Welcome to an all-electric suburb with a sustainable plot

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Many of us are doing our best to live more sustainably in ways big and small, from toting reusable water bottles and coffee cups to how we use energy and water, chasing the win-win of treading more lightly on the planet and our bank accounts. 

The ACT’s Suburban Land Agency (SLA) is championing sustainable living in its new small-scale, all-electric neighbourhood, Jacka, 20 kilometres north of Canberra’s city centre and five kilometres from Gungahlin. 

“It’s 20 minutes from central Canberra,” says the SLA’s chief executive, Adam Davey, a lifelong Canberran who lives in a suburb right next to Jacka. “I ride my bike to work in Dickson, or you can park and ride to the light rail or ride back to the tram stop and hop on with your bike.”

Jacka has 74 blocks available – sized between 375 square metres and 495 square metres, all positioned near the suburb’s open space areas, parks and playgrounds – and ready to build.

For Davey, living close to the bush is important, too; another feature of Jacka that led it to be given the tagline ‘It’s in our nature’. “There are rolling hills throughout the suburb, and it’s right near an entry to the 145-kilometre loop for walking or riding right around Canberra, which is full of wildlife,” he says. 

“The blocks have been prepared for building but the topography has been left in place – it hasn’t been flattened. There are wonderful views north to the bushland and turn around and you can see across Gungahlin to the city.”

Preserving 70 per cent of the small suburbs for open spaces such as parks, playgrounds, sporting fields, and netball courts is just the beginning. The next steps to creating a sustainable suburb will fall to people buying land and building here, and there are financial incentives to help support that imperative. “We are offering sustainability rebates for both energy efficiency and for planting water-wise gardens,” explains Davey. 

 

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The landscape rebate makes $6000 available for front-garden planting and design choices that help to keep the area cool, save water and increase natural habitat (corner blocks can access $7000).

The home energy rebate offers $7000 to encourage sustainable building choices that reduce energy consumption, including having a light-coloured roof and installing a minimum 6.5kW solar energy system, a dedicated EV-charging power point and an energy-efficient hot-water system.

According to Everyday Climate Choices, an all-electric home versus one with gas appliances can save $9000 in energy costs over 10 years. “You’re out of luck if you want gas in Jacka,” says Davey. “This suburb is 100 per cent electric, and there are no gas connections at all.”

There is, however, a strong focus on building human connections to support the new community.

“Through our Mingle program, we start working with the suburb from when people first buy land through to them building their homes and then stay connected for at least five or six years,” says Tulitha King, community development manager with the SLA.

“In new suburbs like Jacka, Mingle is about building capacity to enable people to take ownership of their places so they are really building a community, not just homes,” explains King. “Mingle takes the place of the established social infrastructure of an older suburb, helping to build networks through things like coffee catch-ups, conversation groups in shared community spaces and planting days.”

There are already some houses being built, and Davey encourages anyone who is curious to make a day of it and come out to Jacka. “Bring a picnic, there are so many places to walk around and for kids to play,” he says. “There’s even a heritage-listed Horse Park homestead, in the valley and a bike path snaking through to the next suburb. Jacka is ready and waiting for a community to come and populate it.”

This article has been created in partnership with the Suburban Land Agency