Beard is a suburb of

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

in the District of Jerrabomberra,

Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory until 1938, is an internal States and territories of Australia, territory of Australia. Canberra, the capital city of Australia, is situated within the territory, an ...

, named after ex-convict Timothy Beard, the first recorded European settler in the vicinity of modern-day

Queanbeyan Queanbeyan ( ) is a city in south-eastern 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 Queanbeyan-Pale ...

History

From the time of European settlement until 1942, Beard was primarily pastoral land. In 1942, a contract was awarded to construct a

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the 15th century. Originally a phrase (the common-wealth ...

owned abattoir in the area. Work was significantly delayed following a fire that gutted the construction site in June 1943. Sold to private investors in 1969, the Canberra abattoirs operated from 1944 until 1997. A planning study was conducted by the

ACT Government The Government of the Australian Capital Territory, also referred to as the Australian Capital Territory Government or ACT Government, is the executive branch of the Australian Capital Territory. The leader of the party or coalition with the Con ...

in 2004 for a proposed residential development to be known as "Griffin Green", however subsequent studies focused on industrial uses of the land in order to address a shortage of small industrial lots across both the Canberra and Queanbeyan markets. The suburb began as Fyshwick East Industrial Estate in 2009, with developer CIC Australia releasing the first lots to the market. In May of that year, the name Beard was gazetted, although for the purposes of marketing the land, the two names are used interchangeably.

Geography

The suburb is located between

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 s ...

and

Oaks Estate Oaks Estate is a village in the district of Jerrabomberra (district), Jerrabomberra, in the Australian Capital Territory in Australia. It is situated on the northern side of the Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales border abutting th ...

, immediately north of the border with

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

and city of

, and approximately east of Canberra City. Beard consists almost entirely of a small light industrial estate. Streets in the estate are named after minerals.

References

{{Jerrabomberra Suburbs Suburbs of Canberra