Nicholls, Australian Capital Territory
Encyclopedia
Nicholls is a suburb in the Canberra
, Australia
district of Gungahlin
is named after Sir Douglas Nicholls
(1906–1988), a former Governor of South Australia. It was gazetted on 18 October 1991. Streets are named after sportsmen and sportswomen.
Nicholls adjoins the suburbs of Kinlyside
, Casey
, Ngunnawal
, Crace
and Palmerston
. The suburb is located approximately 2 km from the Gungahlin Town Centre and about 13 km from the centre of Canberra.
at its centre. The Gungahlin Pond is located in the east of the suburb, near the southern end of the the Lakes Golf Club. A Canberra Nature Park
including Percival Hill is located further south.
Gold Creek Village is located on the southern boundary of Nicholls, off the Barton Highway. It encompasses Gold Creek Square, Cockington Green, the Gold Creek golf course, the National Dinosaur Museum
, Australian Reptile Centre, the George Harcourt Inn and Federation Square. An online private weather station is located in Nicholls.
, one of the earliest settlements in the Canberra region. The settlement included the former St Francis School of Ginninderra and the historic Ginninderra Schoolhouse which was built in 1883. The village was located at the intersection of the Queanbeyan-Yass Road (now the Barton Highway) and Gold Creek Road which until the founding of the suburb of Nicholls led to the Gold Creek Homestead
.
In 1979 Cockington Green, a miniature English village, opened for business in Ginninderra Village. The private sector enterprise was the first of a number of tourism ventures to establish there over the coming years and in the early 1990s, the ACT government approved an application to rename the precinct Gold Creek Village.
The next phase of development commenced in 2007 with the planting of thousands of native horticultural species and returning the 66 hectares area back to its natural environment. This golf course is now set amongst a native botanical garden
and natural waterways which has seen an abundant return of native fauna.
The Lakes golf course setting is picturesque and is located amongst lakes. The waterways provide a water source for maintaining the golf course with no potable water being used on the course. The Lakes Golf course is an eco sustainable development using as little water as possible since it also located well below the 100 year flood line.
. But in the south and west there are
two patches of green-grey dacite
and quartz andesite
.
A fault forms the south east boundary of the Hawkins Volcanics. A porphyry
outdrops through most of the
center of Nicholls, this is green grey dacitic intrusive, with white feldspar
phenocryst
s.
Over to the east side of the suburb there is Canberra Formation slatey shale
and mudstone
, then State Circle Shale, then mica
ceous Black Mountain Sandstone
making up Percival Hill. An anticline
forms the ridge of Percival Hill, with an overturned syncline
on the western slopes.
In the north east side of Nicholls the corner Vee shaped outcrop of tuff
comes in from Ngunnawal, and also the base of the crook shaped ashstone
outcrop.
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
district of Gungahlin
Gungahlin
Gungahlin is a name of a district and the northernmost town centre of Canberra, Australia. Gungahlin is situated 10 km north of Canberra's city centre and is one of five satellites of Canberra including Woden, Tuggeranong, Weston Creek and Belconnen. Currently Gungahlin comprises 11 suburbs,...
is named after Sir Douglas Nicholls
Douglas Nicholls
Sir Douglas Ralph "Doug" Nicholls KCVO, OBE, was a prominent Aboriginal Australian from the Yorta Yorta people. He was a professional athlete, Churches of Christ pastor and church planter, ceremonial officer and a pioneering campaigner for reconciliation.Nicholls was the first Aboriginal person to...
(1906–1988), a former Governor of South Australia. It was gazetted on 18 October 1991. Streets are named after sportsmen and sportswomen.
Nicholls adjoins the suburbs of Kinlyside
Kinlyside, Australian Capital Territory
Kinlyside is a designated suburb in Gungahlin, Canberra. The land designated for the suburb has not yet been released for development by the Australian Capital Territory’s Land and Development Agency ....
, Casey
Casey, Australian Capital Territory
Casey is a suburb in Canberra, Australia , approximately 4 km from the Gungahlin Town Centre and about 13 km from the centre of Canberra. The suburb is named after Richard Casey, Baron Casey an Australian politician, diplomat and later the 16th Governor-General of Australia. It is bound...
, Ngunnawal
Ngunnawal, Australian Capital Territory
Ngunnawal is a suburb in the district of Gungahlin in Canberra, Australia. The suburb is named in tribute to the Ngunnawal people, the original inhabitants of the area. The suburb was gazetted on 18 October 1991. Ngunnawal is adjacent to the suburbs of Nicholls, Casey and Amaroo and Taylor...
, Crace
Crace, Australian Capital Territory
Crace is a designated suburb of Canberra, Australia in the district of Gungahlin. It was named after Edward Kendall Crace an original settler in the Gungahlin area. Streets in Crace will be named after parishes and land divisions from colonial times. It is bounded by the Barton Highway, Gungahlin...
and Palmerston
Palmerston, Australian Capital Territory
Palmerston is a suburb in the Canberra, Australia district of Gungahlin. The postcode is 2913. The suburb is named after George Thomas Palmer who established a settlement in the Canberra region in 1826 called Palmerville, which was later renamed Ginninderra. It was gazetted on 20 March 1991...
. The suburb is located approximately 2 km from the Gungahlin Town Centre and about 13 km from the centre of Canberra.
Local facilities
Some of the most prestigious houses in Nicholls are located against Harcourt Hill to the west. Also in Nicholls is the Senior Site portion of Gold Creek School, Perce Douglas Memorial playing fields, Nicholls Neighbourhood oval, Holy Spirit Primary School and Gold Creek Primary School. Although the suburb of Nicholls is newly established, this northern portion of the suburb including the Gold Creek School is sited on what was until 1990, the former 'Gold Creek' rural property with the Gold Creek HomesteadGold Creek Homestead
Gold Creek Homestead is a 140-year old stone and brick building located off Gungahlin Drive in Ngunnawal a north-western suburb of Canberra, the Australian Capital Territory, Australia....
at its centre. The Gungahlin Pond is located in the east of the suburb, near the southern end of the the Lakes Golf Club. A Canberra Nature Park
Canberra Nature Park
The Canberra Nature Park is actually 30 separate protected areas in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, ranging from bushland hills to lowland native grassland...
including Percival Hill is located further south.
Gold Creek Village is located on the southern boundary of Nicholls, off the Barton Highway. It encompasses Gold Creek Square, Cockington Green, the Gold Creek golf course, the National Dinosaur Museum
National Dinosaur Museum
The National Dinosaur Museum is the southern hemisphere's largest permanent display of prehistoric material, located in Gold Creek Village near Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia...
, Australian Reptile Centre, the George Harcourt Inn and Federation Square. An online private weather station is located in Nicholls.
History
Nicholls contains the remnants of Ginninderra VillageGinninderra
Ginninderra is the name of the former agricultural lands surrendered to urban development on the western and north-western fringes of Canberra, Australia's National Capital...
, one of the earliest settlements in the Canberra region. The settlement included the former St Francis School of Ginninderra and the historic Ginninderra Schoolhouse which was built in 1883. The village was located at the intersection of the Queanbeyan-Yass Road (now the Barton Highway) and Gold Creek Road which until the founding of the suburb of Nicholls led to the Gold Creek Homestead
Gold Creek Homestead
Gold Creek Homestead is a 140-year old stone and brick building located off Gungahlin Drive in Ngunnawal a north-western suburb of Canberra, the Australian Capital Territory, Australia....
.
In 1979 Cockington Green, a miniature English village, opened for business in Ginninderra Village. The private sector enterprise was the first of a number of tourism ventures to establish there over the coming years and in the early 1990s, the ACT government approved an application to rename the precinct Gold Creek Village.
The Lakes Golf Course
The Lakes is a championship par 72 hole golf course measuring 6,198 metres and was originally designed by Ted Parslow. The Lakes Golf Club has over $1m being spent on the course each year over the past few years. The Lakes since 2006 has been transformed and has undergone significant improvements which have been managed by Jamie Dawson who was involved with Ted Parslow's original design concept. From 1998 to 2003 over $20m was spent constructing the Clubhouse, purpose built undercover corporate facilities including a private bar, toilets and locker rooms. The clubhouse design was undertaken by Wood Day Architects, and was constructed in 4 stages over a period of 5 years. The Club is financially supported by the Ainslie Football and Social Club. The project including the design concepts and construction since 1997 were managed by Mr Kevin Grace, CEO of Ainslie Football and Social Club.The next phase of development commenced in 2007 with the planting of thousands of native horticultural species and returning the 66 hectares area back to its natural environment. This golf course is now set amongst a native botanical garden
Botanical garden
A botanical garden The terms botanic and botanical, and garden or gardens are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word botanic is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is a well-tended area displaying a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names...
and natural waterways which has seen an abundant return of native fauna.
The Lakes golf course setting is picturesque and is located amongst lakes. The waterways provide a water source for maintaining the golf course with no potable water being used on the course. The Lakes Golf course is an eco sustainable development using as little water as possible since it also located well below the 100 year flood line.
Geology
Harcourt Hill is made up from Hawkins Volcanics mostly cream rhyoliteRhyolite
This page is about a volcanic rock. For the ghost town see Rhyolite, Nevada, and for the satellite system, see Rhyolite/Aquacade.Rhyolite is an igneous, volcanic rock, of felsic composition . It may have any texture from glassy to aphanitic to porphyritic...
. But in the south and west there are
two patches of green-grey dacite
Dacite
Dacite is an igneous, volcanic rock. It has an aphanitic to porphyritic texture and is intermediate in composition between andesite and rhyolite. The relative proportions of feldspars and quartz in dacite, and in many other volcanic rocks, are illustrated in the QAPF diagram...
and quartz andesite
Andesite
Andesite is an extrusive igneous, volcanic rock, of intermediate composition, with aphanitic to porphyritic texture. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between basalt and dacite. The mineral assemblage is typically dominated by plagioclase plus pyroxene and/or hornblende. Magnetite,...
.
A fault forms the south east boundary of the Hawkins Volcanics. A porphyry
Porphyry (geology)
Porphyry is a variety of igneous rock consisting of large-grained crystals, such as feldspar or quartz, dispersed in a fine-grained feldspathic matrix or groundmass. The larger crystals are called phenocrysts...
outdrops through most of the
center of Nicholls, this is green grey dacitic intrusive, with white feldspar
Feldspar
Feldspars are a group of rock-forming tectosilicate minerals which make up as much as 60% of the Earth's crust....
phenocryst
Phenocryst
thumb|right|300px|[[Granite]]s often have large [[feldspar|feldspatic]] phenocrysts. This granite, from the [[Switzerland|Swiss]] side of the [[Mont Blanc]] massif, has large white [[plagioclase]] phenocrysts, [[triclinic]] [[mineral]]s that give [[trapezium|trapezoid]] shapes when cut through)...
s.
Over to the east side of the suburb there is Canberra Formation slatey shale
Shale
Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable. Shale is characterized by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering...
and mudstone
Mudstone
Mudstone is a fine grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Grain size is up to 0.0625 mm with individual grains too small to be distinguished without a microscope. With increased pressure over time the platey clay minerals may become aligned, with the...
, then State Circle Shale, then mica
Mica
The mica group of sheet silicate minerals includes several closely related materials having highly perfect basal cleavage. All are monoclinic, with a tendency towards pseudohexagonal crystals, and are similar in chemical composition...
ceous Black Mountain Sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
making up Percival Hill. An anticline
Anticline
In structural geology, an anticline is a fold that is convex up and has its oldest beds at its core. The term is not to be confused with antiform, which is a purely descriptive term for any fold that is convex up. Therefore if age relationships In structural geology, an anticline is a fold that is...
forms the ridge of Percival Hill, with an overturned syncline
Syncline
In structural geology, a syncline is a fold, with younger layers closer to the center of the structure. A synclinorium is a large syncline with superimposed smaller folds. Synclines are typically a downward fold, termed a synformal syncline In structural geology, a syncline is a fold, with younger...
on the western slopes.
In the north east side of Nicholls the corner Vee shaped outcrop of tuff
Tuff
Tuff is a type of rock consisting of consolidated volcanic ash ejected from vents during a volcanic eruption. Tuff is sometimes called tufa, particularly when used as construction material, although tufa also refers to a quite different rock. Rock that contains greater than 50% tuff is considered...
comes in from Ngunnawal, and also the base of the crook shaped ashstone
Ashstone
Ashstone is a kind of volcanic rock formed from fine volcanic ash.During an explosive volcanic eruption, fragmentation of the magma can result in the formation of volcanic ash, consisting of sand-sized or smaller particles....
outcrop.