Woden police officer in charge sergeant Harry Hains said police were called to the YMCA Early Learning Centre on Dixon Drive after staff discovered the item about 7.50am.

"Staff looked at that package and were concerned in relation to what it was there for and called police," he said.

Officers shut Dixon and Streeton drives and parents were contacted and asked to collect their children from the Montessori School car park on nearby Mulley Street.

Members of the Australian Federal Police bomb squad inspected the package and found it was suspicious.

An X-ray detected signs that whatever was inside the cardboard box "may or may not have been explosive", including wires, electrical items and dark shadows.

"However, the deconstruction of that package has revealed that not to have been the case," Sergeant Hains said.

He said there was "no deemed risk to any person as a result of that package".

"Investigations are under way as to how that package came to be placed there."

The package was made up of cardboard boxes and had been addressed to several recipients in different coloured pens.

He would not be drawn on whether the personal information on the package was connected to any staff at the child care centre.

Sergeant Hains said the security measures, which police described as "standard procedure", were justified.

"The power of explosives can never be underestimated and we'll always treat every single suspicious package in an appropriate manner because it's the one you don't treat in an appropriate manner that will come back and bite you hard," he said.