No mall. No Cameron Offices. Not even Lake Ginninderra was under construction when he arrived in the newly established suburb of Scullin in 1968. Those enduring features would be built in the 1970s; the same decade Mr Rhynehart moved to Charnwood, where he has remained ever since.

He's in no doubt when asked about the biggest change Belconnen has undergone since.

"The sheer bulk and size of some parts of it, specifically the town centre, is very different," Mr Rhynehart says.

"But the biggest change has really been housing."

Mr Rhynehart's friend Glen Hyde, a Belconnen resident for 23 years, said that change could not be more evident as he stood at the edge of Lake Ginninderra.

Cranes loomed large on the town centre skyline in a sign that Belconnen, having already become Canberra's apartment capital, isn't finished changing yet.

The district has already recorded the city's highest number of apartment dwellers, with 3647 at the last census in 2016, and it's set to see a drastic increase in that number when several apartment blocks, including a 113-metre tower that will become Canberra's tallest building, are completed.

Mr Hyde, the Belconnen Community Council chairman, says it's easy to see why Belconnen is such an attractive option for developers and people looking for a place to live in Canberra.

"We have one of the best facilities in the world here," Mr Hyde says of Lake Ginninderra, which sits just metres from the Westfield shopping centre and a number of apartment buildings and eateries.

"You’ve got all of these wonderful facilities that sit on the lakefront, from Emu Bank all the way through to where Ginninderra Drive kicks in.

"We’ve got a walking track that goes right around the lake and to walk around that lake and see the number of families interacting with that space is just magnificent.

"If Belconnen is the jewel in Canberra’s crown, then Lake Ginninderra is what holds it all together."

Belconnen is Canberra's largest and most populous district, with 96,049 residents at the 2016 census, and the apartment blocks under construction are set to take its population well into six figures once completed.

At the western edge of the district, population forecasts also predict there will be about 3900 residents in the Ginninderry development by 2020 and 30,000 by 2054.

But while strong growth appears to be ahead for Belconnen, it could have been very different had a plan that would have gutted its heart gone ahead.

In 2015, the Abbott government proposed shifting about 4000 Department of Immigration and Border Protection staff out of the town centre, taking away about one-third of its full-time workforce in what would have been an economically disastrous move for the area.

"Between the Belconnen Community Council, the business owners and residents right across the district, we managed to save this place," Mr Hyde said.

"It would’ve been a different kettle of fish if [thousands of public service jobs] had moved to the airport.

"Talking to shop owners, some of them would’ve lost $5000 a day and that’s unsustainable."

While Mr Hyde believes Belconnen is already the place to be in Canberra, he says there are a number of improvements that could take it to a new level.

"An opportunity to get an indoor sports centre up and running in the next 10 years is something I’m passionate about," he says.

"I know the government’s passionate about it too, but the proof will be in the pudding and I know there are lots more important tasks that need to be done, light rail being just one of them.

"It’s great to build things, but if you can’t move people in and around them, what’s the value?"

Mr Hyde says one of the best things built during his time as a "Belconnien" has been the Belconnen Arts Centre on the shores of Lake Ginninderra, where construction on an upgrade that will include a new 400-seat studio theatre started on December 19.

He says the crowds that come to events at the arts centre illustrate the type of community that Belconnen is.

"It’s not just the people of the town centre, it’s everyone from the district and quite often a good number of people from the inner north and over in Gungahlin," Mr Hyde says.

"We welcome everyone and we’re not the sort of the community that says you can’t belong or shouldn’t belong. If you work, live or play here, you belong."

One person that feels he definitely belongs in the district is Mr Rhynehart, who feels so at home after his 50 years in the area that he won't hear any suggestion of going elsewhere, no matter what changes in the future.

"They'll carry me out of here in a box," he laughs.

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