Last updated 3Jun26

Dungarvon

The Dungarvon site is located in the south-eastern corner of the Mulligans Flat Nature Reserve near the Bustard Gate in the Canberra Nature Park.

Location: GR 55H FB 98715-5806 (MGA94), Hall 8727-4S 1:25000


Site of ‘Dungarvon’, October 2009

Visits: 30 May 26, 23 Mar 22, 5 Feb 22, 25 Jan 22, 7 Nov 19, 10 Oct 09

Photographs are available.

Documentation:

• National Trust of Australia brochure A Heritage Tour of Gungahlin: . P2  “Just below the slope leading to the border fence are the remains of an orchard, stone footings and fence posts. These are the remnants of ‘Dugarvon’, a small homestead, owned by Walter Ginn who farmed the area.”

• In A Short History of Gungahlin by Canberra Archaeological Society Inc, by Helen Cooke March 2010, p33:
Dungarvon
Walter Ginn was one of three settlers who selected land near Dungarvon Waterholes in Mulligan’s
Flat in 1858. Walter was the son of William and Mary Ginn; he came to Australia with his parents in
1857. A bachelor with significant other land holdings in Mulligan’s Flat, he built ‘Dungarvon’ a small
homestead on the slope just below the ACT/NSW border fence in about 1886 but had probably
already been living there for some years.

Weather conditions could make or break small farmers but after several years of drought, 1867 was a bumper year for Walter Ginn.

Walter died unmarried in 1925 and although ‘Dungarvon’ was on the 1915 Federal Capital map,
it had apparently been in ruins most of the twentieth century. The ruin is about 1km along the
Old Coach Road, beside a small dam. Only a few bricks and some large field stones remain beside
a rectangular mound of earth, indicating that a chimney once stood at the eastern end of the
structure. Bricks with a cigar shaped frog are said to have been made at a nearby kiln.

An apple tree 6m from the north-east corner of the mound is still alive and next to it a small thicket
of quince trees. These may bear fruit in good years, but you will be lucky if you beat the birds and
kangaroos to the produce.

• Did we find the homestead site on 30May26? There were certainly bricks with a cigar shaped frog. Or was it the kiln area?

• Comment from Richard M of Canberra Archaeological Society:
“I am unfamiliar with the site but these bricks appear unusual with their particular, shaped frogs.  Without visiting the site I could not speculate with any great confidence on whether they are from a fireplace of Ginn’s or relate to a kiln nearby in which these bricks and others may have been made.

Given the sharpness of the edges of most of the bricks they do seem quite highly fired as you might expect either in bricks used to construct a kiln or a fireplace where they would be subject to high temperatures and so stressed, certainly regularly, in the latter case, and possibly explaining why they are so broken.
However, only one (partial) brick appears (in the photo of the brick scatter) to have suffered any burning. This could have come from the brick facing the kiln fire or on the interior of the fireplace. As I can see little other evidence of burning on the bricks, my guess is that they are from a fireplace chimney as most bricks in this location would not have been subject to burning – it would only have been those in and near the hearth that would’ve been burnt, whereas in a kiln itself particularly near the fireboxes, where the heat would’ve been higher and so affected the bricks more widely and intensely.
Additionally, bricks made in an informal, bush kiln, probably a temporary, clamp style, could probably not be fired as high as these bricks seem to be, and given the hut appears to be quite close to a track, perhaps the bricks were brought from elsewhere and not fired in the vicinity of the hut. Was there an obviously exploited clay source/pit nearby?”