Giralang () is a suburb of the

Belconnen Belconnen () is a Lands administrative divisions of Australia#Australian Capital Territory, district in the Australian Capital Territory in Australia. The district is subdivided into 27 divisions (suburbs), sections and blocks. As at the , the ...

district 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 ...

, located within 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 ...

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 ...

. The suburb is named after the word in the language of the Wiradhuri Aboriginal tribe of the Central West 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 ...

, meaning ''star''. The suburb name was gazetted on 15 January 1974. Streets in Giralang are named after Aboriginal words for stars, astronomers and constellations seen from the southern hemisphere. In the suburb is the Giralang District Playing fields and adjacent Giralang Primary School. The suburb is bordered by Baldwin Drive, Gundaroo Drive and the Barton Highway.

Educational facilities

Giralang Primary School was under threat to close in 2006. After completion of the school closure process it was decided that Giralang Primary School will remain open. In 2011, a Jewish mikvah opened in Giralang. An early childhood education and care facility for Jewish children opened in 2013 in the refurbished former Giralang Preschool building.

Geology

Ordovician The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and System (geology), system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era (geology), Era, and the second of twelve periods of the Phanerozoic Eon (geology), Eon. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years f ...

age Pittman Formation

greywacke Greywacke or graywacke ( ) is a variety of sandstone generally characterized by its hardness (6–7 on Mohs scale), dark color, and Sorting (sediment), poorly sorted angular grains of quartz, feldspar, and small rock fragments or sand-size Lith ...

and

turbidite A turbidite is the geologic Deposition (geology), deposit of a turbidity current, which is a type of amalgamation of fluidal and sediment gravity flow responsible for distributing vast amounts of clastic sediment into the deep ocean. Sequencing ...

s are found in the far east and northwest including a band of Acton

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 ...

occurring right on the eastern border of the suburb. Next in the centre, south and north west of Giralang there are late

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 ...

sedimentary rocks. From the east to west there are,

mudstone Mudstone, a type of mudrock, is a fine-grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Mudstone is distinguished from ''shale'' by its lack of fissility.Blatt, H., and R.J. Tracy, 1996, ''Petrology.'' New York, New York, ...

, State Circle Shale, and then

mica Micas ( ) are a group of silicate minerals whose outstanding physical characteristic is that individual mica crystals can easily be split into fragile elastic plates. This characteristic is described as ''perfect basal cleavage''. Mica is co ...

ceous Black Mountain Sandstone that contains lenses of shale. In the south west of Giralang is calcareous shale from the Canberra Formation. A long fault heading north west roughly parallel to Ginninderra Creek is marked on the surface by an iron oxide reef. In the south of Giralang this fault separates the Canberra formation from State Circle Shale uplifted on the east side.Henderson G A M and Matveev G, Geology of Canberra, Queanbeyan and Environs 1:50000 1980.

References

{{Belconnen Suburbs Suburbs of Canberra