Casey is a suburb in

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 ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, approximately 4 km from the Gungahlin Town Centre and about 13 km from the centre of

. The suburb is named after

Richard Casey, Baron Casey Richard Gavin Gardiner Casey, Baron Casey (29 August 1890 – 17 June 1976) was an Australian statesman who served as the 16th governor-general of Australia, in office from 1965 to 1969. He was also a distinguished army officer, long-serving c ...

an Australian politician, diplomat and later the 16th Governor-General of Australia. It is bound by Horse Park Drive and Clarrie Hermes Drive. Casey is located in north-west

Gungahlin Gungahlin () is a Lands administrative divisions of Australia#Australian Capital Territory, district in the Australian Capital Territory, one of the fastest growing regions in Australia. The district is subdivided into suburbs, sections and blo ...

, adjacent to the suburbs of Nicholls and

Ngunnawal The Ngunnawal people, also spelt Ngunawal, are an Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal people of southern New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory in Australia. Language Ngunnawal–Gundungurra language, Ngunnawal and Gundungurr ...

, and the future suburbs of

Taylor Taylor, Taylors or Taylor's may refer to: People * Taylor (surname) ** List of people with surname Taylor * Taylor (given name), including Tayla and Taylah * Taylor sept, a branch of Scottish clan Cameron * Justice Taylor (disambiguation) ...

and Moncrieff. The suburb draws its place names from notable Australian diplomats, public servants and administrators. Former Lieutenant-Governor of South Australia Walter Crocker and Sir John Overall, the former head of the

National Capital Development Commission The National Capital Authority (NCA) is a statutory authority of the Australian Government that was established to manage the Commonwealth's interest in the planning and development of Canberra as the capital city of Australia. Timeline of th ...

are honoured by place names in Casey.

History

Until 1990, Casey was part of the former 'Gold Creek' a rural property with the Gold Creek Homestead at its centre. The relative flat and even topography of portions of the suburb of Casey was ideal for various pursuits including horse racing, and was the site of a practice track for racing horses. A stand of trees parallel to Horse Park Drive which predates the establishment of the village (now the suburb) of

Hall In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and the Early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the gre ...

marks the original alignment of the Queanbeyan-Yass Road.

Development

Construction work on road and other infrastructure for Casey commenced in September 2008. In December 2009, Overall Avenue, the connector road for Casey Stage 1, opened to traffic between Clarrie Hermes Drive and Horsepark Drive. During this period stormwater infrastructure including a sediment pond was also completed (pictured below right). Settlement of the suburb began in 2010 and it had an estimated population of 2,881 on 30 June 2013. Casey will eventually occupy an area approximately 192 ha in size and accommodate 1,940 dwellings, including about 275 medium density units in the commercial centres. A Group (Shopping) Centre will be constructed in the south-east corner of the suburb near the corner of Horse Park and Clarrie Hermes Drives. A second and minor commercial centre planned for Casey will be built at the northern end of the suburb nearest the future suburb of Taylor. The Group Centre is expected to incorporate a retail core clustered around a 'central green-node' similar to Green Square in

Kingston Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the six most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...

. To improve accessibility of the Group Centre, Clarrie Hermes Drive has been extended through to the Barton Highway at its westerly end.

Geology

The landscape slopes to the south east, with a line of hills forming a ridge on the north west side making a backdrop. The low point is 622 metres at the roundabout joining Gungahlin Drive, Horse Park Drive and Clarrie Hermes drive. The highest point is 726 metres in the north west corner. Casey is underlaid by rocks from the

Silurian The Silurian ( ) is a geologic period and system spanning 23.5 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 third and shortest period of t ...

period. Along the hill tops the rock is from the Hawkins Volcanics, with mostly

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. ...

in the south, and

andesite Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predomina ...

in the north. The north east of the suburb has dacite from the Canberra Formation. The south east has a green grey porphyry with a dacite like composition, and visible white

feldspar Feldspar ( ; sometimes spelled felspar) is a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagiocl ...

crystals.Henderson G A M and Matveev G, Geology of Canberra, Queanbeyan and Environs 1:50000 1980.

References

{{Gungahlin Suburbs