Mount Taylor (Australian Capital Territory)
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This article is about the location in Australia. For the location in Florida, see Mount Taylor (Florida). For the location in New Mexico, see Mount Taylor.
Mount Taylor is a prominent hill located between the Woden Valley, Weston Creek district and Tuggeranong Valley, in Canberra, Australia. Mount Taylor is part of the Canberra Nature Park. The hill is 856 metres above sea level. It is surrounded by the suburbs of Kambah, Fisher, Waramanga, Chifley, Pearce, and Torrens. There is a walking track to the peak but no road access.
Mount Taylor was named after James Taylor, an early squatter in the district prior to 1829. An early map entitled 'Survey of part of the Morombidgee and Country South of Lake George' by Surveyor White shows Taylor's huts close to the site of Yarralumla homestead. Taylor was a son in law of Colonel George Johnston who commanded the New South Wales Corps which deposed Governor William Bligh during the Rum Rebellion of 1808 (Moore, p. 6).
Mount Taylor is listed on the Register of the National Estate as the most prominent landmark in southern Canberra, and together with nearby Oakey Hill, Wanniassa Hills and Isaacs Ridge, is valued as a key part of the landscape of Canberra. It contains one of the most significant populations known of the nationally endangered Pink-tailed Legless Lizard Aprasia parapulchella and a nationally endangered plant, the Small Purple-pea Swainsona recta. It also provides examples of two nationally endangered communities - Eucalyptus melliodora -E blakelyi woodland community, and the lowland temperate grassland community - plus a regionally significant vegetational transitional stage, between dry sclerophyll forest and woodland [1].
A Mount Taylor park care group was established in 1989. It assists in weed removal, monitors the bird population and provides guides to the reserve. Over 85 species of birds have been identified on the hill and nearby.
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- Department of the Environment and Heritage. Australian Heritage Database, retrieved 3 July 2006.
- Moore, B. (1982). The Lanyon Saga. Moore, ACT ISBN 0-9594649-2-1
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