Watson 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. Watson is named after the third

Prime Minister of Australia The prime minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The prime minister is the chair of the Cabinet of Australia and thus the head of the Australian Government, federal executive government. Under the pr ...

, John Christian Watson. The suburb name was

gazetted A gazette is an official journal, a newspaper of record, or simply a newspaper. In English and French speaking countries, newspaper publishers have applied the name ''Gazette'' since the 17th century; today, numerous weekly and daily newspapers ...

on 7 April 1960. Streets in Watson are named after Australian judges and other legal professionals. Watson aerial

Watson is bordered by the Federal Highway, Phillip Avenue and Antill Street. Traffic loads on these roads has increased significantly with the continued development of Gungahlin and studies suggest some areas will exceed capacity before 2021.

Features

Located in Watson is a local shopping centre and several schools, television studios and motels. The former Watson High School now houses the Canberra Technology Park which includes the Academy of Interactive Entertainment (AIE) as a tenant. Rosary Catholic Primary School is located in Watson, as is the Signadou campus of the

Australian Catholic University Australian Catholic University (ACU) is a public university in Australia. It has seven Australian campuses and also maintains a campus in Rome. History Australian Catholic University was opened on 1 January 1991 following the amalgamation ...

. There is also Majura Primary School (originally Watson Primary School) which is well known for its annual Spring Carnival. One of Canberra's two former

drive-in theatre A drive-in theater/theatre or drive-in cinema is a form of movie theater, cinema structure consisting of a large outdoor movie screen, a projection booth, a concession stand, and a large parking area for automobiles. Within this enclosed area, c ...

s, the Starlight Drive-in, was located on the Federal Highway in Watson. The site has now been redeveloped as a medium-density housing complex, although the drive-in's sign remains. Also located in the suburb are

Prime7 Prime7, formerly Prime Television and other names, was an Australian Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. Prime Television launched on 17 March 1962 as ''CBN (Australian TV station), CBN-8'' in Orange, New South Wales, Ora ...

television studios, The Ted Noffs Foundation, the Academy of Interactive Entertainment, Canberra Carotel (motel and caravan park), Red Cedars motel, Hotel Ibis Budget, Canberra Potters Society, a C3 Church, YWAM (

Youth with a Mission Youth With A Mission (typically shortened YWAM, generally pronounced ) is an interdenominational Christian mission organization with a focus on missionary work and training for Christian missions. Founded by American missionary Loren Cunningha ...

) and a BP service station. CTC-TV (now Southern Cross 10), was located in the suburb from 1974 until June 2020 when the Watson studios were demolished and the station relocated to Fyshwick.

Transport

Watson is serviced by

ACTION Action may refer to: * Action (philosophy), something which is done by a person * Action principles the heart of fundamental physics * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video gam ...

bus routes R9 and 50. Antill Street is also serviced by route 53. Phillip Avenue is serviced by the Canberra Light Rail line which runs from

Civic Civic is something related to a city or municipality. It also can refer to multiple other things: Civic or CIVIC can also refer to: General *Honda Civic, a car produced by the Honda Motor Co. *Civics, the science of comparative government * Civic ...

to Gungahlin Town Centre.

Geology

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 in places 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 includes the limestone of the original title of Canberra "Limestone Plains".Henderson G A M and Matveev G, Geology of Canberra, Queanbeyan and Environs 1:50000 1980.

Features

Transport

Geology

References

External links