Latham () is a residential suburb in the

Belconnen The District of Belconnen () is one of the original eighteen districts of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), used in land administration. The district is subdivided into 27 divisions (suburbs), sections and blocks. The district of Belconn ...

district 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 ...

, located within the

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. ...

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 ...

. The suburb is named for John Latham, Chief Justice of the

High Court of Australia The High Court of Australia is Australia's apex court. It exercises Original jurisdiction, original and appellate jurisdiction on matters specified within Constitution of Australia, Australia's Constitution. The High Court was established fol ...

from 1935 to 1952. Streets in Latham have the names of Australian judges.

Location and features

It is bounded by the suburbs of Charnwood,

Flynn Flynn is an Irish surname or first name, an anglicised form of the Irish ''Ó Floinn'', meaning "descendant of Flann" (a byname meaning "reddish (complexion)" or "ruddy"). The name is more commonly used as a surname rather than a first name. A ...

, Florey, Higgins, Holt and

Macgregor MacGregor or Macgregor may refer to: People * MacGregor (surname) * MacGregor (filmmaker), a Spanish commercial cinematographer and film director * Clan Gregor, a Scottish clan * Macgregor baronets, related individuals including a British Army Br ...

. It is surrounded by Ginninderra Drive on the north, Florey Drive on the west,

Southern Cross Drive :''Distinguish from the road of the same name in Cape Town, South Africa, on the eastern side of Table Mountain.'' The Southern Cross Drive is a dual carriage untolled motorway in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Part of the M1 and S ...

on the south, and Kingsford Smith Drive on the east. Latham has
primary school
a neighbourhood oval and a number of children's playgrounds. Ginninderra Creek runs through Latham, and there are open areas of grassland adjacent, such as the Umbagong district park. Traces of Aboriginal culture remain along the Creek with a marked site of axe-grinding grooves. Latham also has an ACTEWAGL/Evoenergy substation. From the mid-1970s Latham had a local shopping centre (supermarket, butcher, Chinese restaurant, chemist (later a school uniform/limited sportswear store), hair dresser, bakery, newsagent,

doctor's surgery A doctor's office in American English, a doctor's surgery in British English, or a doctor's practice, is a medical facility in which one or more medical doctors, usually general practitioners (GP), receive and treat patients. Description Doc ...

(later physiotherapist) and post office), and a petrol/service station (closed in early 1993). The shopping centre wound down between 1996 and 1998 after a fire that destroyed the supermarket and caused roof damage to the rest of the centre. The schoolwear shop, which had occupied the old chemist shop, also took in the local post office function. After the fire, the owners moved the schoolwear and post office business to the vacant petrol station site. The post office shop was authorised to limited "corner store" duties from early 1998. The butcher, restaurant and physiotherapist left 12–18 months after the fire, with the restaurant the last to leave and the complex finally fenced off in May 1998. The complex no longer exists: a townhouse development now occupies the site. Planning was eventually approved after the developer responded to local pressure to include a small corner store at the edge of the complex, on the corner of Onslow Street and Dalley Crescent. The former petrol station site was later cleared and replaced by another townhouse development.

Political representation

For the purposes of Australian federal elections for the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

, Latham is in the Fenner electorate. For the purposes of Australian Capital Territory elections for the

ACT Legislative Assembly The Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory (known in short as the ACT Legislative Assembly) is the unicameral legislature of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). It sits in the Legislative Assembly Building on Civic Sq ...

, Latham is in the

Ginninderra electorate The Ginninderra electorate is one of the five electorates for the unicameral 25-member Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly. It elects five members. History It was created in 1995, when the three-electorate, Hare-Clark electoral s ...

Geology

Most of Latham is covered by the upper

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 ...

Deakin Volcanics. From the north east of Latham to the south west, the following stratigraphic layers of volcanics are passed: * green grey and purple

rhyodacite Rhyodacite is a volcanic rock intermediate in composition between dacite and rhyolite. It is the extrusive equivalent of those plutonic rocks that are intermediate in composition between monzogranite and granodiorite. Rhyodacites form from rapid ...

. * grey rhyodacitic

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 ...

* purple rhyodacite * purple and green tuff * pink

rhyolite Rhyolite ( ) is the most silica-rich of volcanic rocks. It is generally glassy or fine-grained (aphanitic) in texture, but may be porphyritic, containing larger mineral crystals (phenocrysts) in an otherwise fine-grained groundmass. The mineral ...

* purple-pink rhyolite Upper

Laidlaw Volcanics grey tuff form a wedge over the top of the Deakin Volcanics.Henderson G A M and Matveev G, Geology of Canberra, Queanbeyan and Environs 1:50000 1980.

References

{{Belconnen Suburbs Suburbs of Canberra