Canberra's public climbing walls are all bouldering gyms: BlocHaus Fyshwick and Mountain Strong in Fyshwick, and BlocHaus Mitchell in the north. An adult day pass costs $23 to $26. For roped climbing you join a club: the ANU Mountaineering Club and Canberra PCYC run members-only walls in Acton and Wanniassa.
Photo: BlocHaus
Competitions, film nights, socials and workshops at walls in and around Canberra, soonest first.
$17 entry with free shoe hire
BlocHaus Fyshwick, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
$17 entry with free shoe hire
BlocHaus Fyshwick, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
$17 entry with free shoe hire
BlocHaus Mitchell, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Taster sessions, courses, coaching and kids' clubs at 5 walls in and around Canberra, with who they're for and what they cost.
Beginners, Improvers
Mountain Strong, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Alternate Mondays 18:00–19:001 hourBeginners
$30 a session
BlocHaus Mitchell, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
$30 a session
Beginners
BlocHaus Fyshwick, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Run as needed; request one from the wall officers on the club's calendar30 minutesBeginners, Improvers
$10 for the course
ANU Mountaineering Club Climbing Wall, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
$10 for the course
Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays 16:00–17:30 in school termsSchool term of 90-minute classes
$160 a term
Canberra PCYC Erindale Centre, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
$160 a term
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays 19:00–20:30; Saturdays 11:30–13:00; school terms1.5 hours a week through the school termBeginners, Improvers
Mountain Strong, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
BlocHaus Fyshwick, in a warehouse on Dairy Road, opened in 2017 and is the larger of the two BlocHaus gyms, with about 850 m² of walls and more than 100 problems graded in colour circuits from blue (easiest) to white. Around them are an LED MoonBoard, a 45° spray wall, campus and peg boards, a yoga room, coffee and FamilyHaus, a separate area for children aged 5 to 12. BlocHaus Mitchell, on Essington Street, opened in February 2024 for climbers aged 12 and over, with about 500 m² of walls, a 12×12 Kilter Board, a 40° spray wall and an 80 m² parkour area. Between them the two gyms get three freshly set sectors a week, and a day pass at one covers the other on the same day.
Mountain Strong, an independent gym on Townsville Street in Fyshwick that celebrated its fifth birthday in 2026, spreads more than 100 numbered problems over six sections, from slabs to a roof, and resets one section every week. It is a strength gym too, with a MoonBoard, spray wall, hangboards, free weights and squat racks, open 24/7 to members and visit-pass holders while the walls keep staffed hours.
Canberra lost its last public roped gym when Canberra Indoor Rock Climbing closed its Mitchell centre in February 2025, so top-roping now means joining one of two clubs:
At BlocHaus an adult day pass is $26, concession $24 and children 16 and under $22, with shoe hire at $7; on Textbook Tuesdays students and concession card holders pay $17 all day, and a 10-visit pass is $234. The All-Haus membership, about $165 a month billed weekly at $38, also gets you into the chain's Sydney and Melbourne gyms; a Mitchell-only membership is $29 a week. Mountain Strong charges $23 for adults, $21 concession and $19 for under-16s, with $17 entry for early birds from 6am to 9am and for students on Fridays. Its 10-visit pass is $215, and membership is about $143 a month, billed weekly at $33. Canberra Climbers' Association members get 10% off at Mountain Strong.
No booking is needed at BlocHaus: fill in the online waiver, then rent shoes when you arrive. Its Boulder Beginner sessions cover the basics of climbing and falling safely, free for members and $30 a session for others at Mitchell. Both BlocHaus gyms run term programmes at $425 to $450 a term, including membership and shoe hire so children can climb on any day: Fyshwick takes 5 to 15-year-olds, Mitchell 13 to 15-year-olds. Mountain Strong's youth programme runs from Pebbles for under-8s to invitation-only squads, and its school holiday days cost $99. At Erindale, PCYC's juniors' class takes children from six.
The two Fyshwick gyms sit about 2 km apart among the warehouses east of the city centre, each with parking on site. They are also the nearest climbing for Queanbeyan, across the New South Wales border, which has no wall of its own. BlocHaus Mitchell is in the city's north, the ANU wall is on campus in Acton beside the city centre, and the PCYC is in Tuggeranong, in the south.
The classic local crag is Booroomba Rocks in Namadgi National Park, whose long granite slabs are climbed mostly on trad gear. Nearer the suburbs, the steep sport routes of Red Rocks, on the Murrumbidgee by Kambah Pool, have been off limits from August to December in recent years while peregrine falcons nest. The ACT page covers the territory's crags, clubs and seasons, and the Canberra Climbers' Association runs meets and courses for climbers moving from the gym to rock.
What a casual entry gets you, what shoe and harness hire cost, why you sign a waiver and do an induction, how belay and lead checks work, what weekly direct-debit memberships involve, and the age, chalk and etiquette rules at Australian climbing gyms in 2026.
Joe Rushton
The Canberra Climbers' Association is marking 60 years since the first recorded climb at Booroomba Rocks with a members' trad meet on 21 and 22 November 2026, two months after the crag's access road reopened following a closure that began in May.
Joe Rushton