The most recent attempt to put some life into a neglected part of the city of Canberra is to establish an area of cafes and pop-up activities on the unlamented Futsal ground. Known now as Westside Acton Park, the venue is a precursor to plans to better integrate the city centre with Lake Burley Griffin.  More permanent structures will follow at some time in the future.

The temporary structure is made up of a collection of containers, some of which are raised up on scaffolding (well quite substantial metal beam supports actually) and others that surround the futsal slab. We dropped by to see what the fuss was about after a non-local politician was bemoaning the negative impact of the structures on the picturesqueness of the lake shore. Poor possum, far be it that the people who live in the national capital should have something to enjoy.

We stopped by early in the week which meant that only the Damn Fine drive through coffee van was open. The good thing is that they do live up to their name. Suitably fortified we had our pick of locations to draw from. We decided to have a crack at the stack of containers. While the sun was shining we had had a -7 degree C overnight temperature, so prolonged sitting in the one spot wasn’t possible. I managed to get this far before numbness overtook me!

The big container stack at Westside at Acton, watercolour, 2 June 2015

There is going to be a big market at the site this coming Saturday and a big BMX jam on the Sunday so the place will be jumping.