AUSTRALIA'S CAPITAL

Evening Star, Issue 15513, 8 June 1914, Page 4

AUSTRALIA'S CAPITAL

EARLY SETTLEMENT ROMANCE. The Canberra district is thiOTghoat associated with an Argyllshire family owned Campbell. Robert Campbell wm e. Calcutta, merchant, who went to AustraH* in 1799 to make inquiries with regard to * ship which had bean lost in Bw* Strait, /tnd apparently was snfßxdentJy pleased with Sydney that he remained in that 'city. He became known at *' Merchant" Campbell. In the early years of the last century Sydney suffered from * shortage of food, and the Governor desired to send ships to India for supplies. The only two vessels in Fort Jackson suitable for such a purpose were two • which Mr Robert Campbell had in the harbor loaded with sealskins. The authorities commandeered these ships, and sent them away for grain, the onjy compensation which Mr Campbell received being two blocks of land, and 4,000 km respectively, and about 7,000 ewea, Th« land which he selected is now part of £b» I site of the 'Federal capital. "MMchaat" Campbell had in his employment an old trooper named Ainslie, who had seen service with the Scots Greys, and had faeea seriously wounded at Waterloo. He was deputed by Mr Campbell to take chares •of the ewes and to select suitable lamil. The ewes were obtained in' the early 'twenties at Bathurst. but finding the country west of that town occupied, Ainslio wont eoulh toward* Goulburn a*td Yass. Still finding the country occupied, ho went further south, and from th» blacks he heard of suitable country in what is now the Qaeanbeyaa district. Be was Jed by a black gin to Duntroon Plains, and chose the spot where the Military College now stands on the Canberra city site. The property was called Duntroon, after the family's estate in ArgylWhlre, Scotland. The aboriginal name for Duntroon is Pialigo, and the district i» still so called by many people. Ainslie managed the property for several years, and grew wheat. His name is commemorated at Canberra in Mount Ainslie.