Conder is one of three suburbs in the Lanyon Valley in

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 ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It lies in the district of

Tuggeranong The District of Tuggeranong () is one of the original eighteen districts of the Australian Capital Territory used in land administration. The district is subdivided into divisions (suburbs), sections and blocks and is the southernmost town cen ...

. The three suburbs are presently (as of 2011) the southernmost suburbs of the city, although the small settlement of

Tharwa Tharwa (postcode 2620) is a township within the District of Paddys River, Australian Capital Territory, south of Canberra, the capital city of Australia. At the , Tharwa had a population of 81. The village is located on the banks of the Mur ...

exists only a short distance further south. Named after artist

Charles Conder Charles Edward Conder (24 October 1868 – 9 February 1909) was an English-born painter, lithographer and designer. He emigrated to Australia and was a key figure in the Heidelberg School, arguably the beginning of a distinctively Australi ...

, the suburb of Conder extends from the slopes of

Tuggeranong Hill Tuggeranong Hill is located in Tuggeranong, Canberra. It is sometimes incorrectly referred to as Mount Tuggeranong due to its prominence. Lanyon Valley is almost completely surrounded by hills and mountains and consequently television trans ...

to the valley floor. Conder is home to the valley's main services including the Lanyon Market Place, Lanyon High School and one of the four

Vikings Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

clubs in

. Also included in the suburb are St Clare of Assisi Primary School, Charles Conder Primary School, a youth centre, child care centre and a family services centre. Just like the name of the suburb, the streets of Conder are named after artists, including members of the

Heidelberg School The Heidelberg School was an Australian art movement of the late 19th century. It has latterly been described as Australian impressionism. Melbourne art critic Sidney Dickinson coined the term in an 1891 review of works by Arthur Streeton and ...

and places associated with that school. Among those recognised are

Russell Drysdale Sir George Russell Drysdale (7 February 1912 – 29 June 1981), also known as Tass Drysdale, was an Australian artist. He won the prestigious Wynne Prize for ''Sofala'' in 1947, and represented Australia at the Venice Biennale in 1954. He was i ...

and

Tom Roberts Thomas William Roberts (8 March 185614 September 1931) was an English-born Australian artist and a key member of the Heidelberg School art movement, also known as Australian impressionism. After studying in Melbourne, he travelled to Europe i ...

. Major developments in Conder including "Eastern Valley Rise" and "The Landscape" have seen the Lanyon Valley's population grow rapidly. Conder has come out on top with the highest median house price growth year-on-year out of all Canberra suburbs

Geology

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million years ...

Alluvium Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...

covers the whole suburb. Underneath the alluvium and on the surrounding hills are Deakin Volcanics erupted during the

Silurian The Silurian ( ) is a geologic period and system spanning 24.6 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, Mya. The Silurian is the shortest period of the Paleozo ...

age at 414 Mya. These include

ignimbrite Ignimbrite is a type of volcanic rock, consisting of hardened tuff. Ignimbrites form from the deposits of pyroclastic flows, which are a hot suspension of particles and gases flowing rapidly from a volcano, driven by being denser than the surrou ...

and

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock cont ...

Henderson G A M and Matveev G, Geology of Canberra, Queanbeyan and Environs 1:50000 1980. File:Deakin Volcanics red tuff.jpg, Red tuff from Tuggeranong Hill File:Deakin Volcanics Ignimbrite Conder.jpg, Ignimbrite from Tuggeranong Hill

Gallery

File:Lanyon_Valley.JPG, View of Lanyon Valley with the Brindabella Ranges in the distance File:Conder Aerial.jpg, Aerial photo of Conder File:Conder East Aerial.jpg, Aerial photo of eastern Conder nestled in the hills

Footnotes

References

Place names search, Geoscience Australia
{{Tuggeranong Suburbs Suburbs of Canberra