Springbank Island is named after a former agricultural property that was partially submerged to create Lake Burley Griffin.

Moore wrote to Robert Hoddle, the Government Surveyor: I beg leave to inform you that I am desirous of retaining the 1,000 acres (400 ha) already in my possession.

The farm extended over a roughly rectangular area now bounded by University Avenue in the north, Clunies Ross Street to the west, the old Canberra High School (now the Canberra Institute of the Arts, within the ANU Acton campus) to the east and, to the south, the Molonglo River which formed part of the boundary with Corkhills' farm.

Apparently the family found the house unpleasant to live in because of the snakes in the swamps of the nearby Molonglo River which became a menace during times of flood.

[4] Before it was purchased by the Sullivan family in 1888, the property served two years as a school under James Abernethy, and Mr Evans, a tutor at Duntroon, also occupied it for some time.

[5] In 1914, Sydney Stock and Station Agents Gair, Sloane and Co. gave a detailed valuation of the freehold land comprising Springbank': The property, including 1,955 acres (791 ha) of freehold land, the homestead buildings, yards, cow bails, piggery, buggy-shed, woolshed, yards and three dams, eleven hundred willow trees and an orchard, was valued at 'ten thousand and twenty two pounds, ten shillings and no pence'.

The 115 acres (47 ha) of alluvial flats had a frontage to the Molonglo River to the south, Scott's Paddock on the West, the two huts, Woolshed and Pisa on the East and Black Mountain on the North.

SOIL: Is rich dark alluvial friable and fertile loam about 12 feet (3.7 m) deep, resting on a gravel bed, providing good draining – liable to be inundated by the overflow water from the Molonglo River annually, leaving a rich deposit of alluvium, rendering it admirably suited for the growth of lucerne and corn and comparing favourably with a great deal of the Hunter River land.