Lawson (

postcode A postal code (also known locally in various English-speaking countries throughout the world as a postcode, post code, PIN or ZIP Code) is a series of letters or numerical digit, digits or both, sometimes including spaces or punctuation, inclu ...

: 2617) is a suburb in 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 surrounded by Baldwin Drive, Gundaroo Drive and Ginninderra Drive. It lies next to the suburbs of McKellar, Giralang,

Kaleen Kaleen ( or ) is a suburb in the Belconnen district of Canberra, located within the Australian Capital Territory, Australia. The suburb's name is derived from the word for 'water' in the language of the Wiradjuri Aboriginal tribe of the Centr ...

, Bruce and

. Two intersections were built in 2012 that lead into the suburb's grasslands, prepared for future development on the suburb, one leading off Ginninderra Drive, and another off Baldwin Drive. However, neither intersection continued on further than a few metres. Development was delayed by about two years by Commonwealth environmental clearance processes due to the presence of golden sun moth and native grassland. Construction of roads have commenced and the first residential land was sold on 3 December 2013. The suburb derives its name from

Henry Lawson Henry Archibald Hertzberg Lawson (17 June 1867 – 2 September 1922) was an Australian writer and bush poet. Along with his contemporary Banjo Paterson, Lawson is among the best-known Australian poets and fiction writers of the colonial period ...

, short story writer and poet. The streets in Lawson are named after aspects of Australia appearing in his writing. A bicycle path runs alongside Ginninderra Drive, another along the shore of the lake. In June 2020, Defence Housing Australia (DHA) announced the proposed master development plan for Lawson North into a vibrant and connected community for Defence families and the local community. Key approvals were sought in late 2021. Following approvals, construction is anticipated to commence in 2023 and dwelling construction to be completed late 2024.

Political representation

For the purposes of Australian federal elections for the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

, Lawson is in the

Division of Canberra The Division of Canberra is an Divisions of the Australian House of Representatives, Australian electoral division in the Australian Capital Territory. It is named for the city of Canberra, Australia's national capital, and includes all of cent ...

. For the purposes of Australian Capital Territory elections for the ACT Legislative Assembly, Lawson is in the

Ginninderra electorate The Ginninderra electorate is one of the five Electorates of the Australian Capital Territory, electorates for the unicameral 25-member Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly. It elects five members. History It was created in 1995, wh ...

Geology

The rocks in Lawson are from

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 ...

and

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 ...

ages. The

age

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 ...

from the Pittman Formation is in the far south and east of Lawson, including a band of black 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 ...

. Greywacke is formed by underwater landslides of mud settling out on the ocean floor. The black shale was formed in the deep ocean when the water had no oxygen. Then in the north west there are late

sedimentary rocks. From the centre of Lawson there is

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 Black Mountain

Sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

that contains

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 ...

lenses of shale. On the west side of lake Ginninderra there is calcareous shale from the Canberra Formation in the north, Glebe Farm Adamellite intrusion in the centre and a porphyry of Green-grey Dacitic intrusive containing large 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 in the south. A long fault that follows the east bank of the Lake Ginninderra, and Ginninderra Creek passes through Lawson in the north north west direction. It is likely that this fault has determined the location of the creek. The late Silurian sediments are to the east of the fault.Henderson G A M and Matveev G, Geology of Canberra, Queanbeyan and Environs 1:50000 1980.

References

{{Belconnen Suburbs Suburbs of Canberra