Turner is a suburb in the Australian city of Canberra, close to Canberra City and the Australian National University (located in the suburb of Acton).
Turner is named after Sir George Turner, a Federalist, legislator and one of the founders of the Australian Constitution. He was the 18th Premier of Victoria, and later Federal Treasurer under prime ministers Barton, Deakin and Reid. Streets in Turner are mostly named after writers, legislators and pioneers.
Demographics
In the , the population of Turner was 4,470, including 56 (1.3%) Indigenous persons and 2,911 (65.1%) Australian-born persons. Only 12.5% of dwellings were separate houses (compared to the Australian average of 72.3%), while 13.8% were semi-detached, row or terrace houses (Australian average: 12.6%) and 73.2% were flats, units or apartments (Australian average: 14.2%). 45.1% of the population were professionals, compared to the Australian average of 24.0%. Notably 25.1% worked in central government administration, compared to the Australian average of 1.1%, although the ACT-wide average is 17.1%. Turner is favoured by students and young adults with 48.1% of its population in the 20- to 34-year-old age group (compared to the Australian average of 20.5%). The suburb has few children under 15: 7.7%, compared to 18.2% Australia-wide. 38.5% of the dwellings are occupied by single person households, compared to the Australian average of 25.6%. 59.9% of the population had no religion, while 12.3% were Catholic, 4.7% not stated, 4.6% Anglican and 3.1% Hindu. Land adjoining Northbourne Avenue (except Havelock House) is now zoned to permit redevelopment with 25 metre (about 8 storeys) high flats or 32 metres (about 11 storeys) at the corners of Macarthur Avenue with Northbourne Avenue. Low-rise offices are permitted in a small area in the southeast of the suburb around McKay Gardens.
Suburb amenities
Turner has a combined Special-Education and Mainstream Public school situated between David, Hartley and Condamine Streets, with a combined Pre-school. Child-care centres in the suburb include:
- Christopher Robin's Children's Garden (Watson Street)
- Sage Education and Childcare (Moore Street)
- Treehouse in the Park (Ormond Street)
Turner has several churches:
- a Baptist Church (Condamine Street),
- a Ukrainian Orthodox Church (McKay Gardens),
- a Seventh-day Adventist Church (MacLeay Street),
- a Lutheran Church (Watson Street)
- a Friends Meeting House (Quakers Church) (Corner of Bent and Condamine Streets)
- a Korean Full Gospel church meeting at the Baptist church.
It also has a tennis club (in Condamine Street) and lawn bowls club (in McCaughey Street) and several ethnic clubs, a French association (the Alliance Française) (in McCaughey Street) and Polish club (in David Street) and Croatian club (in McCaughey Street). There was a police youth club on Watson Street (relocated to West Belconnen in late 2006 due to costly maintenance issues with the building).
Turner is within walking distance of the CBD and the Australian National University. The suburb adjoins the local O'Connor shops.
Open space
Turner has a high proportion of parks and open space. This is due to a number of factors:
- It contains half of Haig Park – a large park of pine trees originally built as a barrier to reduce dust from affecting the city, when Canberra was still mostly a sheep station.
- It contains a flood/drainage reserve associated with Sullivans Creek which makes up a large portion of parkland.
- It contains several public sports ovals.
- It contains Turner primary school which has a generous oval and open space.
- It contains a Tennis club attached to Haig Park.
Politics
{| style="float:right; margin:0 0 0.5em 1em;"
|
{| class="wikitable"
! colspan = 3 | 2025 federal election
|-
| |
| Labor
| style="background:#ff9;"| 45.81%
|-
| |
| Greens
| style="background:#ff9;"| 30.99%
|-
| |
| Liberal
| style="background:#ff9;"| 10.35%
|-
| |
| Independent
| style="background:#ff9;"| 9.58%
|-
! colspan = 3 | 2024 ACT election
|-
| |
| Labor
| style="background:#ff9;"| 37.5%
|-
| |
| Greens
| style="background:#ff9;"| 23.5%
|-
| |
| Liberal
| style="background:#ff9;"| 15.9%
|-
| |
| Independents for Canberra
| style="background:#ff9;"|14.3%
|}
|}
Turner is located within the federal electorate of Canberra and it is represented by Alicia Payne for the Labor Party. In the ACT Legislative Assembly, Turner is part of the electorate of Kurrajong, which elects five members on the basis of proportional representation, two Labor, one Green, one Liberal and one Independent. Polling place statistics are shown to the right for the Turner polling place at Turner School in the 2025 federal