The demolition team moved in to knock down the Edlington Farmhouse on Smith Street in Weetangera on Wednesday evening. Until 60 or so years ago, the building was part of a large dairy farm but gradually the city suburban sprawl has surrounded it. It’s not a particularly old building – just a working farmhouse – but it is significant, and it gives a glimpse of the area before Canberra spread. When the couple who ran the historic, pre-Canberra Duntroon dairy farm found that much of their grazing land was about to be inundated with the water that would become Lake Burley Griffin, they decided to seek pastures new. The pair – Bill and May Edlington – found those new pastures where the doomed farmhouse now stands. Six decades ago, it was farmland where race horses were raised but today it is classic Canberra suburbia. The Edlingtons’ farm extended northeast to include the area around the present Lathlain and Josephson Streets, Belconnen and northwest into the current suburb of Latham. Canberra Times 16/9/2021
friends of hawker village 