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Uriarra Crossing on the Murrumbidgee River
Aerial view of a large battery storage facility in rural hills
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Our Valley Is in Danger

The multinational developer behind the 520-megawatt BESS Battery wants to transform a rural heritage pastoral landscape in the Uriarra Valley into a large-scale industrial site. The serene valley faces disruptions from increased noise, light, and visual pollution and set a precedent for future industrialisation.

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Uriarra Valley

A Valley Shaped by Time & Tradition

Nestled in the rural hinterland of the Australian Capital Territory, Uriarra Valley carries a quiet dignity — a place where farming heritage, native bushland, and community converge.

Uriarra Valley stretches across the western slopes of the ACT, where open paddocks roll into native eucalypt forest and the light falls soft across the land each evening.

For generations, families have worked this land — sheep and cattle grazing on rolling slopes, orchards tucked into sheltered gullies, and homesteads standing as quiet testaments to a life lived close to the earth.

Today, Uriarra Valley remains one of the ACT's most cherished rural landscapes — a place where heritage is not just remembered, but lived. The valley's story is one of resilience, connection to country, and an enduring rural character that distinguishes it from the city just over the hill.

Uriarra Valley landscape
Magazine

Want to know more about the heritage?

Read the National Trust's historical report on the Uriarra Valley and its early pastoral holdings.

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Things To Do

Explore the Valley

From the river flats to the high country, the Uriarra Valley and its surrounding ranges are one of the ACT region's great natural playgrounds — paddling, riding, walking and camping country on Canberra's western doorstep.

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Bird Watching

Uriarra Valley's mix of river flats, woodland remnants and open grazing country makes it one of Canberra's best birding spots. Look for crimson and yellow-tailed black cockatoos in the old eucalypts, gang-gang cockatoos, honeyeaters, thornbills and wood ducks on the water. The Uriarra Loop is the best way to see them all.

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Fishing

Drop a line in the Murrumbidgee at Uriarra Crossing or Swamp Creek — golden perch, redfin and the mighty Murray cod all live in these waters. The Goodradigbee up in the park is another favourite.

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Swimming

Uriarra East and West reserves have sandy beaches on Snowy-fed water that's refreshingly cold even in summer. Dogs love it too — Swamp Creek is an off-leash favourite. No lifeguards, so swim to conditions.

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Cycling the Brindabella Loop

The Cotter–Uriarra loop (~37 km) is a classic Canberra training ride: up Brindabella Rd past Uriarra Village, down through the Three Sisters, home along Uriarra Rd. Weekend pelotons are a valley fixture.

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Motorcycling

Riders rate the Cotter–Uriarra loop among the best twisty roads near Canberra — banked uphill sweepers clockwise, off-camber descending challenges anticlockwise. Watch for cyclists and roos.

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Bushwalking

The 2 km Uriarra Loop track runs from Uriarra East down to the Molonglo–Murrumbidgee junction, while the high country of Brindabella National Park offers full-day hikes to summits and alpine huts.

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Camping

Four campgrounds in Brindabella National Park — Flea Creek (facilities, riverside), Coree, Lowells Flat and McIntyres Hut (remote, 4WD access). Pitch a tent under the she-oaks on the Goodradigbee.

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Star Gazing

Low light pollution makes the valley one of the best night-sky spots near Canberra. On clear nights the Milky Way stretches horizon to horizon — exactly the darkness this landscape is loved for.

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Mushroom Foraging

Autumn rains bring saffron milk caps and slippery jacks to the region's pine plantations — a foraging tradition in the Uriarra and Stromlo forests for generations of Canberra families.

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Sherwood Forest Heritage

Step into the valley's own "Sherwood Forest" — mature oaks, cedars and elms planted by early settlers, one of the region's most magical heritage groves (see our video library).

Video Library

Explore Uriarra Valley

Take a virtual walk through the valley — from heritage tours to landscape tours, these videos bring the rural character of Uriarra to life.

Make Your Voice Heard

Email the ACT Ministers deciding the fate of the Uriarra Valley with your concerns. One email from you counts — a hundred from the community counts more.

Why object? Tell them what this development means for the valley:

  • The site itself — an industrial battery complex on historic grazing country, permanently changing the rural character of the Uriarra Valley.
  • Noise — round-the-clock cooling and power systems shattering the valley's defining silence, carrying for kilometres across open country.
  • Visual impact — shipping-container-scale batteries and transmission hardware stacked across paddocks that have been grazed since the 1830s.
  • Fire risk — lithium batteries in a designated bushfire-prone area, with toxic smoke and runoff threatening the Murrumbidgee catchment.
  • Light pollution — security floodlights and switching stations washing out the dark night sky the valley is treasured for.
Chris Steel MLA Minister for Planning
Email:
steel@act.gov.au
Phone:
(02) 6205 0439
Suzanne Orr MLA Minister for Climate Change, Environment, Energy and Water
Email:
orr@act.gov.au
Phone:
(02) 6205 0439
Andrew Barr MLA ACT Chief Minister
Email:
barr@act.gov.au
Phone:
(02) 6205 0439