The district comprises nineteen suburbs and occupies 117 square kilometres (45 sq mi) to the east of the Murrumbidgee River.

[3] From the earliest colonial times, the plain extending south into the centre of the present-day territory was referred to as Tuggeranong.

[6] Cave paintings and Aboriginal artifacts discovered in the area confirm that the Tuggeranong region has been occupied by the original inhabitants, the Ngunnawal people, for over 21,000 years.

[8] The first Europeans arrived in the Australian Capital Territory region in 1820 and a year later, a third expedition led by Charles Throsby reached the Murrumbidgee River near the present-day Pine Island and the valley[9][10] now occupied by the Tuggeranong district.

In 1823 Joseph Wild was employed by Brigade Major John Ovens and Captain Mark Currie to guide them to the Murrumbidgee.

They travelled south along the river and named the area now known as Tuggeranong Isabella's Plain in honour of Governor Brisbane's infant daughter.

In 1828, the bushranger John Tennant, known as the 'Terror of Argyle', was captured by James Ainslie and a party of others near the Murrumbidgee River in Tuggeranong.

Tennant had been a convict assigned to Joshua John Moore at Canberry, a property in the present day inner north Canberra.

[12] In 1835 Thomas Macquoid, then Sheriff of the New South Wales Supreme Court, bought Tuggeranong station then known as Waniassa property (sic).

The rural depression of 1840 hit hard and Macquoid committed suicide, fearing bankruptcy when he lost a civil suit brought by one William Henry Barnes.

On the edge of the lake are a number of community facilities, including Lake Tuggeranong College, a school catering to years 11 and 12 (16–18 years old); a library, which is part of the ACT Library and Information Services, a community centre, and the Tuggeranong Arts Centre.

A further heavy industrial area is located in the suburb of Hume that lies partly in the districts of both Tuggeranong and Jerrabomberra.

Tuggeranong has a temperate highland climate (Cfb) with dry, warm to hot summers and cool to cold winters.