Lawson, Australian Capital Territory

Lawson is a suburb in the Canberra district of Belconnen. The postcode is 2617. It does not have any suburban houses, consisting only of part of Lake Ginninderra, the Belconnen Naval Radio Station, and an open area of grassland where there is a reservoir and substation. A bicycle path runs alongside Ginninderra Drive, another along the shore of the lake. The area is surrounded by Baldwin Drive, William Slim Drive and Ginninderra Drive. It lies next to the suburbs of McKellar, Giralang, Kaleen, Bruce and Belconnen.

The suburb is planned to be opened for residential development, with first release of land for subdivision to begin in 2011.^[1]

Currently, an intersection is being built for the suburb. The intersection points are off Haydon drive and Ginninderra Drive.

Geology

The rocks in Lawson are from Ordovician and Silurian ages. The Ordovician age greywacke from the Pittman Formation is in the far south and east of Lawson, including a band of black Acton Shale. 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 Silurian sedimentary rocks. From the center of Lawson there is mudstone, State Circle Shale, and then Black Mountain Sandstone that contains mica 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 center and a porphyry of Green-grey Dacitic intrusive containing large white Feldspar 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.

References