Molonglo is a

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

currently under development in the

Molonglo Valley Molonglo Valley is a district in the Australian Capital Territory in Australia. The district is subdivided into divisions (suburbs), sections and blocks and is the newest district of the ACT. The district is planned to consist of thirteen suburb ...

district of

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory until 1938, is an internal States and territories of Australia, territory of Australia. Canberra, the capital city of Australia, is situated within the territory, an ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. The suburb of Molonglo derives its name from an Aboriginal expression meaning "the sound of thunder".

Location and urban structure

Currently in development and planning stages, Molonglo is expected to be the

town centre A town centre is the commerce, commercial or geographical centre or core area of a town. Town centres are traditionally associated with shopping or retail. They are also the centre of communications with major public transport hubs such as train ...

or group centre and will comprise the principal commercial and civic centre for the Molonglo Valley district. It is planned to accommodate approximately 1000 new dwellings in a relatively compact mixed use urban environment.

Features

Molonglo is a cat containment area, as are other new suburbs in the vicinity.

Geology

The suburb of Molonglo is split by an east–west direction fault that splays off the Winslade Fault. This fault is marked by quartz. The south side has been thrown down, and the north side elevated. This fault crosses the Molonglo River at the point where it goes in a tight bend from east to north west. This point also has one other fault crossing and another fault terminating. The rock south of the east–west fault is

rhyodacite Rhyodacite is a volcanic rock intermediate in composition between dacite and rhyolite. It is the extrusive equivalent of those plutonic rocks that are intermediate in composition between monzogranite and granodiorite. Rhyodacites form from rapid ...

from the Deakin Volcanics, and to the north are the older Mount Painter Volcanics with

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock co ...

composed of

dacite Dacite () is a volcanic rock formed by rapid solidification of lava that is high in silica and low in alkali metal oxides. It has a fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic texture and is intermediate in composition between andesite and rhyolite. ...

fragments.Henderson G A M and Matveev G, Geology of Canberra, Queanbeyan and Environs 1:50000 1980.

References

Suburbs of Canberra 2012 establishments in Australia {{Canberra-geo-stub