Drivers in Belconnen now have three additional public fast-charging locations. The ACT Government says sites have opened at Emu Bank and Lakeview Square in Belconnen Town Centre, and at Charnwood shops. Each location has four bays, giving the district 12 new places to charge.
Evie Networks delivered Emu Bank and Charnwood. SolarHub delivered Lakeview Square. The government says the Emu Bank site includes an accessible charging bay. Its joint media release says accessible bays were designed in consultation with local advocacy groups, although the public summary identifies an accessible bay specifically at Emu Bank rather than setting out the accessible-bay count at each location.
A town-centre charging gap
With the openings, Belconnen has five fast-charging locations instead of two, according to the ACT Government. It puts the district’s fast-charging capacity at 24 bays and the Territory’s public charging network at 330 bays. The Territory also says it has passed 20,000 registered EVs.
The location of the town-centre sites matters for residents who cannot simply install a wallbox at home. Apartment living, renting and strata decisions can make private charging difficult. The ACT announcement explicitly identifies residents in Belconnen Town Centre apartments as one group the new sites are intended to serve. That does not mean a public fast charger costs the same as home charging, or that the new capacity removes every wait at a busy site.
In the joint release, Australian Electric Vehicle Association ACT branch representative Paul Wayper said the Emu Bank station would help residents who need a car move to an EV. He pointed to apartment buildings in the area with a high proportion of renters, where charging infrastructure may not arrive quickly. The government has also said it is working on lower-cost slow-charging options for people without a charger at home. Those are different needs: a fast top-up in town and a slower, potentially cheaper routine charge are not interchangeable for every driver.
Opened now, and still on the drawing board
The ACT says another 90 public charging bays are to be delivered over the next few years with support from its Public EV Charging Infrastructure Fund. Those bays are planned, not part of the 330 already available. The government says future work will target gaps in the network, accessible charging and locations near popular destinations.
Drivers should check a live map or the charge-point operator before relying on a bay for a trip. The ACT’s public charger guide points to PlugShare for locations, plug types and user reports, while noting that the operator’s own website or app may have site details. The guide lists the new Belconnen locations, but a listed charger is not a guarantee that a particular bay will be free or working at the moment you arrive.
The three openings give Belconnen more choices across two operators. They also offer a practical test for the ACT’s next phase: whether chargers are placed where residents without home charging can actually use them, not merely where a car park happens to be available.