Ginninderra

Ginninderra is the name of the former agricultural lands surrendered to urban development on the western and north-western fringes of Canberra, the capital of Australia.

The Ginninderra Plain is bound by the Spring Range and the NSW-ACT border to the north, by Black Mountain and the O'Connor Ridge to the east, by a line of hills leading west from Mount Payntor towards the Murrumbidgee River to the south and by the hills at Brookland (in NSW) and the Brindabella Ranges to the west.

The plain contains the entire water catchment area of Ginninderra Creek, which empties into the Murrumbidgee River and forms part of the Murray-Darling Basin.

[1] Anthropologist Norman Tindale has suggested the principal group occupying the region were the Ngunnawal people, while the Ngarigo and Walgalu lived immediately to the south, the Wandandian to the east, the Gandangara to the north, and the Wiradjuri to the north-west.

The name Ginninderra is derived from the Aboriginal word for the creek which flows through the district of Ginin-ginin-derry which is said to mean sparkling or throwing out little rays of light.

[1] George Palmer established his Palmerville Estate in 1826 in Ginninginderry with a homestead located on the banks of Ginninderra Creek adjacent to the presentday suburb of Giralang.

The second wave of Ginninderra settlement began in the early 1850s with free settlers such as the Rolfe, Shumack, Southwell, Gillespie and Gribble families.