Gungahlin 10th Birthday Celebrations...

Gungahlin 10th Birthday Celebrations...

On the 6th of April almost 1500 people came to Historic Gold Creek Homestead and celebrated a decade of Gungahlin's first suburban residents. It was a family day packed with activities. games, mini craft market, displays, music and walking tours - A good time was had by all!

Event Flyer

Gungahlin's 10th Birthday Celebrations
Gold Creek Homestead,
Gungahlin Drive, Ngunnawal

Saturday 6th April 10.30am – 17:30pm

ALL WELCOME
ADMISSION FREE

• Novelty races with prizes donated by local businesses
• Best Period Costume with prizes donated by local businesses
• Student choirs
• Sausage sizzle and other food stalls
• Devonshire Teas
• Art and Craft stalls
• Heritage displays
• Vintage cars
• Vintage bikes
• Steam engines
• Environmental displays
• Guided tours of the property
• The birthday cake will be cut by MLAs Bill Wood and Simon Corbell at 12.30pm.
• Bush music will start at 1.30pm bush dancing at 2.30pm.
• Music by Bunyip Bluegum.
• Disabled parking and facilities available.

The celebrations are being organised by the Social Capital Committee of the Gungahlin Community Council. Enquiries to the coordinator - phone 62622095.

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Program of Events

11:00 - Milo the Clown
11:00 - Burgmann School Drama
11:00 - Walking Tour of Homestead Site
11:45 - Vintage Bicycles arrive
11:50 - Choirs (at Hayshed)
12:00 - Walking Tour of Homestead Site
12:20 - Official Opening Ceremony
12:30 - Cake cutting
12:45 - Choirs (at Hayshed)
13:00 - Let the Games Begin (Novelty Events)
13:00 - Walking Tour of Homestead Site
14:00 - Walking Tour of Homestead Site
14:30 - Bush Band & Dance
15:00 - Walking Tour of Homestead Site
16:00 - Walking Tour of Homestead Site
18:00 - Gates Close

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Event Site Map

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Where to Find the Homestead - Location Map

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History of Gold Creek Homestead

The history of Gold Creek is typical of the second wave of settlement in the early Canberra region that occurred during the mid 19th Century.

In 1861 English immigrant 21 year old Edmund Rolfe married Margaret Logue, the daughter of the dairy manager at Robert Campbell's Duntroon property. Edmund built a small stone and slab cottage on modest acreage. He hoped to emulate the success of his father, Anthony's 1 000 acre property to the west of Hall.

The Rolfes had four children, but tragically, Margaret died giving birth to Catherine, their youngest daughter. Edmund remarried in 1867 to Margaret Keefe (pictured above) who bore him 10 children. The family lived in their cramped single room cottage until 1884 , when work commenced on a more substantial home, constructed from locally quarried bluestone.

The following decades proved prosperous for the Rolfes. They acquired several adjacent parcels of land to boost the production of wool. By 1910, the Gold Creek property was comprised of 4 000 acres, the largest free selected landholding in the Ginninderra district.

However, the Rolfe family's destiny was sealed by a Government decision in 1915 to relocate the Federal Parliament from Melbourne to Canberra. With the establishment of the Federal (later Australian) Capital Territory, 'Gold Creek' was converted to leasehold.

With the death, in 1919, of Edmund and Margaret, the younger Rolfe generation looked to careers beyond the land. The property passed through several sets of hands during the decades following including the Burgyone, the Clayton and the Bruce families. Gold Creek underwent various irrigation improvements during this time and prospered during the 1950s wool boom.

With the rise of rural tourism, Gold Creek Homestead assumed a role as a reception and function centre. Many Canberrans fondly remember a car trip to Gold Creek to attend wedding receptions for friends or family. Local business successes such as caterer Toni Dale also operated from the Gold Creek Homestead into the early 1990s.

Ironically, the leafy vistas that drew people to the newly established suburb of Ngunnawal, on Gold Creek's doorstep, also contributed to its demise. With the homestead now shoehorned onto 11 acres of land and crowded out by suburbia, its owners called it a day. When the ACT Government took possession of the property in 1998, it was left with the most unlikely of assets and no plans for its future.
But there is still plenty of life in Gold Creek as tourist operator John Starr can testify. During the warmer months, he conducts twice weekly sheep shearing demonstrations in the woolshed.

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