Beard is a suburb of

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

in the

District of Jerrabomberra The Jerrabomberra District is a district of Canberra. It is situated to the southeast of South Canberra, south of the Molonglo River, east of Woden Valley and north east of Tuggeranong and west of the New South Wales border. It includes the subur ...

Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (commonly abbreviated as ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) until 1938, is a landlocked federal territory of Australia containing the national capital Canberra and some surrounding townships. ...

, named after ex-convict Timothy Beard, the first recorded European settler in the vicinity of modern-day

Queanbeyan Queanbeyan ( ) is a city in the south-eastern region of New South Wales, Australia, located adjacent to the Australian Capital Territory in the Southern Tablelands region. Located on the Queanbeyan River, the city is the council seat of the ...

History

From the time of European settlement until 1942, Beard was primarily pastoral land. In 1942, a contract was awarded to construct a

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...

owned abattoir in the area. Work was significantly delayed following a fire that gutted the construction site in June 1943. Sold to private investors in 1969, the Canberra abattoirs operated from 1944 until 1997. A planning study was conducted by the

ACT Government The Government of the Australian Capital Territory, also referred to as the Australian Capital Territory Government or ACT Government, is the executive authority of the Australian Capital Territory, one of the territories of Australia. The lead ...

in 2004 for a proposed residential development to be known as "Griffin Green", however subsequent studies focused on industrial uses of the land in order to address a shortage of small industrial lots across both the Canberra and Queanbeyan markets. The suburb began as Fyshwick East Industrial Estate in 2009, with developer CIC Australia releasing the first lots to the market. In May of that year, the name Beard was gazetted, although for the purposes of marketing the land, the two names are used interchangeably.

Geography

The suburb is located between

Fyshwick Fyshwick () is a retail and light industrial suburb of Canberra, Australia, east of the South Canberra district. At the , Fyshwick had a population of 56. It has many motor vehicle dealers, stores selling home furnishings and hardware, and sto ...

and

Oaks Estate Oaks Estate is a township situated immediately on the northern side of the Australian Capital Territory border abutting the township of Queanbeyan in south-eastern New South Wales, Australia. The estate covers an area of approximately 40 hectares ...

, immediately north of the border with

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

and city of

, and approximately east of

Canberra City Civic is the city centre or central business district of Canberra. "Civic" is a common name for the district, but it is also called Civic Centre, City Centre, Canberra City and Canberra, and its official division name is ''City''. Canberra's Ci ...

. Beard consists almost entirely of a small light industrial estate. Streets in the estate are named after minerals.

References

{{Jerrabomberra Suburbs Suburbs of Canberra