Jerrabomberra, New South Wales
| Jerrabomberra Queanbeyan, New South Wales | |||||||||||||||
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| Population | 8746 (2006) | ||||||||||||||
| Established | 1988 | ||||||||||||||
| Postcode(s) | 2619 | ||||||||||||||
| LGA(s) | Queanbeyan | ||||||||||||||
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Jerrabomberra (35°22′S 149°12′E / 35.367°S 149.200°E) is a suburb of Queanbeyan in south eastern New South Wales, Australia. Jerrabomberra consists of four parts, The Park, The Heights, Lakeview and North Terrace. The Park and the Heights are divided by Edwin Land Parkway and North Terrace is next to The Heights on the lower north-west side of Mount Jerrabomberra. Jerrabomberra is derived from the local Aboriginal place name meaning ‘boy frightened by storm’.
In 1987, Jerrabomberra Estate Ltd, with Perth Millionaire Kerry Stokes as a major shareholder, began developing Palmer’s original land for housing. The first serviced blocks in stage one of the residential release at Jerrabomberra were released in February 1988, ranging in price from $28,000 to $39,000. The new suburb of Jerrabomberra has grown from a resident population of 8 in 1828 to over 6000 at the 2001 census. Jerrabomberra was established with the construction of the first homes in 1988, followed shortly after by the construction of the community centre hall. Jerrabomberra now boasts many community amenities such as four tennis courts, a post office, primary school, bed and breakfast, gym, a Scout group, a lake and various other facilities. Many people in Jerrabomberra work in nearby Queanbeyan but most work in the national capital, Canberra.
Jerrabomberra has a shopping centre which contains a Woolworths, Video Ezy, Bakers Delight, hairdresser, Asian restaurant called "The Jerra," and various other boutique stores. On the same block of land as this shopping centre there is a pub and a Woolworths service station that opened in late 2005. On 25 February 2006 Jerrabomberra's General Store was burnt down, no other shops were affected despite the extensive damage. On the 6 June 2006 extensive rebuilding of the roof of said store was carried out and the store had its iron sheet roof reinstalled on 20 June of that year.
The suburb falls within the Federal division of Eden-Monaro, a Liberal seat. The Federal Member is Gary Nairn, Special Minister for State, who himself lives in Jerrabomberra. It is part of the State Seat of Monaro and is a Labor seat, held by Steve Whan. Jerrabomberra is also represented by an active residents association (JRA) est. Oct 1990. The Jerrabomberra Residents Association Inc. (JRA) endeavours to represent the interests of the Jerrabomberra community at the local, state and federal level in relation to issues directly affecting the Jerrabomberra community.
Geographical Aspects
The Heights is mainly situated on the base of Jerrabomberra Mountain. This mountain divides most of Jerrabomberra from Queanbeyan on the north east and North Terrace on the North West. The Park is situated on the plain to the south. This urban area runs down to Jerrabomberra Lake, an artificial lake that drains into Jerrabomberra Creek and is dominated by Cove Island, est 1992, (an artificial island which consists of eight homes and a central common facility entailing a tennis court, swimming pool and sauna). Then sprawls across Cassina Rise on the South.
Education and Childcare
Jerrabomberra's primary school [1] opened in the year 2002, and now caters for over 710 students K-6. Achieving results above the State average across the curriculum with particular strengths in literacy and numeracy the school is highly regarded and continues to undergo a building expansion program. While some parents choose to send their children to Catholic schools in Queanbeyan and the ACT. Whilst there is no high school within Jerrabomberra the default government school is Karabar High, in Karabar, Queanbeyan. However, the majority of children of high school age go to public or private schools across the border, particularly St Edmund's College - Boys, and Merici College - Girls. Jerrabomberra has one day care/ pre school named ABC Learning Centre.