It was revealed Canberrans would pay an upfront $375 million to Pacific Partnerships-led consortium, plus an average $64 million a year over 20 years to build and operate the line.

The government claimed it would cost between $220 million and $280 million to tear up the contracts, as the Canberra Liberals promised to do if they won the October election.

Months after GWS Giants and Grocon proposed an $800 million redevelopment of Manuka Oval and its surrounding precinct, the ACT government finally knocked back the unsolicited bid.

The proposal came under a dark cloud early on when it was revealed the husband of Labor minister Meegan Fitzharris was working on the plans.

But it was the failure to bring the community on board until two months after the project was announced that finally sent the project back to the drawing board.

When the ACT government received two wildly different valuations for the Glebe Park land and paid at the top end of the highest valuation for reasons that remain largely unexplained, it raised questions about the Land Development Agency and led to a damaging report by the ACT's auditor-general.

The auditor-general's report also pointed to the manipulation of a document on the sale requested under freedom of information laws by Liberal politician Alistair Coe, which was later referred to ACT Policing.

And it led to a decision to split the LDA into two new agencies - one of which will be responsible for "urban renewal" projects such as City to the Lake and Northbourne Avenue.

This year marked the tipping point for the loose-fill asbestos buyback scheme.

More than half of the affected homes have now been demolished and the first five blocks were sold at auction in April, where a whopper 1459 square metre block in Chapman passed in at $660,000.

It was not without controversy though. Buyers of the blocks were given no legal guarantees they were asbestos free, contractors were accused of stealing a cabinet from a contaminated home and another Fluffy home was discovered.

Tensions ran high as continued fears about the safety of demolition work prompted one man to start a blockade outside a condemned house that ended in his arrest.

There was outrage in May when Indigenous inmate Steven Freeman died in jail, despite promises to keep him safe after a vicious bashing in the prison during 2015.

It is still unclear how Mr Freeman died but an independent inquiry highlighted wide-ranging failures of the ACT's justice system.

An inquest into his death has been repeatedly delayed but is expected to be heard in 2017.

After 19 long years in the ACT Legislative Assembly, veteran Labor politician Simon Corbell called it quits this year.

The Deputy Chief Minister signalled he would not contest the 2016 election after preselection jockeying saw him relegated to last on the Labor left faction's ticket.

Remembered for putting Canberra on track for 100 per cent renewable energy by 2020, Mr Corbell was in December announced as Victoria's new Renewable Energy Advocate.

It was an appointment that raised a lot of eyebrows - Liberal treasury spokesman Brendan Smyth taken out of the political race to take up a role with the grand title 'Commissioner for International Engagement'.

But amid the controversy surrounding his new job - which was not filled through an open selection process and came with a $300,000 annual salary - Smyth remained unflappable.

"I can't comment on the genesis or why people did this," he told The Canberra Times in August. "I made a decision for me. And, no, I don't feel manipulated at all."

The Brumbies sale of their former Griffith headquarters to Graham Potts' Amalgamated Property Group has been the subject of controversy for years, but this year culminated in a bitter split between former Brumbies boss Michael Jones and the club's board after Mr Jones ordered an audit into the transactions.

In May, ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr revealed he gave in-principle support to the $7.5 million tax break for the Brumbies land deal in Griffith before the 2012 election.

Then in November, The Canberra Times reported that in 2009, then sports minister Andrew Barr pushed for the waiver of nearly $300,000 owed on the Brumbies' Griffith site, on the basis of a suite of benefits that never eventuated.

While a KPMG report into the club's sale of its Griffith headquarters remains suppressed by the court, it has been referred to the corporate regulator.

The ACT Greens will refer the $300,000 waiver to the ACT integrity commission when it is established.

Defying the pundits, ACT Labor won the October election, extending their record-long reign by another four years.

The election win was Andrew Barr's first as Chief Minister, having taken the helm after Katy Gallagher's move to the Senate, and gave him the legitimacy to lead.

It also saw Liberals leader, moderate Jeremy Hanson, ousted in favour of his deputy, Alistair Coe after their drubbing at the polls and the first ever female majority in an Australian parliament.

What do you think the biggest local political story of 2016 was? Comment below.