September brought mourning across the nation, as Queen Elizabeth II passed away at the age of 96. Canberra house prices continued to fall as interest rates continued to rise, and a fun game with a strange name found its way to Canberra, after taking the world by storm. A local mum shared her experience parenting a Fragile X family, and the ACT government announced free, new driver licences for those most at risk of identity theft after the Optus online data breach.
96-gun salute in Canberra to mark The Queen’s passing
On 9 September, the day after Queen Elizabeth’s death, a 96-gun salute was held outside Australian Parliament House at dusk – one round to mark each year of her life. Parliament was suspended for 15 days, and Australian flags were at half-mast around the nation to mark the long-serving monarch’s passing. Thursday 22 September was declared a national public holiday as a day of mourning.
Canberra house prices continue to fall, interest rates still rising
Canberra’s median house price fell by 2.9 per cent to an even $1,000,000 in the 2022 June quarter, despite there being a 15.3 per cent price increase over the last 12 months. The Inner Central area boasted the most expensive median house price at $1,610,500, and the Inner South came in second at $1,233,000. Rising interest rates and inflation continue to impact affordability.
Slowly taking the world by storm, pickleball reaches Canberra
A fun game with a strange name was adopted as the official state sport of Washington, USA, and has found a devoted group of players in Canberra. CW’s Jessica Cordwell received an introduction to Pickleball, a sort of mash-up of tennis and badminton with a splash of ping-pong.
Fragile X Family: ‘We’re out there, but no one knows’
Local mum, Sharon, shared her experience as a mother of two boys with Fragile X, an under recognised and frequently misdiagnosed genetic disorder caused by fragility in the X chromosome, raising her voice against the stigma that forms around invisible and less-visible disabilities.
ACT Government issuing free driver licences to hacked Optus customers
On 28 September, the ACT Government announced they would issue free, new ACT driver licences to local Optus customers deemed most at risk of identity theft or fraud, after the sensitive details of 10,000 Australian customers were released by the group behind the major Optus data breach (22 September).
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