Braddon is an inner north suburb of Canberra

Canberra

Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...

, Australian Capital Territory

Australian Capital Territory

The Australian Capital Territory, often abbreviated ACT, is the capital territory of the Commonwealth of Australia and is the smallest self-governing internal territory...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. Located north of the Canberra CBD, Braddon contains a commercial area centred on Mort

Mort Street, Canberra

Mort Street is a road in Civic, the city centre of Canberra, Australia. It passes through the city centre's main bus interchange, and continues into the commercial precinct in the suburb of Braddon. At its southern end it is closed to regular traffic where it forms part of the Civic bus interchange...

 and Lonsdale streets, which run parallel to Northbourne Avenue

Northbourne Avenue, Canberra

Northbourne Avenue is a major road in Canberra, Australia. It extends from City Hill in the south to the Federal Highway in the north.It is a north-south running road which has three lanes for motorised traffic, and one lane for bicycles running in each direction, with a large median strip with...

. The area includes several small art galleries, car rental agencies, a few mid-market restaurants, cafes and bars, trendy gift and clothes shops, as well as several sprawling car dealerships, liquor stores, a video store and a Centrelink

Centrelink

Centrelink is the trading name of the Commonwealth Service Delivery Agency , a statutory authority responsible for delivering human services on behalf of agencies of the Commonwealth Government of Australia. The majority of Centrelink's services are the disbursement of social security payments...

 office. The most popular predominantly working-class pub in and around the city area, The Civic Pub, is also located in Braddon. There are also a number of low-rise office blocks in the suburb, including the Canberra offices of News Corporation

News Corporation

News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...

 and Colmar Brunton

Colmar Brunton

Colmar Brunton is an international market research agency. It is also Australia's largest independent market research agency.Its head office is in Sydney, Australia, with other offices in the Australian cities of Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Canberra, as well as in New Zealand and...

 and the headquarters of the ACT division of the Australian Labor Party

Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

.

Away from the commercial areas, much of the previously suburban housing in Braddon has been replaced with apartment buildings that are popular due to their relatively close proximity to the City. Fenner Hall

Fenner Hall

Fenner Hall is a residential hall of the Australian National University in Braddon, Canberra. Fenner Hall, named in honour of Emeritus Professor Frank Fenner, it is home to over 500 students and is located on Canberra's Northbourne Avenue...

, a residence of the Australian National University

Australian National University

The Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...

, is located along Northbourne Avenue. The suburb is socially mixed with its population including many younger professionals and students, along with some recipients of public housing assistance. Some traditional single-family homes do remain where the suburb borders Ainslie and Dickson.

History

Braddon is one of the oldest suburbs in Canberra which was settled in 1922. Braddon was originally a light industrial area and included The Canberra Times

The Canberra Times

The Canberra Times newspaper was founded in 1926 in Canberra, Australia by Arthur Shakespeare.It was the second paper to be printed in the city, the first being The Federal Capital Pioneer. The paper was sold to the Fairfax group in the 1960s by Arthur Shakespeare on the condition that it continue...

 printer.
Ainslie school is located in Braddon. Opened in 1927, it is one of the oldest schools in Canberra. There is also a major sports oval, a clay-court tennis club and a bowling club in the suburb. Merici College

Merici College

Merici College is a Catholic girls' high school located in the suburb of Braddon in Canberra, Australia. It caters for secondary years 7 to 10, and college years 11 and 12. The Principal of the school is Mrs Catherine Rey.-History:...

 is also located in Braddon.

Braddon is named after Sir Edward Braddon

Edward Braddon

Sir Edward Nicholas Coventry Braddon, KCMG , Australian politician, was the Premier of Tasmania from 1894 to 1899, and was a Member of the First Australian Parliament in the House of Representatives...

, a Federalist, legislator and a participant in the writing of the Australian Constitution. Streets in Braddon are named after various things including aboriginal words, legislators and pioneers.

Geology

Calcareous shale

Shale

Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable. Shale is characterized by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering...

s from the Canberra Formation are overlain by Quaternary

Quaternary

The Quaternary Period is the most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the ICS. It follows the Neogene Period, spanning 2.588 ± 0.005 million years ago to the present...

 alluvium

Alluvium

Alluvium is loose, unconsolidated soil or sediments, eroded, deposited, and reshaped by water in some form in a non-marine setting. Alluvium is typically made up of a variety of materials, including fine particles of silt and clay and larger particles of sand and gravel...

.
This rock is the limestone of the original title of Canberra "Limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

Plains".

Trees and vegetation

Braddon’s vegetation is predominantly exotic, belonging to the cedar, ash, oak and pine
varieties, although there are a significant number of eucalypts which are planted mainly
around the perimeter of the suburb (Northbourne Avenue, Limestone Avenue, Ainslie
Avenue) and within Haig Park. Most of the neighbourhood’s streets are lined with avenues
of mature exotic trees. Torrens Street, planted with oak (Quercus palustris), is a
particularly fine example of a ‘garden city’ streetscape. Haig Park has mixed plantings
including cedar, eucalypt, pine, cyprus, ash and oak (Cedrus deodara, Eucalyptus cinerea,
Pinus radiata, Cupressus sempervirens, Fraxinus velutina and Quercus palustris
respectively).

Lonsdale Street

The commercial centre of Braddon is centred around Lonsdale Street. It is where you will find original Canberra designers, stylish Australian fashions, imported designer shoes and unusual handcrafted gifts and homewares amongst an eclectic mix of restaurants, bike shops, camping stores, car yards, and hairdressing salons.

Historically an industrical area comprising car yards and factories, Lonsdale Street has transformed into one of Canberra's most lively cultural centres.

Haig Park

Haig Park is a plantation of densely planted predominantly exotic trees on the northern edge of the Civic Centre. It's strongly formal design consisting of trees planted in parallel rows renders it unique in Australian park design and this has led to classification by the National Trust. It is a very accessible forested park for a range of recreational pursuits.

Gorman House Arts Centre

The Gorman House Arts Centre is a significant heritage complex that has been adapted for arts use. It is occupied by some of the ACTs key arts organisations, smaller arts groups and individual artists.

The centre accommodates intimate performance spaces, dance studios and workshops, a gallery, artists’ studios, small offices for arts business, meeting rooms and a weekend art, craft and second-hand market.

Ainslie School

Ainslie School is one of Canberra's oldest schools. It was opened in 1927 by Prime Minister Stanley Bruce.

Places of Worship

• St Patrick’s Catholic Church
• St Columbus Uniting Church
• Salvation Army Temple – Canberra City
• St Mary’s Catholic Church
• Sisters of Mercy
• Australian Episcopal Conference

Theatres and Galleries

• Bogong Theatre
• Canberra Contemporary Art Space
• Canberra Contemporary Art Space Galleries 1 and 2
• Canberra Youth Theatre
• Currong Theatre Studio
• Gorman House
• Ralph Wilson Theatre
• Vis a Vis Theatre
• Clarrys Arts Centre