Acton, Australian Capital Territory

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Acton Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
Population:	1846
Established:	1928
Postcode:	2601
District:	North Canberra

Acton (postcode: 2601) is a suburb of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia. Acton covers an area west of the CBD, bordered by Black Mountain to the west and Lake Burley Griffin in the south. The Australian National University campus covers most of the suburb, though also located in Acton is Screensound Australia, a branch of the CSIRO and the National Museum of Australia. The population of Acton on census night 2001 was 1846 people, mostly students living at the Australian National University.

Acton was named in approximately 1843 by Lieutenant Arthur Jeffreys, RN, after a town in Denbighshire, Wales. The name of the area was kept as the suburb name when Canberra was built. [1]

[edit] Geology

The southern part of Acton has a complicated arrangement of sediments that include the Pittman Formation greywacke and the black coloured Acton Shale Member from the Ordovician age. Then from the Silurian age there is mudstone, State Circle Shale, and Camp Hill Sandstone. Some limestone is found near the National Museum of Australia.

Calcareous shales from the Canberra Formation are overlain by Quaternary alluvium on the north. This rock is the limestone of the original title of Canberra "Limestone Plains". Tertiary age pebbly gravels are left from when the Molonglo river was at a higher level. Geology of the Australian Capital Territory covers more of the geology of the ACT.