Suburb #59 Mitchell

Suburb 59 was Mitchell an area known mainly for its strip clubs. So this was bound to be interesting right? I just love how its described as a light industrial estate.

Mitchell is named after Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell, a surveyor and explorer of NSW. Sir Mitchell was born in Scotland but jointed the British Army at the age of 16 and was soon storming fortresses in Portugal. He later explored lots of stuff in NSW and made lots of maps, but I am more interested by the fact that apparently he was the last person in Australia to challenge someone to a duel - when in 1851 he challenged Sir Stuart Alexander Donaldson because he had criticised excessive spending by the Surveyor General's Department. I clearly must be more careful of my criticism of other public service agencies....but anyway, no-one died. They both missed. Apparently the guns are in the National Museum of Australia though.

The streets here are rather logically named after Australian industrialists.

So in Mitchell I expected to find lots of this..

But actually there is more to Mitchell than meets the eye! From the surprisingly beautiful and peaceful cemetery and crematorium at the back of the suburb...

To the awesome Korean supermarket...

And here as elsewhere in Canberra, sometimes you just find yourself almost in the middle of nowhere....

I knew the Archives were here but a lot of our other national attractions also seem to have annexes here - mind you a repository of Mitchells kind of worries me.... 

Some interesting street names here...given the nature of the suburb anyway....

But I was perhaps most chuffed to discover the true source of hip music in Canberra :)

So thank you Mitchell - a highly entertaining way to spend the afternoon - even though you caught on fire while we were there and I was slightly concerned we might be blown up, but hey - they can't call you boring :)

Suburb #58 Amaroo

For suburb no 58, we headed back out to Gungahlin land to visit Amaroo - really because I had a craving for lunch at Frankie's at Forde nearby!

Amaroo means 'a beautiful place' in local Aboriginal dialects - and largely it definitely was. Certainly, in my humble opinion, it is one of the leafier and prettier of the earlier Gungahlin suburbs.

The streets here are named after rivers and lakes.

There are no local shops at Amaroo at the moment though they appear to being built...there is, however, a service station where I recommend going if in female and in need of a compliment.

But I digress...the beauty of the suburb really lies to the South of the suburb. I love the Yerrabi pond which we had already seen previously from the Forde side. I would love to canoe around this waterway sometime...or just sit and watch the birds (geez I am getting old...)

The local residents certainly seem to have been inspired by the local bird population...

And there really are some gorgeous houses here, for a minute I thought I had stepped into an episode of the West Wing.....

There are, however, still some less elegant parts to the suburb...

And our attempt to find Ginninderra creek was a little disappointing...as was being attacked by more flies than I have ever seen in Canberra :(

But overall I really liked the leafy community feel of this suburb, I am sure it would feel even more xmassy at night :)

And just an extra photo for my friend Dee. I think this is literally the shortest street I have ever seen in Canberra but at least its crossed with diamonds :p

Suburb #57 Monash

Suburb no. 57 was Monash - and I've got to say (sorry Monashians) - this is going to be a hard suburb to write about as I  really struggled to find any inspiration here.

Monash is named after General Sir John Monash who commanded the Australian Army in France during the first world war and has his head on our $100 note. His motto was 'Feed your troops on victory'.

The streets here are named after engineers - mmm yeah what I can say inspirational...

First stop was the local shops. But really this was more like the local shop plus a Chinese restaurant...

We also visited Isabella pond at the bottom of the suburb....

But after that we did struggle a little to be entertained... but to be fair there were some nice views....

This house probably would probably be more interesting in the evening....

 And Monash does appear to have the widest variety of bus stop designs of any suburb we have visited so far...

So seriously what more could you want right? :p

Suburb #56 Gordon

Suburb number 56 was Gordon at the very bottom of Canberra in the deep south.

It is named after Adam Lindsay Gordon an Australia poet, jockey and politician. His poem A song of Autumn was set to music by Edward Elgar.

Where shall we go for our garlands glad

At the falling of the year

When the burnt-up banks are yellow and sad

When the boughs are yellow and sere?

When the old ones that once we had,

And where are the old new ones near?

What shall we do for our garlands glad

At the falling of the year?

The streets are named after sportspeople.

Gordon, very much like Banks across to the east, boasts some amazing views. You can also literally walk for five minutes and feel like you are in the middle of the countryside.

But turn around and you are surrounded by epic mega mansions...

And yards filled with strange objects...

A highlight though was definitely Point Hut pond and the local park....

Here we found the leaning tower of Gordon...

This was harder than it looks...

But the slide was awesome!!! unlike my very inelegant dismount...

And I haven't made myself dizzy in one of these since I was like 12....

Not far away was also Point Hut crossing...a gorgeous little spot.

Overall a great southern adventure :)