Ainslie, Australian Capital Territory

Ainslie Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
Population:	4815 (2006 census)
Established:	1928
Postcode:	2602
District:	North Canberra
Assembly Electorate:	Molonglo
Federal Division:	Fraser
Suburbs around Ainslie: Dickson Hackett Braddon Ainslie Canberra Nature Park Reid Campbell

Ainslie (postcode: 2602) is a leafy suburb of Canberra, Australia in the North Canberra district.

The suburb is bounded by Limestone Avenue and Majura Avenue to the west and north, Phillip Avenue to the north-east, Mount Ainslie to the east and Quick Street to the south.

Ainslie is within walking distance of the City, the nature trails of Mount Ainslie, the Australian War Memorial and the many restaurants of Dickson. It has many attractions: a central location, with equally easy access to the CBD and the bush trails of Mount Ainslie; the abundance of charming early twentieth-century, heritage-listed houses; mature street trees and general leafiness; and a vibrant local shopping centre.

Suburb amenities

The local shops are located in the middle of Ainslie. The suburb has a playschool (Inner North Playschool), a preschool (Baker Gardens Preschool), the Ainslie Football Club, and the Ainslie Fire Station, which serves the North Canberra area. The North Ainslie Primary School is located in the suburb, but Ainslie School, one of Canberra's oldest, is located in Braddon on the western side of Limestone Ave (Braddon and another early neighbouring suburb, Reid, were originally called 'South Ainslie'^{[citation needed]}). Similarly, 'Ainslie Village' - an ACT Government centre which provides accommodation for people with special needs - is in the neighbouring suburb of Campbell.

Ainslie residents can access Mount Ainslie simply by walking uphill. There is an easy paved walk to the top, and also a "goat track" straight up the side of the hill. Kangaroos come down from the mountain at night and eat grass from the nature strips in front of local houses.

The Anglican All Saints Church, built in the 1860s of stone, is located on Cowper Street in Ainslie. It was relocated from Sydney in 1957 and originally served as the railway terminus at Rookwood Cemetery.

The Ainslie Arts Centre now occupies the former Ainslie Primary School (built 1927), the first such school in the ACT.

A typical street in Ainslie

Ainslie Shops

Ainslie Arts Centre (former Primary school built 1927)

Design

The suburb is characterised by leafy streets, and mainly by detached single dwelling houses. Many see a "village" atmosphere around the many small parks. Ainslie has experienced 'in-fill' development in recent years, both in the form of dual occupancy dwellings (where two dwellings are constructed on a block which previously contained one house) and medium-density development, especially at the Limestone Avenue ends of Cowper Street and Angus Street and, more recently, on the site of the former service station at the Ainslie shops.

History

The suburb was named after James Ainslie, a veteran of the Battle of Waterloo, the "first overseer of 'Duntroon Station' in Canberra who was employed by Robert Campbell in 1825 to drive a mob of sheep south from Bathurst 'until he found suitable land'; Ainslie chose the Limestone Plains (the Canberra district) and was overseer for ten years before returning to Scotland."

The division (or suburb) name Ainslie was gazetted by the Government in 1928. The streets of Ainslie are named after pioneers and legislators. It has many heritage listed homes, mainly clustered around three precincts centred on Alt Crescent (mainly 1920s), Corroboree Park (also mainly 1920s) and Wakefield Gardens (mainly 1930s). Heritage parts of the suburb were gazetted onto the ACT Government's Heritage Register in 2004.

James Ainslie was reputed to have camped in 1825 under gum trees at what is now Corroboree Park. Iris Carnell, born in 1900 and one of the original inhabitants of Paterson Street in the 1920s, recounted in 'Voices of Old Ainslie' that her mother, Celia Tong, born at Lanyon in 1871, remembered as a little girl what is now Corroboree Park as a scene of aboriginal corroborees. She said the aborigines used to sit around the tree now near the barbecues which has four trees growing from its centre.

Iris Carnell also records that when the then-Duke and Duchess of York came to Canberra to open Parliament House in 1927, the Duchess, later Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mother, expressed an interest in visiting a typical local family. She was invited to tea with the Truesdale family at 20 Corroboree Park (on the northern corner of Higgins Crescent).

Originally a predominantly blue-collar suburb with a high proportion of public housing, Ainslie has gradually gentrified, with properties regularly fetching more than $1 million. It is locally known by a few as the 'People's Republic of Ainslie' for the leftist leanings of many residents. Perhaps paradoxically, among the most sought-after properties in the suburb are the heritage-listed cottages built during the conservative governments of Stanley Bruce and Joseph Lyons, which are set mainly among European trees.

Open space

Aerial view from north east. Mount Ainslie is to the left.

Ainslie has many parks and open spaces.

• Corroboree Park is shaped like a semicircle, and is associated with the Aboriginal use of the area prior to European settlement in Canberra. The park was created around 1925 around what is known as the 'Corroboree Tree' located in the park. Ainslie Community Hall, which is located in Corroboree Park, is socially significant as one of the early meeting places in Canberra. The wooden hall was erected in 1927 and the adjoining 1920s school building was relocated to its current location from Russell. The hall is often used for social gatherings, meetings and classes such as yoga and dance. The three courts for the Ainslie Tennis Club (established in 1927) were built using voluntary labour. The tennis club planted many of the trees in the park.
• It contains several sports ovals, one of which is part of the Ainslie Football Club.
• It contains North Ainslie Primary School which has a generous oval.

Geology

Calcareous shales from the Canberra Formation from the Silurian period is overlain by Quaternary alluvium.

This rock is the limestone of the original title of Canberra "Limestone Plains".

See also: Geology of the Australian Capital Territory