Things to Do in Canberra This Weekend

Whether you're a long-term Canberra resident or a visitor for the first time, the capital offers a weekend program that consistently surprises people who arrive expecting a sleepy government town. Museums you can spend a full day in, a farmers market network that rivals any in Australia, live music at the Llewellyn Hall, and the natural setting of Namadgi and the surrounding landscape make Canberra weekends genuinely rich.

National Institutions (free), the Australian War Memorial, the National Gallery of Australia, the National Museum, and the National Portrait Gallery are all free to enter and each offers programming that would anchor a weekend in any capital city. The War Memorial's Last Post ceremony at 4:55pm daily is deeply moving and takes less than 20 minutes. The NGA's permanent collection (Sidney Nolan, Arthur Boyd, the Blue Poles) is world-class and perpetually underappreciated.

Capital Region Farmers Market, held every Saturday morning at EPIC (Exhibition Park in Canberra), the Capital Region Farmers Market is one of Australia's best, with 170+ stalls selling produce direct from ACT and south NSW growers. The cheese, charcuterie, bread, and coffee stalls alone justify a morning visit.

Old Bus Depot Markets, Sunday mornings, the Kingston Foreshore's Old Bus Depot Markets provide arts, crafts, food trucks, and artisan vendors in a heritage bus depot building. This is the place for locally made jewellery, ceramics, and handcrafted goods.

Mount Ainslie, the 45-minute walk to the Mount Ainslie summit is Canberra's best-value weekend activity: panoramic views of the city's geometry, a coffee reward in Braddon on the way back, and a sense of the landscape that the city is embedded in that streets alone cannot convey.

Braddon and Gorman House, the Braddon café and restaurant strip (Mort Street, Lonsdale Street) provides some of Australia's most interesting specialty coffee, with weekend brunch options at Barrio, Cibo, and Lonsdale Street Roasters. The Gorman House Arts Centre's weekend markets add creative community energy to the precinct.