Nestled between a busy intersection, leisure centre, and school the Gungahlin Valley ponds are an oasis for birds and ducks and brimming with aquatic life beneath the surface.
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But just three years ago the 2.5 hectare site on Valley Avenue was a boggy creek-bed with only grazing cows reaping the benefits.
Now, as well as being a peaceful recreation area, the network of three ponds are also a natural solution to filtering polluted water and an important reminder of the site's past when the creek bed was a water source for the Ngunawal people.
Students from Gungahlin College, just a few hundred metres up the road, are regular visitors with environmental science and biology students studying the myriad of invertebrates, ducks and even yabbies that call the ponds home.
Although the area may look dramatically different to what it did for Wally Bell's ancestors, the Ngunawal elder said preserving the site as a watercourse was a step towards acknowledging his people's role as custodians of the area.
"With the Aboriginal lifestyle there are three basic ingredients that we need to survive and that's water, food and shelter and this is one of our most important elements," he said.
"That's why you find most of the evidence of occupation is along waterways.
"It's been proven that my people have occupied this area for at least 21,000 years so it's an indication of how we've looked after the country."
But the ACT government may have to go back to the drawing board with the $6.5 million project's signage, with Mr Bell saying several of the Ngunawal words were misspelt or interpreted incorrectly.
Project manager Jennie Gilles, from the environment and planning directorate, said the primary reason for building the ponds was to improve water quality.
"Wetlands' natural role is to filter water, trapping sediment that a lot of the pollutants are attached to and the plants take up nutrients from the water," she said.
"The third pond has a pump station, it captures water that runs off from Palmerston and it's piped to the enclosed oval for irrigation use."
The ponds each have a different theme, the first with its bird hides is habitat, the second with its outdoor seating is for public education, and the third deeper pond is fenced off for water storage.
A cycle bridge over the ponds connects the area to the commuter route and its close proximity to the Gungahlin Leisure Centre increases its use, Ms Gilles said.
Member for Molonglo Meegan Fitzharris said hundreds of volunteers had been involved on the urban wetlands' project, launched on Friday.
"It's on quite a significant cultural setting, the tributary up behind the school [Burgmann Anglican School] has a lot of evidence of really early Aboriginal occupation and life including the use of boats," she said.
"[The project] has also reintroduced a lot of species and done a lot of water planting."
