Australia · Australian Capital Territory · Canberra
Franklin, Canberra — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Franklin is a suburb of Canberra in the Gungahlin district, named for the novelist Miles Franklin and edged by Flemington Road.
About Franklin
Where to stay in Franklin
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
Flemington Road carries the density. The mixed-use frontage along it holds Franklin's local shopping centre together with other retail and commercial tenancies, so a room on that side keeps daily errands within a short walk. Behind it the plan turns residential.
Streets named for female Australian writers run back towards Well Station Drive and Gungahlin Drive, and a bed there trades shopfronts for the quiet of a master-planned suburb in Gungahlin.
About Franklin
What are the main landmarks in Franklin?
Franklin was drawn up in 2007 without a monument in the plan. The suburb carries no listed landmark at all, so what stands out instead is the naming: most of its streets take the names of female Australian writers, extending outward the tribute to Miles Franklin that the place itself already is. The award is the other marker.
In 2016 the Property Council of Australia gave the suburb its UrbanGrowth NSW Award for Best Master Planned Community, a verdict on the layout rather than on any single building in it.
What is the history of Franklin?
Franklin dates from 2007, among the later additions to the Gungahlin district as Canberra filled that ground in. Its name honours the novelist Miles Franklin, and the street plan carries the idea further by giving road after road the name of another female Australian writer. That fixed the character early.
Nine years later the Property Council of Australia recognised the result, and it is the master plan, not any older fabric, that the suburb is known by within the Australian Capital Territory.
Where is Franklin?
Roads box it in. Flemington Road runs along the north and east of Franklin, Well Station Drive closes the south, and Gungahlin Drive the west.
More areas in Canberra
Updated September 2026