This short history was compiled from the works of Mark Butz. Mark is a Canberra based environmental scientist. He has researched and written extensively on the Jerrabomberra Wetlands. Mark’s website can be found here.
If you have anything to add to the history of the Farm, please email info@ccfarm.org.au, with HISTORY as the first word in the subject line. Pictures are eagerly sought.
It is estimated the Indigenous people occupied an area of the Molonglo-Jerrabomberra floodplain for more than twenty thousand years. The area is now known as the Pialligo Flats. There is evidence of a large lowland campsite to the east of what is now the Pialligo Village. Ngunnawal people are acknowledged as the traditional custodians of the Canberra area, and connections Canberra are also claimed by Ngambri and Ngarigu people. Canberra was also a gathering place for other tribes living around the area. Further discussion of the Aboriginal heritage of Canberra can be found here.
The earliest Europeans came to the area in 1820. They camped on the northern side of the Molonglo River, close to where the entrance to Royal Military College Duntroon is now located
In 1824, Robert Campbell commenced farming 4,000 acres of land in the Parish of Pialligo. The estate was known as ‘Pialaga’ or ‘Pialligo’. In the 1830s, the Campbells began building the homestead Limestone Cottage, later named Duntroon House.
In the 1840s, Charles Campbell, Robert’s third son, built the first flour mill in the region. The mill was located on a small hill on what is now the Fyshwick Sewerage Treatment Plant. This hill is across the road from Canberra City Farm, and a little to the south. The area was then known as Mill Flats.
In 1846, the name of Campbell’s Pialligo Estate was changed to Duntroon, after the family castle in Scotland.
In 1908 Yass-Canberra was selected for the site of the national capital. The Molonglo-Jerrabomberra River Flats, because they could not be built on, were offered as a large water feature in the heart of the city.
In 1910, the Campbell homestead and estate, then worked by Colonel Jack Campbell, grandson of Robert Campbell, occupied about 5,000 acres. The estate was sold to the Commonwealth as part of the formation of the Australian Capital Territory. The homestead and outbuildings were used to establish the Royal Military College.
In 1918, the Molonglo Concentration Camp was established on an area centred on what is now Molonglo Mall, Fyshwick. Mill Hill and Mill Flat were part of the buffer for the concentration camp. The camp was to house 3,500 German and Austrian nationals, being expelled from China. The camp was about 1,200 acres, and had its own baker, butcher, grocer, post office, fire station, water supply, and railway siding. The intended detainees from China did not arrive. Instead about 300 German and Austrian nationals, were moved from Bourke and Berrima. From May 1919, the detainees were deported to Germany, even though they did not come from Germany.
In 1920, the Mill Flat Floodplain was divided into 36 lucerne blocks, each of about thirty acres. Eight of these were allocated to returned soldiers of WW1. In 1921, it was decided no further blocks would be allocated. Record floods in 1922, destroyed livestock, crops, fencing, and haystacks. Roads, bridges, and the railway were all swept away. Three years later, in May 1925, there was an even larger flood.
In 1925, the small blocks were replaced by four larger commercial dairy leases, of up to 300 acres. The leases were for ten years, reflecting the longer-term plan to inundate the river flats. Edward Germaine Kelly, a dairy farmer from Bega, took the lease for Block 2. He held the lease to Sep 1941. The lease was held to Nov 1949, by Thomas Joseph (Tom) Kelly. In Nov 1949, Edward Benedict (Ben) Kelly joined his brother. The Farm was then known as Kelly Bros Farm.
In 1969, the farm lease was returned to the Commonwealth. Mr Kelly, his wife and two children continued to live on the home block on a lease-back arrangement.
In 1984, Mrs Kelly was evicted from the block by the Commonwealth.
In 1985, the Commonwealth Department of Education operated the Dairy Flat Education Centre at 2 Dairy Road as an experimental education centre.
The bushfires of January 2003 burned most of the buildings used by the Birrigai Outdoor School at Tidbinbilla. The ACT Government agreed for Birrigai to establish an alternative campus at Jerrabomberra Wetlands. The vineyard was established in 2006. In 2007, Birrigai returned to the Tidbinbilla.
In 2015, Canberra City Farm was established at the former Dairy Flat Farm.