor's center at the National Capital Exhibition, Castle Playground, ponds, and sculptures.
Things to know before you go
Commonwealth Park is free to enter, as are the attractions within it and the annual springtime Floriade festival.
In advance of a visit, families can download and print out a few activity sheets from the park's official website, which cover local art and birds.
Look for the largest Australian megabat, the gray-headed flying fox, in Commonwealth Park, especially at dusk, but avoid contact with the bats and their droppings as they can be infected with Australian bat lyssavirus, related to rabies.
How to get there
Commonwealth Park is on the northern side of Lake Burley Griffin, a short drive or walk from North Canberra’s Civic district, and east of the Commonwealth Avenue Bridge that spans the lake and connects North and South Canberra. There’s car parking available within the park.
When to get there
Commonwealth Park can be visited year-round, and it provides a shady respite from Canberra’s intensely hot summer days. To experience the park at its most colorful, visit for the yearly Floridade festival, held for a month between mid-September and mid-October.
The National Carillon
Just east of Commonwealth Park, on Queen Elizabeth II Island, is the striking and unusual National Carillon, a tower containing 57 large bronze bells. It's a Canberra landmark that’s worth a look, and you can also sometimes catch one of the carillon concerts, which are played throughout the year by local and international carillonists. From Commonwealth Park on foot, you can reach the National Carillon after a 15- to 20-minute walk east along the lakeshore.
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