Oaks Estate is a township situated immediately on the northern side of 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. ...
border abutting the township of
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 ...
in south-eastern New South Wales,
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 estate covers an area of approximately 40 hectares and is bound by the Molonglo River to the north, the Queanbeyan River to the east, 'The Oaks' to the west, and the Queanbeyan-Cooma railway to the south. Oaks Estate is located 12 kilometres from the centre 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 ...
. The village is also noteworthy as the nucleus of
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 ...
's industrial development during the second half of the 19th century. Oaks Estate takes its name from 'The Oaks', which was part of
Duntroon,
Robert Campbell's farming estate.
[Monaro Consultants & Burnham Planning (2001), ''Oaks Estate Planning Study'', ACT Government] This makes Oaks Estate one of only a few place names in the ACT with significant connections to early colonial times.
History
Colonial
Timothy Beard, a pardoned convict and former innkeeper from
Campbelltown in
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 ...
was the first European to occupy the area. In the mid-1820s he drove cattle from Liverpool to graze near the junction of the Molonglo and Queanbeyan Rivers. His station huts which he named 'Queenbeeann’were located two kilometres downstream from the Molonglo/Queanbeyan River junction in what is today the abattoir paddock. The township of Queanbeyan was established in 1838 about south east of Oaks Estate.
In 1877 John Bull, a farmer and grazier from Tarago NSW purchased from Charles Campbell, the son of Robert, 100 acres of land including the building known as 'The Oaks'. He operated the inn as the 'Elmsall Inn'. In the same year John Bull established Hazelbrook Works, a wool washing works and fellmonger near the junction of the Queanbeyan and Molonglo rivers.
[Savery N (2006), Public Place Names (Oaks Estate) Determination 2006 (No 1), ACT Parliamentary Counsel]
In 1885 George Tompsitt bought Hazelbrook Works and renamed it the Hazelbrook Wool Scouring Works, Tannery and Wholesale Produce Warehouses. With a major business expansion Oaks Estate became the nucleus of Queanbeyan industry.
The Queanbeyan Railway Station opened in September 1887 and the auction of the sale of the first residential allotments in Oaks Estate took place a few months later. In the early 1890s a local businessman established the Queanbeyan Roller Flour Mill in the Oaks Estate.
After federation
Two years after the passing of the
Seat of Government Acceptance Act 1909
The ''Seat of Government Acceptance Act 1909'' is an Australian Commonwealth Government act, that in conjunction with the ''Seat of Government Surrender Act 1909'' transferred land from the state of New South Wales to the Commonwealth for the crea ...
, the
Federal Capital Territory
A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal.
In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or a ...
was brought into existence on 1 January 1911.
The Goulburn-Cooma railway line was prescribed as the eastern territorial boundary, Oaks Estate was excised from Queanbeyan by the federal Act of Parliament and a 20-metre long railway bridge. The
Queanbeyan railway station
Queanbeyan railway station is a heritage-listed railway station located on the Bombala line in New South Wales, Australia. It serves the town of Queanbeyan.
History
Queanbeyan station opened on 8 September 1887 when the Bombala line was ext ...
is located on the southern side of the tracks adjacent to Oaks Estate and a road bridge links Oaks Estate to Queanbeyan.
The Oaks burial ground was Queanbeyan's first cemetery established in 1838 until the Riverside cemetery was opened in 1846. The existence of Queanbeyan's earliest burial site was lost to time until 1991 when old human remains were unearthed. The earthly remains of more than 40 Queanbeyan settlers are buried there.
Place names
![Oaks Estate viewed from the McEwan Avenue Bridge on the ACT side](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Oaks_Estate_viewed_from_the_McEwan_Avenue_Bridge_on_the_ACT_side.jpg)
The street names in Oaks Estate village mark the name of some significant historic figures in its development over the past 150 years.
Amenities
Oaks Estate has a population of about 330. The village supports a mixture of industrial and commercial uses in storage, warehousing, light metal fabrication, liquor storage and retailing as well as some ACT Government public housing.
Located there is:
*
Abattoir
A slaughterhouse, also called abattoir (), is a facility where animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a packaging facility.
Slaughterhouses that produce meat that is no ...
*
Allotment garden
An allotment (British English), or in North America, a community garden, is a plot of land made available for individual, non-commercial gardening or growing food plants, so forming a kitchen garden away from the residence of the user. Such plot ...
* Antiques restoration workshop
* Council city nursery
* Electricity substation
* Horse holding paddocks
* Liquor store
* Saleyards
* Sportsground
* Tannery
* Water pollution control centre
Education
Oaks Estate residents get preference for:
*A shared Priority Enrollment Area (PEA) of Forrest Primary and Red Hill Primary
*
Telopea Park School
, image = Telopea Park School in Barton (1).jpg
, image_size = 250
, caption =
, motto = la, Spectans orientia solis lumina
, motto_translation = Looking towards the rising sun
, established =
, type = Government ...
(for high school)
*
Narrabundah College
Narrabundah College is a government college that teaches the last two years of secondary education in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). It was the first school in Australia to offer the International Baccalaureate (IB), starting the progr ...
Geology
Under Oaks Estate are rocks from the Pittman formation. These are 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 ...
period and consist of
chert
Chert () is a hard, fine-grained sedimentary rock composed of microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline quartz, the mineral form of silicon dioxide (SiO2). Chert is characteristically of biological origin, but may also occur inorganically as a prec ...
,
phyllite
Phyllite ( ) is a type of foliated metamorphic rock created from slate that is further metamorphosed so that very fine grained white mica achieves a preferred orientation.Stephen Marshak ''Essentials of Geology'', 3rd ed. It is primarily compo ...
and
quartz
Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...
rich
mica
Micas ( ) are a group of silicate minerals whose outstanding physical characteristic is that individual mica crystals can easily be split into extremely thin elastic plates. This characteristic is described as perfect basal cleavage. Mica is ...
ceous
sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...
. This area of the ACT is structurally on the Cullarin Horst, an uplifted area. A small patch of black Acton
Shale
Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...
is in the south east end of the settlement.
References
External links
Oaks Estate Progress Association
{{authority control
Towns in the Australian Capital Territory