Russell 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 ...

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 ...

in the

North Canberra North Canberra, or the Inner North, is a subdivision of Canberra Central in the Australian Capital Territory in Australia. Comprising 14 suburbs. At the , it had 26,699 dwellings housing 61,188 people of the 453,324 people in the Australian Capi ...

district. Russell is one of the smallest suburbs in Canberra, comprising a number of government offices but no private residences. It is probably best known for the headquarters of the

Australian Defence Force The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is the Armed forces, military organisation responsible for the defence of Australia and its national interests. It consists of three branches: the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), Australian Army and the Royal Aus ...

, which is housed in the

Russell Offices The Russell Offices, also referred to as Russell or RO, is a complex of office buildings located in Russell, a suburb of Canberra, constituting the seat of the Australian Department of Defence and part of the administrative headquarters of ...

complex. It is bounded by Morshead Drive,

Parkes Way Parkes Way is a major road in Canberra, Australia, which runs east-west between Kings Avenue and the Glenloch Interchange. At Glenloch Interchange it intersects with William Hovell Drive, Tuggeranong Parkway, and Caswell Drive ( Gungahlin Dri ...

and

Constitution Avenue Constitution Avenue is a major east–west street in the Northwest, Washington, D.C., northwest and Northeast, Washington, D.C., northeast quadrants of the city of Washington, D.C., in the United States. It was originally known as B Street, and ...

. Mount Pleasant lies just to the east, between Russell and Duntroon (which is part of the suburb of Campbell). The

Australian American War Memorial Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

is located in Russell. To the west lies Kings Park and Grevillea Park, on the shore of Lake Burley Griffin. The suburb name has been associated with the locality for many years; Surveyor

Charles Scrivener Charles Robert Scrivener (2 November 1855 – 26 September 1923) was an Australian surveyor, and the person who surveyed numerous sites in New South Wales for the selection of a site for the Australian Capital Territory and Australia's capital ...

gave the name 'Russell' to an adjacent trigonometrical station in about 1910 and later adopted the name for an early settlement in the locality. The streets in Russell are named after armed services personnel.

Geology

Most of Russell is dominated by the lowest layer of the Ainslie Volcanics, a 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. ...

and other erupted particles such as

agglomerate Agglomerate (from the Latin ''agglomerare'' meaning "to form into a ball") is a coarse accumulation of large blocks of volcanic material that contains at least 75% bombs. Volcanic bombs differ from volcanic blocks in that their shape records flui ...

and

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock co ...

. Tertiary age pebbly gravels are around Parkes Way left from when the Molonglo river was at a higher level.

References

{{North Canberra Suburbs Suburbs of Canberra