Pialligo ( postcode: 2609) () is a rural 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 ...

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 name ''Pialligo'' has been used for the area since at least 1820, and is probably of Aboriginal origin. It was also the name for the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

in the area. Streets in Pialligo are named with Aboriginal words. Beltana Road in Pialligo is home to many of Canberra's nurseries.

Canberra Airport Canberra Airport is an international airport situated in the District of Majura, Australian Capital Territory serving Australia's capital city, Canberra, as well as the nearby city of Queanbeyan and regional areas of the Australian Capital Te ...

is located adjacent to Pialligo across

Pialligo Avenue Pialligo Avenue is a major arterial road in Canberra, the Capital city of Australia. It forms part of the corridor linking the city to Canberra Airport at Pialligo, and Fairbairn. It is also the most direct route from Queanbeyan to the airpor ...

Geology

Quaternary

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 main western part of Pialligo. Calcareous

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 ...

s from the Canberra Formation are deep underneath. The Woolshed Creek runs into the north end of Pialligo. This is a significant place, because in the bed of the creek the Rev W B Clarke first recognised Silurian fossils. These fossils were

brachiopod Brachiopods (), phylum Brachiopoda, are a phylum of trochozoan animals that have hard "valves" (shells) on the upper and lower surfaces, unlike the left and right arrangement in bivalve molluscs. Brachiopod valves are hinged at the rear end, w ...

s, mostly ''

Atrypa duntroonensis ''Atrypa'' is a genus of brachiopod with shells round to short egg-shaped, covered with many fine radial ridges (or costae), that split further out and growth lines perpendicular to the costae and 2-3 times wider spaced. The pedunculate valve is ...

''. He discovered them around 1844 century and it was the first time that Silurian rocks were identified in Australia, and at the time were the oldest known rocks in Australia. This

mudstone Mudstone, a type of mudrock, is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Mudstone is distinguished from '' shale'' by its lack of fissility (parallel layering).Blatt, H., and R.J. Tracy, 1996, ''Petrology. ...

is from the Canberra Formation.Henderson G A M and Matveev G, Geology of Canberra, Queanbeyan and Environs 1:50000 1980.

Living history

Aside from the city's design, arguably

Walter Burley Griffin Walter Burley Griffin (November 24, 1876February 11, 1937) was an American architect and landscape architect. He is known for designing Canberra, Australia's capital city and the New South Wales towns of Griffith, New South Wales, Griffith and ...

's longest-living legacy in Canberra is the forest of Redwood trees (both

Sequoia sempervirens ''Sequoia sempervirens'' ()''Sunset Western Garden Book,'' 1995:606–607 is the sole living species of the genus '' Sequoia'' in the cypress family Cupressaceae (formerly treated in Taxodiaceae). Common names include coast redwood, coastal ...

and

Sequoiadendron giganteum ''Sequoiadendron giganteum'' (giant sequoia; also known as giant redwood, Sierra redwood, Sierran redwood, California big tree, Wellingtonia or simply big treea nickname also used by John Muir) is the sole living species in the genus ''Sequoiade ...

) that was planted in 1918 by Walter Burley Griffin and arborist Thomas Charles Weston on Pialligo Avenue.

Footnotes

{{South Canberra Suburbs Suburbs of Canberra