Australia · Australian Capital Territory · Canberra
Palmerston, Canberra — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Palmerston is a suburb in the Gungahlin district of Canberra, its streets named after Australian mountains and led by Kosciuszko Avenue.
About Palmerston
Where to stay in Palmerston
Not every neighbourhood fits every trip — here's what each one is good for.
Kosciuszko Avenue runs through the middle of Palmerston, and the street names around it borrow from the mountains and ranges of Australia, which is as good a guide to the layout as any map. Almost no lodging sits inside Palmerston itself. Gungahlin, the district centre next door, carries most of what a visitor needs. Nicholls, Crace and Franklin adjoin the suburb, and Gungahlin Drive and Gundaroo Drive bound it, so a car or a bus makes any of them a workable base.
About Palmerston
What are the main landmarks in Palmerston?
Street signs do the work here. Every road in Palmerston takes its name from a mountain or a range somewhere in Australia, and Kosciuszko Avenue runs as the main street among them. Gungahlin Drive and Gundaroo Drive frame the edges.
Nicholls, Gungahlin, Crace and Franklin start where those roads end, so the suburb reads as one block of the wider Gungahlin district rather than a separate destination.
What is the history of Palmerston?
George Thomas Palmer, who lived from 1784 to 1854, gave the suburb its name; he had established a settlement in the Canberra region in 1826 called Palmerville, later renamed Ginninderra. The name outlived the settlement. Palmerston was gazetted on 20 March 1991.
Building followed, making it the second suburb developed in the Gungahlin district after the industrial suburb of Mitchell, with development running on from 1994.
Where is Palmerston?
Palmerston sits inside the Gungahlin district of Canberra, bounded by Gungahlin Drive and Gundaroo Drive, with Nicholls, Crace and Franklin alongside.
Good for
More areas in Canberra
Updated September 2026