Mitchell ( postcode: 2911) is a light-industrial estate 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 district of

Gungahlin The District of Gungahlin () is one of the original eighteen districts of the Australian Capital Territory used in land administration. The Gungahlin Region is one of fastest growing regions within Australia. The district is subdivided into di ...

. Mitchell was named in honour of Major Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell, an explorer of inland

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 ...

and Surveyor-General of New South Wales. The streets in Mitchell are named after Australian industrialists. In the , Mitchell had no recorded population. It is commonly believed by Canberra residents that the suburb of Mitchell contains

Exhibition Park in Canberra Exhibition Park in Canberra (EPIC) is a 70 hectare showground and multi-building venue for exhibitions, conferences, and events located in the suburb of Lyneham (though commonly listed in the adjacent Mitchell) in Canberra, Australia. Regular ...

(EPIC) and also Thoroughbred Park (Canberra Racecourse). In fact, these facilities are located in the neighbouring suburb of Lyneham. Mitchell is one of the two areas in Canberra where

brothels A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub pa ...

may legally operate, along with

Fyshwick Fyshwick () is a retail and light industrial suburb of Canberra, Australia, east of the South Canberra district. At the , Fyshwick had a population of 56. It has many motor vehicle dealers, stores selling home furnishings and hardware, and sto ...

. Mitchell also has other adult entertainment industry shops and one strip club.

History

A major fire at a chemical factory on Dacre Street early in the morning of 16 September 2011 saw a 10 kilometer exclusion zone put in place around the suburb. Residents in parts of

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 ...

and

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 ...

were told to remain inside with windows their closed and schools inside the zone closed for the day. Around 100 people and 50 horses were evacuated from an event at nearby EPIC due to toxic smoke. Mitchell was selected as the site for the first Canberra light rail depot, with construction beginning in 2016. The facility opened in March 2019, including maintenance facilities and the network operations centre. Despite this, a passenger stop in Mitchell was not constructed as part of stage one of the project, with the ACT Government sighting low projected passenger numbers. Following lobbying efforts by local businesses and the community, the ACT Government later supported construction of the Sandford Street station which opened to passengers in September 2021.

Geology

Rocks under Mitchell are from the

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 ...

age. Mitchell is built over 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 ...

of the Canberra Formation. From the south to Crace Hill is green-grey to reddish

dacite Dacite () is a volcanic rock formed by rapid solidification of lava that is high in silica and low in alkali metal oxides. It has a fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic texture and is intermediate in composition between andesite and rhyolite. ...

References

Suburbs of Canberra {{Canberra-geo-stub