O'Connor is an affluent 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 ...

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 ...

in the

North Canberra North Canberra, also known as the Inner North, is a district of Canberra, the capital city of Australia, comprising 14 suburbs. At the , it had 26,699 dwellings housing 61,188 people of the 453,324 people in the Australian Capital Territory. Ma ...

district characterised by its leafy, heritage listed streets. It was named after

Richard Edward O'Connor Richard Edward O'Connor (4 August 1851 – 18 November 1912) was an Australian politician and judge. A barrister and later Queen's Counsel, O'Connor was active in the campaign for Australian Federation and was a close associate of Edmund B ...

(1851–1912), who was a judge in the High Court and a founder of the Australian constitution. Street names in O'Connor are named after explorers, Australian flora, legislators and pioneers. The suburb name was gazetted on 20 September 1928. O'Connor is bounded by Wattle and David streets, and also includes the Bruce/O'Connor ridge nature reserve, the hilly area with many trees that lies between the houses in O'Connor, and the

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The Institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

(in the suburb of

Bruce The English language name Bruce arrived in Scotland with the Normans, from the place name Brix, Manche in Normandy, France, meaning "the willowlands". Initially promulgated via the descendants of king Robert the Bruce (1274−1329), it has been ...

). Sports such as soccer, rugby and cricket are often played at the ovals at O'Connor district playing fields. O'Connor has a small shopping centre with a pub/bar, small grocery store, a couple of restaurants and a pharmacy.

Character

The suburb is characterised by leafy streets and detached single dwelling houses. In the central part of O'Connor are a series of cul de sacs which contain houses which are known as

Tocumwal Houses Tocumwal houses refers to a type of house in Canberra, the capital city of Australia. The houses, originally sited in the southern New South Wales town of Tocumwal were relocated to Canberra in the 1940s to address a housing shortage. The vast m ...

. These are heritage listed ex-government housing which were transported from

RAAF Station Tocumwal RAAF Station Tocumwal () was a major Royal Australian Air Force base during World War II. History Located near the town of Tocumwal, New South Wales the base was established in early 1942 to provide a secure base for United States Army Air Force ...

after the Second World War to cover the housing shortage in Canberra in the 1950s. The ACT Heritage Council has also listed the Scout Hall at the corner of Hovea Street and Boronia Drive. It was originally built as a mess hall for construction workers at Old Parliament House and was later moved to Kingston and used as an office of the United Friendly Society. In 1959, it was moved to O'Connor to become a Scout Hall. A number of Aboriginal places on the Bruce and O’Connor Ridges are also on the heritage list. The small part of the suburb to the east of

Sullivans Creek Sullivans Creek, a partly perennial stream of the Murrumbidgee catchment within the Murray–Darling basin, is located in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia. Location and features Sullivans Creek rises close to the border betwee ...

has been redeveloped under a policy permitting two and three-storey flats.

Suburb amenities

The O'Connor Cooperative School (a government run early childhood school) and St Joseph's primary school (run by the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

) are both located in O'Connor. The

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

church of St Philip's in O'Connor was dedicated in 1961, and consecrated in 1981. The O'Connor Ridge is a large strip of land that is use for

bush walking Hiking is a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century.AMATO, JOSEPH A. "Mind over Foot: Romantic Walking and Rambling." In ''On Foot: A Histor ...

and mountain biking and is a part of the

Canberra Nature Park The Canberra Nature Park is a series of thirty three separate protected areas in and around Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, ranging from bushland hills to lowland native grassland. Many of the areas have previously been cleared for gra ...

. At the O'Connor shops there can be found, a bar and restaurant, a supermarket, a hairdresser, a bicycle shop, a dentist, a pharmacy, a florist, and a

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

ese restaurant. Along the road from these are Canberra's

Alliance Française An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

, a Croatian Club and a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

Club.

Demographics

At the , the population of O'Connor was 5,917, including 81 (1.4%) Indigenous persons and 4,289 (72.5%) Australian-born persons. 66.0% of dwellings were separate houses (compared to the Australian average of 72.3%), while 15.7% were semi-detached, row or terrace houses (Australian average: 12.6%) and 18.5% were flats, units or apartments (Australian average: 14.2%). 40.2% of the population were professionals, compared to the Australian average of 24.0%. Notably 18.9% worked in central government administration, compared to the Australian average of 1.1%, although the ACT-wide average is a similar 17.1%. 57.1% of the population had no religion, compared to the ACT average of 43.5% and the Australian average of 38.4%.

Politics

O'Connor is located within the federal

electorate Electorate may refer to: * The people who are eligible to vote in an election, especially their number e.g. the term ''size of (the) electorate'' * The dominion of a Prince-elector The prince-electors (german: Kurfürst pl. , cz, Kurfiřt, ...

and it is represented by

Alicia Payne Alicia Emma Payne (born 24 July 1982) is an Australian politician who has been a member of the House of Representatives since the 2019 federal election. She is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and represents the Division of Canberra ...

for the Labor Party. In 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 ...

, Lyneham is part of the electorate of Kurrajong, which elects five members on the basis of proportional representation, two Labor, two Greens and one

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

Geology

Calcareous shales from the Canberra Formation is overlain by Quaternary alluvium. This rock is the limestone of the original title of Canberra "Limestone Plains". The higher parts of O'Connor in the west are different. Towards the south near Black Mountain is the Black Mountain Sandstone. Towards the north, and including O'Connor Ridge can be found

Greywacke Greywacke or graywacke (German ''grauwacke'', signifying a grey, earthy rock) is a variety of sandstone generally characterized by its hardness, dark color, and poorly sorted angular grains of quartz, feldspar, and small rock fragments or lit ...

from the

Ordovician The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and System (geology), system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era (geology), Era. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period million years ago (Mya) to the start ...

age Pittman Formation.

Gallery

File:OConnor Uniting Church November 2012.jpg, O'Connor Uniting Church with solar panels File:David Street looking south west.jpg, David Street, looking south west, the boundary street between

Turner Turner may refer to: People and fictional characters *Turner (surname), a common surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Turner (given name), a list of people with the given name *One who uses a lathe for turni ...

and O'Connor. File:North O'Connor wetland 4.JPG, Banksia Street wetland in northern O'Connor File:North O'Connor wetland 3.JPG, Banksia Street wetland File:O'Connor South wetlands 2.JPG, David Street wetland in southern O'Connor

Education

O'Connor residents get preference for:Priority Enrolment Areas 2015 by Suburb
"
Archive
. Education Directorate, Australian Capital Territory. Retrieved on 8 February 2016. *O'Connor Co-Operative School *Depending on the address: Lyneham Primary or Turner Primary *Lyneham High School *

Dickson College Dickson College is a public two-year secondary college located in the Canberra suburb of Dickson, Australian Capital Territory. It was established in 1976 on the former Dickson High School campus when it closed. It was set to close after bein ...

References

External links and resources

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:O'connor, Australian Capital Territory Suburbs of Canberra