Charnwood is a suburb in the Belconnen

Belconnen

Belconnen is a district of Canberra, the capital city of Australia, comprising 25 suburbs with 29,900 dwellings housing 82,247 people of the 311,518 people in the Australian Capital Territory ....

 district 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...

 in the 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...

.

Design

Charnwood's design was based on the Radburn

Radburn, New Jersey

Radburn is an unincorporated planned community located within Fair Lawn, in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States.Radburn was founded in 1929 as "a town for the motor age"...

 town planning principle. Under this design, houses were to face common park

Park

A park is a protected area, in its natural or semi-natural state, or planted, and set aside for human recreation and enjoyment, or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. It may consist of rocks, soil, water, flora and fauna and grass areas. Many parks are legally protected by...

land, with the suburb's streets servicing garages situated at the rear of the houses. The design failed in its application, however, as home owners built fences around the "park side" of their blocks, effectively screening the houses away from the common parkland. This created long, narrow, fenced walkways, with poor lighting and no neighbourhood surveillance. The network of pathways ensures that it is possible to walk from any point in the suburb to any other without directly crossing a road; pedestrian bridges can be used to cross the few major streets within the suburb.

Charnwood is the location of the Charnwood centre shopping area which serves surrounding suburbs. The shopping centre is well known as the location of the Greater India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n International Restaurant, Woolworths, McDonalds, Ginninderra Labor

Labour movement

The term labour movement or labor movement is a broad term for the development of a collective organization of working people, to campaign in their own interest for better treatment from their employers and governments, in particular through the implementation of specific laws governing labour...

 Club, Charcoal Chicken take-away, Charnwood Chemist

Chemist

A chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...

, Bernie's at the Bay Fish and Chip shop, Charnwood Newsagency and Prime Cut Butcher

Butcher

A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat or any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat, poultry, fish and shellfish for sale in retail or wholesale food establishments...

s.

Charnwood is home to Charnwood-Dunlop Primary School, Saint Thomas Aquinas Catholic Primary School, Saint Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church and Charnwood High School (now closed and housing the Canberra Christian Life Centre

Christian Life Centre

Christian Life Centre is generally a name given to churches that are affiliated with the Assemblies of God in Australia, a Pentecostal denomination in Australia. The CLC stream of churches started when Frank Houston moved to Australia in 1977 and planted Sydney Christian Life Centre...

).

Naming

According to the Act Planning and Land Authority website http://203.15.126.40/cgi-bin/search.pl the suburb is named after: "[a] former homestead in the Belconnen District; Henry Hall obtained a grant of 3492 acres (14.1 km²) of land which he named 'Charnwood', 1833; named after the Forest of Charnwood

Charnwood Forest

Charnwood Forest is an upland tract in north-western Leicestershire, England, bounded by Leicester, Loughborough, and Coalville. The area is undulating, rocky and picturesque, with barren areas. It also has some extensive tracts of woodland; its elevation is generally 600 ft and upwards, the area...

 in England."

Street names in Charnwood are named after New South Wales pioneers and the suburb name 'Charnwood' was gazetted on 9 September 1971.

Interests

Each year, Saint Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas, O.P. , also Thomas of Aquin or Aquino, was an Italian Dominican priest of the Catholic Church, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Communis, or Doctor Universalis...

 Catholic Primary School, Charnwood-Dunlop Primary School and Mount Rogers Scout Group

Scout Group

The Scout Group is the local organisation for Scouting in most countries where it is active. It combines together the different sections into a single body. Scout Groups can consist of any number of sections in the different Age Groups in Scouting and Guiding...

 hold the 'Charny Carny', a unique event which is held as the schools' joint fête

Fête

Fête is a French word meaning festival, celebration or party, which has passed into English as a label that may be given to certain events.-Description:It is widely used in England and Australia in the context of a village fête,...

. This carnival

Carnival

Carnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...

 has the purpose of building community spirit and raising funds for both the schools and the Scout Group.

Geology

Rocks in Charnwood are from the Silurian

Silurian

The Silurian is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Ordovician Period, about 443.7 ± 1.5 Mya , to the beginning of the Devonian Period, about 416.0 ± 2.8 Mya . As with other geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period's start and end are well identified, but the...

 age.
Deakin Volcanics purple rhyodacite

Rhyodacite

Rhyodacite is an extrusive volcanic rock intermediate in composition between dacite and rhyolite. It is the extrusive equivalent of granodiorite. Phenocrysts of sodium rich plagioclase, sanidine, quartz, and biotite or hornblende are typically set in an aphanitic to glassy light to intermediate...

 is found in most of Charnwood.
The Deakin Fault passes in the north west direction on the north east edge of the Deakin Volcanics, The fault dropped down the Deakin Volcanics and raised up the south west side.
Hawkins Volcanics green-grey dacite

Dacite

Dacite is an igneous, volcanic rock. It has an aphanitic to porphyritic texture and is intermediate in composition between andesite and rhyolite. The relative proportions of feldspars and quartz in dacite, and in many other volcanic rocks, are illustrated in the QAPF diagram...

 and quartz andesite

Andesite

Andesite is an extrusive igneous, volcanic rock, of intermediate composition, with aphanitic to porphyritic texture. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between basalt and dacite. The mineral assemblage is typically dominated by plagioclase plus pyroxene and/or hornblende. Magnetite,...

are in the north east on the other side of Deakin Fault.

External links

• http://www.police.act.gov.au/community-safety/crime-statistics/belconnen-patrol-zone/patrol-sector1.aspx