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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 7 Hansard (22 September) . . Page.. 2017 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

retains some elements of the original machinery as well as that of later technological eras. The landscape setting and scale of the woolshed serve as reminders of the times when Cuppacumbalong was the centre of a pastoral community and its owners were producers of large quantities of fine wool.

The Duntroon dairy was constructed before September 1932 and is, on the available evidence, the oldest standing structure in the ACT. The building's construction and siting are distinctive and well thought out and, at the time, were advanced in terms of technology and approach. Of particular interest is the water management system and drainage, which used an in-ground cistern to store and source cool reticulated water through the dairy. The place also retains residual evidence of a complex of buildings which once surrounded the dairy.

The Duntroon woolshed, Mr Speaker, was the first, the largest and the best constructed woolshed from the early pioneering settlement period of the Limestone Plains, now the ACT. The woolshed was the major industrial centre of the historic Duntroon estate of Robert Campbell, the first centre of wool and wheat production on the Limestone Plains. Its two-storey brick woolshed design is rare, and its fabric demonstrates changing technologies used in wool production over 50 years of use. The woolshed also played a part in the establishment of the Royal Military College Duntroon, was an early agricultural research station, and was an important social venue in the pastoral and early national capital periods of the ACT. The El Alamein steel post evidences use of the site by the El Alamein Co. The place is an important teaching site for social history and early nineteenth century construction and design methods, especially in the construction of the trussed rafter roof of the central section.

Mr Speaker, Gungahleen schoolhouse is the oldest timber school building from the period before the creation of the ACT. It has historic associations with the New South Wales public education system of the late nineteenth century.

The Manuka swimming pool is an important component of the body of Federal Capital-style public buildings associated with the establishment of Canberra as the national capital. The building design is an outstanding architectural achievement which continues to retain its integrity. Since its completion in 1930, and particularly up to the 1960s, the pool was an important social focus for the Canberra community. This position continues today through the re-emergence of community activities associated with the pool.

The Tocumwal housing precinct in O'Connor is significant as an outstanding example of how low-cost prefabricated housing was constructed in Canberra after World War II. As part of the Government's solution to the critical housing shortage being experienced in Canberra at the time, many of the houses originally constructed in Tocumwal in New South Wales for the US Army Air Corps were re-erected in the ACT. The cottages are of distinctive design types and are limited geographically to the O'Connor precinct and a small area in Ainslie. The precinct remains the most intact example of this style of housing and is unique in Canberra for its urban planning, landscaping and social history.

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