Hughes pram friendly walk directions

Summary

Hughes is so pleasant and dog friendly, we designed this fully paved, pram friendly version of our Hughes walk. It's an even easier walk than the 'full' Hughes version, providing a variety of suburban and park experiences with off leash opportunities on a large green oval near the beginning of the walk. After the oval, the route continues on pretty paths meandering through informal parks and passing a quiet children's playground. The walk starts and ends at the Hughes shops featuring a dog friendly café with a good outdoor space. Note there is a gentle, but sustained uphill section and a very short section of this walk requires walking with your pram on the road because there is no paved footpath. However these are very quiet roads where local mums would also push their prams.
Start/Finish - Hughes shops, Hughes Place
Time/Distance - Allow 45 minutes/approx 3 km
Off lead rating - ♥
Parking - Hughes Place or Whittle Street behind shops
Dog friendly café - Home Ground Café
Public toilets - Hughes shops
Bins - Hughes shops and Clarrie Hermes Park
Distractions - None
Playgrounds - Before Goble Street
Photo gallery - See photos taken on the Hughes pram friendly walk.

Note - All our dog walks assume you are a responsible dog owner with effective control of your dog. If walking with a pram, you'll need to venture at least 10 metres off the paved paths to let your dog take advantage of the off leash opportunities described below. See our Important Stuff page before starting any of our walks.

Map

Use the navigation tools to zoom in or out for different views of the route or click on the 'view larger map' icon on the top right hand corner of the map to view in google maps.

Directions

Hughes shops to Groom Street underpass (15 minutes)

Before starting, note the quirky bronze standing in front of the real estate office.
1. From Hughes Place, walk between the IGA supermarket and real estate office to reach the rear of the shopping strip.
2. Cross two streets (Whittle Street and Carroll Street) in quick succession, following the paved footpath straight ahead through a narrow park.
This small park passes through a duplex complex built by the Australian National University to lease out to staff and postgraduate students. These were sold in the late 1990s when the ANU divested much of its residential assets. Many have been extended and renovated into attractive homes.
3. When the footpath ends at a street (Coxen Street), turn right and follow the street to a t-junction (Webster Street).
You'll need to push your pram for a short distance on this quiet road as there is no footpath.
4. Cross Webster Street and walk into the car park behind the brick amenities block to enter Clarrie Hermes Park.
Off leash opportunity on the playing field.
Clarrie Hermes Park is an enormous 'dog off leash' playing field providing an open, flat expanse for ball games and other energetic doggie pursuits. If sports games are in progress, usually only on some weekends, dogs should be kept on leash or off the irrigated section of the park.
Bins are located next to the amenities block.
The public toilets in the amenities block are only open on sports days.

Clarrie Hermes Park to Goble Street (15 minutes)

5. When you’re ready to continue the walk, return to Webster Street.
6. With your back to the oval, turn left on Webster Street and follow the footpath to the intersection (with Groom Street). Turn left on the footpath to follow Groom Street. After a short distance, the footpath drops downhill to an underpass. At the underpass, take the footpath leading right into the underpass to reach an informal park on the other side.
7. Continue following the paved footpath through the informal park and through another underpass (beneath Kent Street), and on uphill towards a children’s playground.
This section of the walk meanders gently uphill through a wide informal park planted with mature native and exotic trees.
8. Just after the children’s playground, the footpath reaches and runs directly beside a quiet street (Goble Street).

Goble Street to Hughes shops (10 minutes)

9. At Goble Street, turn right and walk along the road to an intersection (with Glynn Street). At Glynn Street, cross to reach a bitumen footpath and turn right. Walk downhill to another intersection (with Wynter Place).
10. Cross to the other side of Wynter Place and take the bitumen path passing between the houses straight ahead. Follow this path – it connects to Kent Street.
11. At Kent Street, cross over to continue on a concrete footpath straight ahead to another street (Wisdom Street). Cross again then turn left to return to the Hughes shops.
Take care making your way to the Hughes shops from here as Kent and Wisdom Streets can be busy at peak hour and during school drop off/pick up times.

If you'd prefer to join one of our regular guided group walks, find out more at our guided walks page.