Duntroon, Australian Capital Territory

Duntroon is a suburb of the city 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...

History

Robert Campbell's property Duntroon was situated on the limestone plains of New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

in the area that is now covered by the ACT.

Given government compensation for the loss of his ship the Sydney while under government charter, Robert Campbell, sent James Ainslie to collect 700 sheep from the government flocks at Bathurst

Bathurst, New South Wales

-CBD and suburbs:Bathurst's CBD is located on William, George, Howick, Russell, and Durham Streets. The CBD is approximately 25 hectares and surrounds two city blocks. Within this block layout is banking, government services, shopping centres, retail shops, a park* and monuments...

and to go southward looking for suitable pasture.

Ainslie reached the Limestone Plains and selected a site on the slopes above the Molonglo River

Molonglo River

The Molonglo River rises on the western side of the Great Dividing Range of eastern Australia in the state of New South Wales. Its source is on the other side of the mountain range from where the Shoalhaven River rises, in Tallaganda state forest at ~1200 metres altitude...

where the Royal Military College

Royal Military College, Duntroon

The Royal Military College, Duntroon is the Australian Army's officer training establishment. It was founded at Duntroon, in the Australian Capital Territory, in 1911 and is situated on picturesque grounds at the foot of Mount Pleasant near Lake Burley Griffin, close to the Department of Defence...

now stands. In 1825 Campbell applied for and received his grant, naming it 'Duntroon' after the family castle, Duntrune Castle

Duntrune Castle

Duntrune Castle is located on the north side of Loch Crinan and across from the village of Crinan in Argyll, Scotland. It is thought to be the oldest continuously occupied castle in Scotland...

on Loch Crinan in Argyll, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

.

In 1833, Campbell built 'Duntroon House' out of stone with wide verandahs. In 1862 Robert's son George added a large two-storey extension. In its final form the house contained twenty rooms and is a great example of colonial architecture. It now serves as the officer's mess for the Royal Military College, Duntroon

Royal Military College, Duntroon

and is situated in the suburb of Campbell

Campbell, Australian Capital Territory

Campbell is a suburb of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia. Covering an area to the South East of the central business district, Campbell sits at the base of Mount Ainslie. On Census night 2006, Campbell had a population of 4,797 people...

, Canberra

Canberra

.

'Duntroon House' was the centre of activity for Campbell's station. Gardens were established around the house including many exotic trees and an intricate maze was grown also a conservatory, orchard, vineyard and dairy farm were built in the surrounding area.

Duntroon was recommenced as the site for Australia's Military College by Lord Kitchener, who had been commissioned in 1910 to report on the country's defence needs. Initially the government rented Duntroon for two years before obtaining the title to Duntroon and its surrounding 360 acres (1.5 km²) through the creation of the Australian Capital Territory.

On 27 June 1911 the Royal Military College

Royal Military College, Duntroon

opened at Duntroon.

Prisoner of War National Memorial

The Prisoner of War National Memorial is located at Duntroon. It consists of the Changi

Changi

Changi is an area at the eastern end of Singapore. It is now the site of Singapore Changi Airport/Changi Air Base, Changi Naval Base and is also home to Changi Prison, site of the former Japanese Prisoner of War Camp during World War II which held Allied prisoners captured in Singapore and Malaysia...

Chapel, which was originally constructed by Australian and British prisoners of war in Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

in 1944. It was dismantled at the end of the war, packed away and taken to a military store in Australia. It was reconstructed using old diagrams and notes from the "architect" Hamish Cameron-Smith and unveiled in 1988 to commemorate the POWs.

Geology

In the east 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 is 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 Plains".
The Narrabundah Ashstone

Ashstone

Ashstone is a kind of volcanic rock formed from fine volcanic ash.During an explosive volcanic eruption, fragmentation of the magma can result in the formation of volcanic ash, consisting of sand-sized or smaller particles....

is part of this formation and can be seen in the easternmost corner.
In the higher west including Mount Pleasant is grey 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,...

from the Ainslie Volcanics.
Around Australian Defence Force Academy is 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...

from the Ainslie Volcanics.
Geology of the Australian Capital Territory covers more of the geology of the ACT.

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.