Yarralumla Canberra, Australian Capital Territory |
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Population | 2,922 (2011 census) | ||||||||||||
• Density | 332/km2 (860/sq mi) | ||||||||||||
Established | 1922 | ||||||||||||
Gazetted | 20 September 1928 | ||||||||||||
Postcode(s) | 2600 | ||||||||||||
Area | 8.81 km2 (3.4 sq mi) | ||||||||||||
District | South Canberra | ||||||||||||
Territory electorate(s) | Kurrajong | ||||||||||||
Federal Division(s) | Canberra | ||||||||||||
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Yarralumla is a large inner south suburb of Canberra, the capital city of Australia. Located approximately 3.5 kilometres (2.2 mi) south-west of the city, Yarralumla extends along the south-west bank of Lake Burley Griffin. (The lake was created after the Second World War through the blocking, with a dam, of the Molonglo River.)
In 1828, Henry Donnison, a Sydney merchant, was granted a lease on the western side of Stirling Ridge. Donnison's land was named Yarralumla in a survey of the area conducted in 1834, apparently after the indigenous people's term for the area. It was also spelt Yarrolumla in other documents. In 1881, the estate was bought by Frederick Campbell, grandson of Robert Campbell who built nearby "Duntroon". He completed the construction of a large, gabled, brick house on his property in 1891 that now serves as the site of Government House, the official residence of the Governor-General of Australia. Campbell's house replaced an elegant, Georgian-style homestead, the main portions of which were erected from local stone in the 1830s. Among the old Yarralumla homestead's most notable occupants were Sir Terence Aubrey Murray, who owned Yarralumla sheep station from 1837 to 1859, Augustus Onslow Manby Gibbes, who owned the property from 1859 to 1881, and Augustus' father Colonel John George Nathaniel Gibbes (1787–1873). (Augustus "Gussie" Gibbes was Murray's brother-in-law; he also advanced money to Frederick Campbell to assist with the construction, in 1890–1891, of Campbell's grand new family house at Yarralumla.)
The modern suburb of Yarralumla was gazetted by the government in 1928 and as of 2011[update] was home to approximately 3,000 people and many diplomatic missions. In recent years, it has become one of Canberra's most desirable and expensive residential suburbs because of its wide leafy streets, attractive lakeside setting and central location.