The night-time economy is a key contributor to Canberra’s social, cultural and economic vitality. Night-time activities can include restaurants, cafes, bars, nightclubs, retail, live music, cultural events and more. Nightlife and its accompanying sounds are part of city living.
An Entertainment Precinct is an identified area where the existing and future nightlife activities and character, including live music, are prioritised and supported. These areas have been designated through regulation to support higher levels of activity and music, particularly into the evening.
The Territory Plan 2023 identifies entertainment precincts in the City (City Centre Entertainment Precinct in the Inner North and City District Policy) and Gungahlin (Gungahlin Entertainment Precinct in the Gungahlin District Policy). These locations support the direction provided in the Inner North and City District Strategy [40.9 MB], City Plan and Gungahlin District Strategy [65.0 MB].
Benefits of Entertainment Precincts include:
- Sets amenity expectations up front, identifies land use objectives of an area as being for music-based entertainment and vibrancy
- Gives greater certainty to businesses, residents, developers and building owners
- Protects existing venues from land use conflict and enable new venues to open with relative certainty
- Maintains the desired vibrancy character and land use intent of an area.
There are specific Territory Plan Assessment Requirements for new development in entertainment precincts, which include:
- That development supports and enables entertainment uses that contribute to the vibrancy of an entertainment precinct;
- Any new noise emitting development (e.g. entertainment use) must demonstrate how low-frequency noise associated with live entertainment and amplified music has been considered and applied in building design, siting and materials;
- Any new noise receiving development (e.g. residential development) must meet internal acoustic amenity criteria for both dB(A) and dB(C) criteria. This accounts for noise weighted for both how the human ear perceives noise and low-frequency noise associated with amplified music;
Understanding Entertainment Precincts
Across Australia and around the world, the concept of entertainment precincts is applied to popular nightlife, cultural and music districts to protect their character, even if individual businesses change over time. Examples of entertainment precincts across Australia include Fortitude Valley in Brisbane, Southport in the Gold Coast and Enmore Road in Sydney. Each jurisdiction uses their unique regulatory settings to support entertainment in these selected locations.
Outside of entertainment precincts, the ACT planning framework supports entertainment uses through other land use controls such as zoning, development requirements and encouraging the co-location of complementary land uses.
Current work
EPSDD and the Better Regulation Taskforce are working with industry and across government to review regulation and government processes that impact businesses and other stakeholders in the night-time and entertainment economy.
Building on the inclusion of Entertainment Precincts in the City and Gungahlin through the Territory Plan, further regulatory changes are proposed to strengthen their effectiveness to support nightlife in these locations. The Government is seeking feedback on:
- noise settings and Noise Zone Standards for the City Centre and Gungahlin entertainment precincts
- the establishment of a core and frame to the City Centre Entertainment Precinct
- how complaints for entertainment noise should be managed
Public consultation is underway until 11 February 2024 through the Your Say Conversations Night-Time Economy page.
Project History and Resources
The Urban Sounds Discussion Paper 2016 considered how noise could be best managed in mixed-use environments as more residential development occurs close to where nightlife happens. As a response to public consultation feedback, changes were made to extend higher (daytime) noise limits later into the night on Friday and Saturday nights in the City, Town and Group Centres.
Urban Sounds provided the foundations for the 2019 Entertainment Action Plan [3.3 MB], which was a response to a Legislative Assembly motion on 31 July 2019. A key outcome for the action plan was to designate entertainment areas/precincts to support live entertainment, through complementary policy and regulatory changes. Consultation with entertainment venues, music industry and property industry representatives on the draft Entertainment Action Plan in September 2019 informed the finalisation of the Action Plan. Read the workshop summary report [349.1 KB] for further information.
The 10th Legislative Assembly Parliamentary and Governing Agreement [468.3 KB] commits to establishing entertainment precincts, beginning with the City Centre through legislative reform. This builds on the Entertainment Action Plan by setting the Territory Plan as the primary vehicle for legislative change and confirming the City Centre as the location of the first entertainment precinct.
More information
- Better Regulation Taskforce's night-time economy vision and regulatory reform
