Weston Creek


The District of Weston Creek is one of the original eighteen districts of the Australian Capital Territory used in land administration. The district is subdivided into divisions, sections and blocks. The district of Weston Creek lies entirely within the bounds of the city of Canberra, the capital city of Australia. The district comprises eight residential suburbs, situated to the west of the Woden Valley district and approximately southwest of the Canberra City centre. Situated adjacent to the district was the large Stromlo Forest pine plantation until the forest was destroyed by bushfires in 2001 and 2003.
Weston Creek was named in honour of Captain George Edward Weston, a former officer of the East India Company who arrived in Australia in 1829, and was Superintendent of the Hyde Park Convict Barracks in Sydney. In 1841, Weston was granted land in the district now known as Weston Creek.
At the, the population of the district was.

Establishment and governance

The traditional custodians of the district are the indigenous people of the Ngunawal tribe.
Following the transfer of land from the Government of New South Wales to the Commonwealth Government in 1911, the district was established in 1966 by the Commonwealth via the gazettal of the Districts Ordinance 1966 which, after the enactment of the Australian Capital Territory Act 1988, became the Districts Act 1966. This Act was subsequently repealed by the ACT Government and the district is now administered subject to the Districts Act 2002.

European history

The 'four-square-mile' grant to George Weston at the 'Yarrow-Lumla plains' was completed on 31 October 1831. The land was originally settled by James Martin, a former soldier in the NSW Corps, who in August 1827 applied to the government for permission to rent of land on which he had already built a dwelling and barn, was grazing cattle and sheep, and had sown with wheat. Martin's claim, however, was not successful.
Along with the adjacent Woden Valley, the area later became part of the Yarralumla Station. It was owned successively by Sir Terence Aubrey Murray, Augustus Gibbes and Frederick Campbell, until it was resumed in 1913 as part of a land acquisition scheme after the Federal Capital Territory, was declared in 1911.
The earliest homesteads in the valley were Weston, Cooleman, The Rivers, Blundell's Homestead, Illoura and Avondale. In the early 1920s, approximately were subdivided for soldier settlement leases.
Weston. John and Ellen Fox were amongst the first settlers in the Weston valley, living at the Weston homestead from the 1860s. The homestead was located on what is now a small reserve on the corner of Calder Crescent and Woolrych Street, Holder. Several of John and Ellen's nine children were born at Weston, and their son David Fox and his wife Margaret later took over the property. In 1920, the Commonwealth Government acquired the land for use in the Soldier Settlement scheme. Fred Dulhunty was then granted a five-year soldier settlement lease of , which was then expanded to in 1926 to incorporate most of the Weston property. Dulhunty did not reside at the property, and the Foxs continued to live and work there. Following David Fox's death at age 49 in 1926, Margaret continued to reside at the property, but then moved to nearby Avondale homestead in about 1933. The Weston and Taylor's Hill leases were purchased by John Dent in October 1932, and used for mixed farming and grazing. The Weston lease was then purchased in 1937 by Rudolph and Eileen De Salis. Rudolph was born at Cuppacumalong homestead near Tharwa, and had lived at 'Bondo' near Cooma and 'Yarrawa' near Adaminaby before moving to Weston. Rudolph remained at Weston until he died in February 1957, aged 70. Members of the De Salis family continued to live at Weston up until the late-1960s.
Avondale. Avondale was located off of Kambah Lane just to the northeast of the Weston homestead, in the vicinity of what is now a small reserve in De Graaff Street, Holder. Margaret Fox moved to Avondale in about 1933 and remained there until she sold the property in 1955. The property was then resumed in 1968 to allow suburban development in Weston Creek.
Cooleman. Cooleman was located on the southern side of the Weston valley, located in what is now a reserve in Bertel Crescent, Chapman. Cooleman was farmed by Heather and Philip Champion from 1937. The Champions moved to the property from Weetangerra. Cooleman continued as a sheep run until residential construction in Weston Creek commenced around 1970.
Allawah. In 1926, Kenneth Anderson was granted a soldier settlement lease in present-day Fisher and Waramanga, extending across to Mount Taylor, and called his property Allawah. In November 1932, he transferred the lease to John and Stella Dent.
The Rivers. In 1926, Aubrey Blewitt was allocated a ten-year soldier settlement lease for Block 13 which he called The Rivers. The block went from the corner of Uriarra Road and Coppins Crossing Road north to the Molonglo River, an area now incorporated into the new suburb of Denman Prospect. Blewitt had previously been granted in present-day North Weston and northern Holder in 1920, but it was resumed in 1925 and incorporated into Block 24.
Illoura. Thomas Cargill was offered a ten-year soldier settlement lease for the Block 26A, which extended from present-day Curtin and Lyons across to present-day North Weston and McCubbin to the west. In 1928 he sold his lease to Guy Tanner, and the Tanner family continued to farm the area until the property was resumed in the early 1970s.

Early roads and landmarks

In 1914, the two main roads running into the Weston Creek district were Uriarra Road from the northeast and Long Gully Road from the southeast. Uriarra Road followed the current day Cotter Road from Weston Creek past the Yarralumla Woolshed and then across through present-day Kingston to Queanbeyan, passing just south of where Parliament House now sits. Cotter River Road branched off of Uriarra Road near the present-day RSPCA site. Long Gully Road came into the valley through present-day Waramanga and ran to the west to what is now the corner of Streeton Dr and Darwinia Tce, between Stirling and Rivett. The route of the original road is still easily discernible on present day maps, as it followed what is now green space between Nagara St and Nemarang Cres in Waramanga, then across the playing fields to Namatjira Dr, and then along the green space over Fremantle Dr to the corner of Streeton Dr and Darwinia Tce. Long Gully Road then intersected with the north-south running Kambah Road.
Kambah Road ran south from Uriarra Road, through the suburb of Holder to the corner of Dixon Drive and Hindmarsh Drive, and then through the present day suburb of Rivett. The intersection of Kambah Road and Long Gully Road was situated within present day Stirling Oval. A bitumen stretch of the original Kambah Road and a narrow concrete bridge are still clearly visible opposite 134 Dixon Drive. Kambah Pool Road branched off of Kambah Road within the present day suburb of Kambah. Prior to the development of Tuggeranong, Namatjira Drive between Chapman and Fisher turned into the remainder of Kambah Road. This provided access to the Kambah Pool reserve for residents in the Woden/Weston Creek area.
Early landmarks in the district were Narrabundah Hill, Dawson Hill, Mount Stromlo to the north west, and Taylor's Hill to the southeast. Western Creek followed the course of the present day stormwater drain just to the east of Weston Creek Centre, then along present day Streeton Drive and into the Molonglo River.

Demographics

At the, there were people in the Weston Creek district, of these 48.8 per cent were male and 51.2 per cent were female. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 1.2 per cent of the population, which was lower than the national and territory averages. The median age of people in the Weston Creek district was 40 years, which was higher than the national median of 37 years. Children aged 0 – 14 years made up 19.2 per cent of the population and people aged 65 years and over made up 17.0 per cent of the population. Of people in the area aged 15 years and over, 53.2 per cent were married and 11.3 per cent were either divorced or separated.
Between the 2001 census and the, the population in the Weston Creek district decreased by 0.94 per cent; and in the subsequent five years to the 2011 census, the population grew by 2.8 per cent. When compared with total population growth of Australia for the same periods, being 5.78 per cent and 8.32 per cent respectively, population growth in Weston Creek district was significantly lower than the national average. The median weekly income for residents within the Weston Creek district was significantly higher than the national average, and marginally lower than the territory average.
At the 2011 census, the proportion of residents in the Weston Creek district who stated their ancestry as Australian or Anglo-Saxon exceeded 72 per cent of all residents. In excess of 49 per cent of all residents in the Weston Creek district nominated a religious affiliation with Christianity at the 2011 census, which was approximately equal to the national average of 50.2 per cent. Meanwhile, as at the census date, compared to the national average, households in the Weston Creek district had a lower than average proportion where two or more languages are spoken ; and a higher proportion where English only was spoken at home.

Sewerage treatment plant

Weston Creek was the site of Canberra's main sewerage treatment plant from the early days of Canberra's settlement up until the late-1970s. Located by the river down the hill from the present day RSPCA site, the plant was proposed as early as 1915. Following several studies, it was approved for construction by the Federal Capital Advisory Committee in January 1924, and commenced operating in 1927. Sewerage from the fledgling city of Canberra was pumped to the site through an underground pipe from the vicinity of the Canberra Hotel, through the Yarralumla area. In the late-1960s, odours from the plant became a problem in the expanding residential areas of Woden and Weston Creek, and also at nearby Government House. Several refinements were made to the plant, and the sludge drying beds were abandoned. The plant was closed in August 1978 and replaced by the new Lower Molonglo Water Quality Control Centre.
In December 2010, during excavation work to construct the North Weston Pond as part of the new Molonglo Valley development, 90,000 tonnes of asbestos-contaminated waste were discovered buried near the former sewerage treatment plant site. The contaminated soil contained asbestos sheets and pipes that were dumped at the site by builders from around Canberra during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Residential development

The plan to develop Weston Creek as a residential district was announced by the National Capital Development Commission in September 1966. It was expected to house 10,000 residents, and was to be regarded as an extension of the Woden Valley. The names of its first two suburbs, Waramanga and Fisher, were announced on 4 June 1968, with the first residents moving in around September 1969. The first 56 residential blocks offered in Waramanga under restricted conditions went at auction for an average of $1,326 each in October 1969.
Hindmarsh Drive was extended from Woden Valley into Weston Creek in late-1968 to serve as the main arterial road into the new district. Streeton Drive connecting Cotter Road with Hindmarsh Drive was then constructed in early 1970.
Six further suburbs were constructed in the Weston Creek district between 1969 and 1972: Weston and Rivett in 1969, Duffy and Holder in 1970, and Chapman and Stirling in 1972. Each suburb is named after a notable Australian, and the street names in each suburb follow a specific theme such as Australian rivers, native flowers, or names of surveyors. Work on the district shopping centre, Cooleman Court, commenced in March 1977. The centre opened on schedule a year later in March 1978. The new shopping centre in Brierly Street included a Woolworths supermarket, Fosseys store and 52 smaller shops. The name 'Cooleman Court' and its logo were selected from a competition involving the local community. The name was inspired by the Cooleman Homestead settled in the district by Mr Phillip Champion in 1937. The logo, a circle divided into eight parts, was intended to symbolise the eight suburbs of Weston Creek served by the new shopping complex.

Bushfires

Situated on Canberra's western edge adjacent to open farmland and formerly large pine plantations, the Weston Creek district has been affected by several serious bushfires. The more notable fires have been:
Local sports teams include the Weston Molonglo Football Club, Royals, Weston Creek Wildcats , Weston Creek Indians, a men's and women's Lawn Bowls team and Weston Creek Cricket Club. Established in 1976, notable players in the cricket club include Greg Irvine, Michael Bevan, Huntley Armstrong and even star rugby player George Gregan. There is also a Weston Creek netball competition, called Arawang, comprising several teams.
Junior sporting groups are also well represented with the Weston Creek Little Athletics centre being established in 1976. The centre currently trains and competes at Chapman oval every Saturday during the summer months.
The district has only one public high school. Named Stromlo, the school is located in the suburb of Waramanga. Until the 1990s there were two public high schools — Stromlo High School, originally called Weston Creek High School, and Holder High School, located in Holder. Holder High School was closed in 1991 and the two schools merged to become Stromlo High.
The Weston Creek valley was serviced by one senior secondary college, Stirling, which opened in 1977. In 1997, the Stirling College amalgamated with Phillip College to become the Canberra College. Initially, the united colleges ran out of both Woden and Weston campuses. The mainstream student body gradually moved to the Woden campus, leaving an alternative education set of programmes at the Weston campus. The CCCares programme is the only remaining element of the Canberra College in Weston Creek, running in the old Stirling complex. CCCares is an internationally recognised, multi-award-winning alternative education setting catering for the needs of pregnant and parenting students from the ACT and nearby regional areas.
A Community Council, known as the Weston Creek Community Council, provides the residents of the district with a forum to convey concerns to government, and lobbies government and bureaucrats for services and facilities for Weston Creek. It was established due to concern amongst district residents that they lacked a political voice in the legislative process in Canberra, with the closure of Holder High School in 1991 the initial catalyst for bringing residents together.
The Australian Defence College's Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies and Australian Command and Staff College are both located at Weston Creek.

Notable residents