2011: What you clicked

While all these stories proved immensely popular at canberratimes.com.au they did not make our most-clicked list for the year.

Instead, the most popular dozen stories from The Canberra Times online shows an interest in affairs much closer to home, with a particular interest in accidents, crime and transport.

It was one of the more talked about events in the past few months, so it should be little surprise that the most-clicked story we published in 2011 was one of the many about the Mitchell factory fire.

People living near Mitchell were woken by the sounds of explosions in the early hours of September 16. A fire in the Energy Services Invironmental factory in Dacre Street, Mitchell, raised fears about a toxic smoke cloud as a plume spread across the north of the city and fireballs shot into the air.

The company works with oil from electricity transformers, which is stored on the site and contains the dangerous chemical PCB, although tests so far have not found any toxins spread by the fire and smoke.

Another fire, this one at the Diamant Hotel in Acton, was also among our most read stories. The heritage-listed hotel suffered significant damage in a fire that was visible from Civic.

And while it was a little way from Canberra, our coverage of a July earthquake in Melbourne came in our most clicked list, too.

One of our most-popular pieces in 2011 was the initial reports of the suspicious death of an Asian man outside the Northbourne Flats on August 4.

The story has proved popular online ever since, and the article about the first court appearance of the teen who was later charged with murder was also in our most-clicked list.

The 17 year old is accused of stealing a mobile phone and $21 in cash from his victim, as is 20-year-old Taylor Lewis Schmidt.

The death theme continued in another particularly well read story, although in this case it was a tragic accident rather than anything more sinister.

Forrest man William Boyle's body was recovered from Lake Burley Griffin just days before his 22nd birthday. There has not yet been a coronial hearing into the circumstances, but it is believed he accidentally drowned when ''skylarking'' after a night out with his friends.

The Convoy of No Confidence also proved popular, as Canberrans prepared for an onslaught of trucks descending on the ACT in a bid to protest against just about everything the federal government did (or didn't do) but in particular the carbon tax. Our running coverage of the day, including the impact - or lack thereof - on Canberra traffic and the rally at Parliament House was our third-most popular story.

And our preview piece, when organisers were still talking about 9000 people coming to Canberra was quite popular, too.

Canberrans have long had a fascination with rail, perhaps because despite having a line to Sydney it has never really been here. The details of the latest study into a high-speed rail link, in particular the proposition you could get from Sydney to Canberra in an hour for as low as $100, sparked a lot of interest and debate on the site.

The weather affects everyone so it should be little surprise that two weather-related stories came into the top 12.

A late November storm provided some amazing photos, but also caused plenty of damage and kept State Emergency Services workers busy.

And modelling by private spatial information company AAM, which showed the effect of a 2m, 5m and 7m flood in Lake Burley Griffin, was also widely read. The January story came amid forecasts of big storms for the ACT for the rest of that summer.

Finally, for our most-read list for 2011 for canberratimes.com.au was the news that our long-time chief minister, Jon Stanhope, was standing down after a decade in the job.

While there had been speculation for many years that he could retire soon, the announcement took many in Canberra by surprise.