Duntroon is a locality in the city 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

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 ...

History

Robert Campbell's property Duntroon was situated on the limestone plains of

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 ...

in the area that is now covered by the ACT. Given government compensation for the loss of his ship the while under government charter, Robert Campbell, sent James Ainslie to collect 700 sheep from the government flocks at Bathurst and to go southward looking for suitable pasture. Ainslie reached the Limestone Plains and selected a site on the slopes above the Molonglo River where the Royal Military College now stands. In 1825 Campbell applied for and received his grant, naming it "Duntroon" after the family castle, Duntrune Castle on Loch Crinan in Argyll,

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. Duntrune Castle on Loch Crinan in Argyll, Scotland was sold to clan Malcolm in 1792, long before this. In 1833, Campbell built "Duntroon House" out of stone with wide verandahs. In 1862 Robert's son George added a large two-storey extension. In its final form the house contained twenty rooms and is a great example of colonial architecture. It now serves as the officers' mess for the Royal Military College, Duntroon and is situated in the suburb of Campbell. "Duntroon House" was the centre of activity for Campbell's station. Gardens were established around the house including many exotic trees and an intricate maze was grown also a conservatory, orchard, vineyard and dairy farm were built in the surrounding area. Duntroon was recommended as the site for Australia's Military College by Lord Kitchener, who had been commissioned in 1910 to report on the country's defence needs. Initially the government rented Duntroon for two years before obtaining the title to Duntroon and its surrounding 360 acres (1.5 km²) through the creation of the Australian Capital Territory. On 27 June 1911 the Royal Military College opened at Duntroon.

Prisoner of War National Memorial

The Prisoner of War National Memorial is located at Duntroon. It consists of the Changi Chapel, which was originally constructed by Australian and British prisoners of war in Singapore in 1944. It was dismantled at the end of the war, packed away and taken to a military store in Australia. It was reconstructed using old diagrams and notes from the architect Hamish Cameron-Smith and unveiled in 1988 to commemorate the POWs. Changi Chapel March 2013 2

Geology

In the east calcareous

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of Clay mineral, clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g., Kaolinite, kaolin, aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4) and tiny f ...

s from the Canberra Formation is overlain 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), as well as the current and most recent of the twelve periods of the ...

alluvium Alluvium (, ) 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. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is ...

. This rock is the limestone in the original name of Canberra "Limestone Plains". The Narrabundah Ashstone is part of this formation and can be seen in the easternmost corner. In the higher west including Mount Pleasant is grey quartz

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 ...

from the Ainslie Volcanics. Around Australian Defence Force Academy is grey

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. ...

from the Ainslie Volcanics.Henderson G A M and Matveev G, Geology of Canberra, Queanbeyan and Environs 1:50000 1980. Geology of the Australian Capital Territory covers more of the geology of the ACT.

References

External links

{{Coord, 35, 18, S, 149, 10, E, display=title, region:AU_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki Suburbs of Canberra