Located southeast of the Canberra central business district, Parkes contains the Parliamentary Triangle and many of the national monuments of Australia's capital city.

[2] Parkes contains many of Canberra's large institutions and contains limited residential areas.

Canberra Formation, calcareous shale is found in the lower parts.

This overlies middle Silurian Camp Hill Sandstone.

State Circle Shale is Late Llandovery in a more finely divided time scale and it has been dated to 445 ±7 million years old.