Former Labor MLA, Mary Porter, has been elected president of the inaugural association.

Many of the former members gathered in Canberra on Friday on a freezing autumn day to mark 30 years since the inaugural, controversial Assembly, which first sat on May 11, 1989.

Among them was 83-year-old Bill Wood, a Labor MLA for 15 years before he decided not to contest the 2004 election.

Mr Wood happily said he got up to "very little these days".

"A lot of good books and a modest exercise regime," he said.

Norm Jensen, 73, travelled from the Sunshine Coast in Queensland with his wife Wendy, to help celebrate the Assembly milestone.

"Our kids and grandkids are still here so we get down here," he said.

Mr Jensen sat in the first Assembly as a member of the Residents Rally party.

"It was challenging and interesting," he said of his time in the Assembly.

Lucy Horodny, a Greens MLA from 1995 to 1998, went on to work with AusAID, and is now busy with volunteer work.

"It's great," she said of being back at the Assembly. "So many people haven't changed at all. Everyone is completely recognisable."

Greg Cornwell, a Liberal MLA from 1992 to 2004, is now enjoying a new career as a novelist, writing his seventh novella featuring the fictional character John Order, a simple, crime-fighting backbencher from the national capital.

"Things have obviously changed a lot," he said of the Assembly. "There are now 25 Members and I look back now and think how we did everything we did with 17."

Helen Szuty was one of the Moore Independents from 1992 to 1995. She has lived in South Australia for the last 20 years, where she was the editor and publisher of a tourism magazine. She stood in the state election in South Australia last year for Nick Xenophon's SA-Best party.

"I'm now a field researcher for Roy Morgan which gets me out and about," she said.

Former Labor MLA Karin MacDonald, who was in the Assembly from 2001 to 2008 said she happily busy "running after an eight-year-old", her son.

"I think it's bedded itself down and people can see the relevance of the work the Assembly does because it does do a lot of good work," she said.

Former Liberal MLA Bill Stefaniak, and former Residents Rally MLA Bernard Collaery, both lawyers, were members in the first Assembly and remembered how no one really knew how self-government would work in practice. There was even some thought they would be part-time politicians - which was far from how things turned out.

Mr Stefaniak said self-government, which a majority of Canberrans never wanted, had turned out to be a success.

"The Assembly has served the territory very well and people can at least see their local member, which doesn't always happen," he said.

Ms Porter, who had been in the Assembly for nearly 12 years when she retired in 2016, is now living in Lake Macquarie near Newcastle.

Asked how life was post-Assembly, she said: "Well, busy".

"Because of my life experience, I can still continue to give," she said.

"I miss the constituency work, I miss the committee work, I miss working on things such as the restorative city and end-of-life issues but I'm continuing to work on restorative justice in Newcastle."

Ms Porter said the association of former MLAs would meet each Assembly, not only providing a social connection, but offering their experience and expertise to new and prospective politicians. It would also link in with similar organisations in other jurisdictions.

"I think it's a good thing," she said.