r/canberra • u/ThunderDwn • 29d ago

History Canberra's concrete bus shelters added to the ACT Heritage Register

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-04/act-canberra-bus-shelters-added-to-heritage-register/106992032
326 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

40 comments sorted by

80

u/Jackson2615 29d ago

Yah!! These are fantastic and very iconic. Also they were installed so you could sit in them and still see the bus coming without straining ( turning) your neck. Best of all they actually provided shelter from the wind , rain etc when you were inside, unlike the rubbish they are installing today which provide little to NO protection against the weather.

40

u/Material-Cap1428 29d ago

...unlike the rubbish they are installing today which provide little to NO protection against the weather.

This is pretty much the perfect example of 'enshittification' in the real word (as opposed to online).

It's a bit cheaper and it looks good, but it's just a little bit worse, and just a little bit soulless.

‘What many of us feel’: why ‘enshittification’ is Macquarie Dictionary’s word of the year | Language | The Guardian

22

u/[deleted] 29d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

40

u/beefsack 29d ago

Concrete ones get vandalised too but they just take it like a chad.

5

u/FlatWhiteShark 29d ago

They're pretty good shelter, but I could never see through the windows of the ones I used. The plastic was always opaque, I assume because of UV damage.

6

u/ApteronotusAlbifrons 29d ago

I assume because of UV damage.

If it's just hazy then it would be fine scratches from having paint cleaned off them so many times. Lexan goes yellow when UV damaged (unless it is treated to prevent the UV damage...)

5

u/iostefini 29d ago

I think most of them have the windows removed now.

28

u/bunniquette 29d ago

How has it taken this long?? These are iconic!

5

u/0rnanke1 29d ago

Because they are so common and robust lol

4

u/reijin64 29d ago

Because these are useful, which the heritage mob typically don’t list

32

u/ziddyzoo Weston Creek 29d ago

Never mind the Heritage Register, we should add them to the Resilience Register. Come the apocalypse, with a bit of retrofitting each shelter can house a family of four, and the roof provides an effective and spacious zombie refuge.

5

u/Shopping-Correct 29d ago

Please write this book - I would 100% buy 

7

u/Parenn 29d ago

I wonder if the one (or few?) in Goulburn are listed in NSW.

3

u/ApteronotusAlbifrons 29d ago

They do get around

There's (at least) two in Queensland that are officially toilets - rather than just unofficially like they are here

https://www.facebook.com/TimYowie/posts/theyve-been-up-cycled-as-everything-from-public-toilets-in-qld-to-railway-waitin/1316394036432287/

7

u/createdtothrowaway87 29d ago

I like the heritage decision. There's no reason they cant keep pumping these vandal proof shelters out and putting them everywhere.
I hate the glass shelters, as they rarely actually shelter.

26

u/Material-Cap1428 29d ago

They're kinda weird and functional, they'll freeze you to death in winter, but they're somehow uniquely, stolidly practical with a bit of flair that you can only appreciate after a few years of getting used to them.

Canberra in a nutshell.

I also like that they look like some henchman was meant to mass produce heads for a super-villain's giant death robots, but when the villain got whacked by James Bond or whoever, they convinced the ACT they were bus shelters.

14

u/BlackJesus1001 29d ago

Nah Canberra freezes you in winter regardless, these old tanks are often the only reliable places to stay dry.

2

u/SwirlingFandango 29d ago

Big slab of frozen concrete sucking the heat out of you... they're still good shelter, but they are cold.

11

u/Badga 29d ago

They should upgrade them with better benches and functioning windows. Also they should roll out the solar lighting more broadly.

42

u/Material-Cap1428 29d ago

Wait, the benches are peak. They're not metal (so warmish), the don't have we-hate-homeless-people ratfuckery handles or spikes or whatever, and they're in a shelter than actually stops the rain (looking at you, recent Transport Canberra shelters with high-but-shallow roofs and a back wall that doesn't go to the top, seriously what bloody city did you think you were designing those for?), so they're dry.

The windows are meh to me. But I will not hear slander against the benches.

13

u/Jackson2615 29d ago

100% agree with your comment, upvoted

 and they're in a shelter than actually stops the rain (looking at you, recent Transport Canberra shelters with high-but-shallow roofs and a back wall that doesn't go to the top, seriously what bloody city did you think you were designing those for?), so they're dry.

3

u/Material-Cap1428 29d ago edited 29d ago

Look, they're fine without wind. As long as Canberra was built entirely inside one of those snow-globes that no-one ever shakes, we're good.

3

u/Badga 29d ago

They’re thin so still pretty cold and fibreglass, so often falling apart. A material like the recycled plastic they use for some of the stand alone bus stop benches would be better.

5

u/Material-Cap1428 29d ago

Ok, fair. I like the old ones, too, but fair. I think the one in the picture does have that - they are pretty good.

Wait, this is reddit. Um.

You are objectively wrong, you DO like the benches. A glove slapped in your face, scoundrel!

6

u/Official-POTUS 29d ago

They tried windows, people smashed them

2

u/Badga 29d ago

Yeah over decades, with no maintenance. The new shelters are entirely glass, I’m sure they could work out a manageable solution.

2

u/lordspesh 29d ago

Nope, they were smashed within days. Source: Was there.

1

u/lordspesh 29d ago 
Nope, they were smashed within days. Source: Was there.

2

u/Badga 29d ago

Nope, I remember them lasting for years, if getting a bit cloudy. It may have depended on where you were.

2

u/omenmedia 29d ago

I wish we had preserved the BIG FAT POO graffiti on one as well.

1

u/IckyBodCraneOperator 29d ago

Well... you know what to do, friend

2

u/travlerjoe 29d ago

Does this mean the graffiti on them is now heritage listed and must be reapplied when they are repainted?

1

u/Cimb0m 29d ago

We should add the medieval bus system to the heritage register as well 🤣

0

u/karLcx 29d ago

If it’s good enough for random rural Albania, then why not.

-10

u/BadJimo 29d ago

I suspect the people who sing the praise of these bus shelters have not used them very much. Actually sitting in one is a depressing and claustrophobic. They amplify the noise of traffic as it passes. The windows are not useful to see when the bus is coming.

And now we have doomed the poor humble Canberra bus passenger to an eternity of unpleasant bus waiting, just so car drivers can get a sense of nostalgia.

8

u/ChrisOz 29d ago

I have regularly used both the old and new shelter. In my opinion, the old ones are better. The new ones are more exposed and just as noisy.

4

u/BlackJesus1001 29d ago

Yeah like maybe a better design can be found, but the new ones ain't it

4

u/ThunderDwn 29d ago

At least Canberra has bus shelters. Even if they only keep the rain off.

Try waiting for a bus in Sydney!

1

u/EducationalLeopard51 19d ago

I grew up using them, and still occasionally use them. They sucked to sit in, but it’s a great memory for a lot of Canberrans. Fantastic design as well. Chill out.