[2][3] The town is in the Snowy Monaro Regional Council local government area, sandwiched between the southern border of the Namadgi National Park[4] in the Australian Capital Territory and the Murrumbidgee River.

Shannons Flat also adjoins the NSW localities of Yaouk, Bolaro, Murrumbucca, Bredbo and Billilingra.

[1] Shannons Flat is in the Monaro region of the Snowy Mountains and is mostly between 1,000 and 1,400 metres (3,300 and 4,600 ft) above sea-level, so usually receives several snowfalls every year.

At the junction of these two routes, the local community hall stands adjacent to the Rural Fire Service shed.

[5] The Shannons Flat/Yaouk area was initially isolated from the general spread of early settlement which came through Bredbo and Bunyan and moved further south.

The original squatters to Yaouk were more likely to arrive by crossing the Murrumbidgee near Bredbo and travelling north west through rough country before getting to open plains.

The Statistical Returns of 1831 listed J Slake (probably Blake) as holding the Yayak (Yaouk) station and the Brayshaws settled in the Bobeyan Valley during the 1840s.

[9] This generated national media attention in 2009 when Peter Spencer, a local farmer went on a hunger strike suspended 6 metres up a tower used for monitoring wind speeds.