It has many attractions: a central location, with equally easy access to the CBD and the bush trails of Mount Ainslie; the abundance of charming early twentieth-century, heritage-listed houses; mature deciduous street trees and general leafiness; and a vibrant local shopping centre.

Ainslie has experienced 'in-fill' development in recent years, both in the form of dual occupancy dwellings (where two dwellings are constructed on a block which previously contained one house) and medium-density development, especially at the Limestone Avenue ends of Cowper Street and Angus Street and, more recently, on the site of the former service station at the Ainslie shops.

The suburb was named after James Ainslie, a veteran of the Battle of Waterloo, the "first overseer of 'Duntroon Station' in Canberra who was employed by Robert Campbell in 1825 to drive a mob of sheep south from Bathurst 'until he found suitable land'; Ainslie chose the Limestone Plains (the Canberra district) and was overseer for ten years before returning to Scotland.

[12] Ainslie has three housing precincts planned on Garden City principles that were gazetted onto the ACT Government's Heritage Register in 2004.

[14] The first stage of the Wakefield Gardens precinct was constructed between 1925 and 1929 to accommodate lower income public servants and workmen for the opening of the new Parliament House in Canberra in 1927.

She was invited to tea with the Truesdale family at 20 Corroboree Park (on the northern corner of Higgins Crescent).

[16] Originally a predominantly blue-collar suburb with a high proportion of public housing, Ainslie has gradually gentrified, with properties regularly fetching more than $1 million.

The suburb includes heritage-listed cottages built during the conservative governments of Stanley Bruce and Joseph Lyons, which are set mainly among European trees.

In the ACT Legislative Assembly, Ainslie is part of the electorate of Kurrajong, which elects five members on the basis of proportional representation, two Labor, one Green, one Liberal and one Independent.