Page 1195 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 24 April 1990
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Week but I must say that I am delighted to have the opportunity to inform the Assembly today of the substantial progress being made by the Government in this field.
Members will be aware that the Government has put on the table for public discussion proposed legislation which will provide excellent protection for heritage in the Territory. Despite the apparent youthfulness of the city of Canberra, the ACT has, in fact, a very rich and diverse heritage going back to Aboriginal history. There is evidence of Aboriginal occupation of the region stretching back over some 20,000 years to the Birrigai rock shelter. Other known ACT sites include stone arrangements in the Namadgi National Park, a group of three very important rock art sites also in Namadgi, and axe grinding grooves in Namadgi and throughout other areas, including Theodore and Gungahlin.
The period of European settlement and grazing extended well into the establishment of Canberra as Australia's capital. The best known graziers start with Robert Campbell, whose family owned the properties of Duntroon, Yarralumla and Woden. Probably the three oldest buildings in the ACT are directly associated with Duntroon. They are Blundell's Cottage, Duntroon Farm and the Duntroon Dairy. The Anglican Church of St John the Baptist in Reid, its schoolhouse and the former Glebe House date back to the 1840s and were long associated with the Campbell family.
Yarralumla, now the Governor-General's residence, was built by the Campbell family in 1881 after the property had been purchased. The previous stone homestead dating back to 1833 has been demolished. Woden was another property bought by the Campbells in the 1860s. It is still lived in by that family, the link between the limestone plains of last century and the national capital of today.
The De Salis family is another very important pioneer family that has maintained its links to the ACT. Count Leopold De Salis was an active magistrate and politician and a member of the Legislative Council of New South Wales. He is credited with introducing dams and irrigation to the area which had a substantial effect on the local farming - a beneficial effect, I hope. Cuppacumbalong was one of his holdings, along with others such as Naas, Cooleman and Darbalara in the upper Murrumbidgee area. Cuppacumbalong's raised cemetery is believed to be unique.
De Salis' daughter, Nina, was the wife of William Farrer. Farrer, of course, developed the rust resistant strain of wheat at Lambrigg, which is not far from either Cuppacumbalong or Lanyon. Cuppacumbalong was sold to De Salis by James Wright, the owner of Lanyon. Lanyon itself is a substantial site of suitable significance, now run by the ACT as a museum. At one stage it was owned by Andrew
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