Weetangera

Weetangera is a suburb in the Belconnen district of Canberra, located within the Australian Capital Territory, Australia.

Weetangera is a suburb in the Belconnen district of Canberra, located within the Australian Capital Territory, Australia. The suburb covers an area of approximately 158 hectares (390 acres).Located approximately 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) north-west of the city, Weetangera is bounded by Springvale Drive to the south and west, Coulter Drive to the east and Belconnen Way to the north.The Pinnacle Nature Reserve, a Canberra Nature Park is adjacent to the south of the suburb, across Springvale Drive.

Aboriginal settlement of the Australian Capital Territory dates back over 20,000 years. Grinding grooves located on the Molonglo River to the south of Weetangera provide evidence of Aboriginal use of the region pre-colonisation.[1] Members of the 'Canberra Tribe' continued to camp near Weetangera until the 1860s.Europeans first settled in the area in the 1820s, with the name Weetangera (also Weetangerra and Weetangara in early documents) applied to the local vicinity from this time. Weetangera was also the name for the historic Weetangera parish, which included the land from Ginninderra Creek to the Molonglo River.

The Weetangera Public School was first built to service the area in 1875, facing onto the Weetangera Road (now Belconnen Way).Samuel Shumack lived at "Spring Vale" in Weetangera between 1866 and 1915. Shumack and his father had taken up the land for farming when Samuel was eight years old. Samuel Shumack lived on the property with his family until it was claimed as land for the nation's capital in 1915.The Southwell family were significant to Weetangera, and various members of the family are buried in the Weetangera Cemetery and former Methodist Church now sited to the west of the adjoining suburb, Hawker.

The modern suburb of Weetangera was officially gazetted by the ACT Government in 1968, with a street theme: 'Pioneers of the Australian Capital Territory'. After the gazetting, the first modern settlers moved into the suburb in 1970 and the first students moved into the Weetangera Primary School, located about a kilometre from the old Weetangera Primary School, in 1973. Today, the suburb is home to over 2500 people.