Watson is a 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 district. Watson is named after the third

Prime Minister of Australia The prime minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The prime minister heads the executive branch of the Australian Government, federal government of Australia and is also accountable to Parliament of A ...

John Christian Watson John Christian Watson (born Johan Cristian Tanck; 9 April 186718 November 1941) was an Australian politician who served as the third prime minister of Australia, in office from 27 April to 18 August 1904. He served as the inaugural federal lead ...

. The suburb name was gazetted on 7 April 1960. Streets in Watson are named after Australian judges and other legal professionals. Watson aerial

Watson is bordered by the Federal Highway, Phillip Avenue and Antill Street. Traffic loads on these roads has increased significantly with the continued development of Gungahlin and studies suggest some areas will exceed capacity before 2021.

Features

Located in Watson is a local shopping centre and several schools, television studios and motels. The former Watson High School now houses the

Canberra Technology Park Canberra Technology Park is located in Watson, Canberra. It is set on 57,835.2 square metres and is a renovated two level high school. It houses approximately 32 businesses with approximately 200 staff working from the park. References Geogr ...

which includes the Academy of Interactive Entertainment (AIE) as a tenant. Rosary Catholic Primary School is located in Watson, as is the Signadou campus of the

Australian Catholic University Australian Catholic University (ACU) is a public university in Australia. It has seven Australian campuses and also maintains a campus in Rome. History Australian Catholic University was opened on 1 January 1991 following the amalgamatio ...

. There is also Majura Primary School (originally Watson Primary School) which is well known for its annual Spring Carnival. One of Canberra's two former drive-in theatres, the Starlight Drive-in, was located on the Federal Highway in Watson. The site has now been redeveloped as a medium-density housing complex, although the drive-in's sign remains. Also located in the suburb are Prime7 television studios, The Ted Noffs Foundation, the Academy of Interactive Entertainment, Canberra Carotel (motel and caravan park), Red Cedars motel, Hotel Ibis Budget, Canberra Potters Society, a

C3 Church C3 Church Global, formerly known as Christian City Church International (C3i), is a charismatic movement founded by Phil Pringle and Christine Pringle. The first church was started in Dee Why on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Australia, and is ...

, YWAM ( Youth with a Mission) and a BP service station. CTC-TV (now

Southern Cross 10 10 Regional is an Australian television network owned by Southern Cross Austereo that is broadcast in Queensland, New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and South Australia. The network is the primary affiliate of Network 10 i ...

), was located in the suburb from 1974 until June 2020 when the Watson studios were demolished and the station relocated to Fyshwick.

Transport

Watson is serviced by ACTION bus routes R9 and 50. Antill Street is also serviced by route 53.

Geology

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 is overlain in places by

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. This rock includes the limestone of the original title of Canberra "Limestone Plains".Henderson G A M and Matveev G, Geology of Canberra, Queanbeyan and Environs 1:50000 1980.

Features

Transport

Geology

References

External links