When the first residents settled in Dickson in 1958 it was on Canberra's outskirts.
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Neighbouring suburbs, Hackett and Downer would not be gazetted until 1960 and Belconnen was still ten years away, making Dickson literally the last suburb on the north side of the map.
Fast forward to today and Dickson is very much "inner-city" Canberra and this position has made it a prime target for redevelopment in recent years.
The rate of development in Braddon has come to Dickson, but while the former was an industrial heartland, the latter was a suburban heartland. Residents agreed comparisons between the two are like apples and oranges.
Over the past two years, there has been 45 development application approvals in Dickson. Ranging from 500-unit mixed used precincts to small clusters of townhouses, commercial and minor modifications.
There have been high profile sales in the suburb such as the $35 million sale of the Dickson Motor Registry and the $37 million sale of the former Dickson Towers public housing site.
The developments
The redevelopment of the Dickson Motor Registry by Canberra-developer Doma Group, dubbed DKSN, is one of key sites in Dickson at the moment.
The land was formerly owned by the ACT government and it was put out to tender in 2017. One of the main tenets of the tender was a developer was required to provide 13,000 square metres of office space for the ACT government.
"We won the competition with the idea that members of the public can come to Access Canberra and enter the building then look up to see the public servants that work above and it's that nice feeling," Doma senior development manager David Jameson said.
Recently, the scaffolding has come down on the office building which is set to be completed by May. The precinct is set to have 300 residential units with a 102-unit building due to be finished in September.
"This building is going to be the jewel in Dickson, then everything right from the Dickson Town Centre will start to upgrade over time," Mr Jameson said.
As part of DKSN, there will be a food hub called Eat Street which will be primarily Asian restaurants, a complement to Woolley Street, Canberra's Chinatown - which the ACT government claimed has had "years of neglect".
In an effort to boost the street, this year the ACT government pooled money into a reactivation called the Woolley Street Project, part of the Dickson Place Plan. The City Renewal Authority spearheaded the project and added a large entry installation, picnic tables and a public alfresco area to the street.
"The City Renewal Authority worked closely with the local community to create the Dickson Place Plan, a road map to strengthen and improve Dickson's identity as the are continues to evolve and grow," City Renewal Authority chief executive Malcolm Snow said at the time.
"Together, we hope to create a better, brighter Dickson for people to work, live, play and experience, now and into the future."
The residents
For residents there are mixed feelings about wider changes across the suburb but many have a great passion for Dickson, such as Jane Goffman who came to the suburb 25 years ago.
"For me it embodies this marriage of old and new, east and west, student digs and modest family homes, the well heeled rubbing shoulders with people who are struggling and opening up to that reality with generosity," she said.
"It's not that flashy, it's friendly and that fusion imparts a humanity to place that encompasses and enriches.
"I love the genuineness, the authenticity, it's an original - it's not trying to be something it isn't so it's a bit frayed at the edges but it has such good bones."
There was a powerful sense of community in the suburb, Ms Goffman said.
"People feel connected with local places and [are] much more relaxed, knowing that neighbours look out for each other, care about the person next door and around the corner," she said.
Ms Goffman, who is the convenor of the Dickson Residents Group, is a town planner by profession and was spurred into campaigning for the suburb after the approval of a controversial development in 2011.
Herself and 160 others had placed objections but the development was approved. Ms Goffman took the decision to the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
"It was a hard decision as to whether to take it to the tribunal or not, if I take it to the tribunal I have shot myself in the foot for any future consulting work," she said.
"But on the other hand there were two pensioners this directly affected and in planning terms what you were feeling was a domino effect so if you approve one bad basically all of the others start to fall."
Ms Goffman said after the hearing, which was successful, her consulting work "dried up" but she continued to campaign for suburb and used her background to carefully examine each development application.
The rising cost of housing
With the changes in Dickson, a characteristic of gentrification appeared to be having an effect with Canberra's skyrocketing rents hitting the suburb hard.
Rents in the suburb drastically increased this year, according to Domain figures. The median house rent of $628 per week represented an annual rise of more than 14 per cent, and the median unit rent of $428 was more than 17 per cent. This was the highest increase for both dwelling types of Canberra suburbs.
The suburb, like the rest of inner-city Canberra, is at a juncture in terms of its public and affordable housing.
Although public housing was razed and replaced in Dickson, in November, the ACT government lodged a development application to renew older public housing stock on Morphett Street. There will be 21 dwellings at the site.
Dickson is also slated to have Canberra's second Common Ground housing project, the other being in Gungahlin. This would bring 40 social and affordable housing dwellings to the suburb.