Gordon Shannon

Descendent of the Kaye family who lived and farmed on both Klensendorlffe and what is now Springbank Island
Born: 1932, Canberra
Interview: December 2013

“My name is Gordon Shannon and my interest in Acton derives from the fact that my great grandparents, Joseph and Eliza Kaye, took up residence at Springbank in 1844. They were forced off following floods and an infestation of snakes in 1852. After a short sojourn in Queanbeyan, they relocated to Klensendorlffe (the homestead was located in what is now Lennox Gardens) in 1854 until they retired in 1889, leaving their third son Charles to manage the farm.

In 1892 Charles married Letitia Maria Rose Sandford who had arrived in Canberra a year earlier from England as a companion to Mrs Arthur Brassey. The Brassey family took up residence at Acton House. Charles and Letitia had 10 children and my mother (Letty Emily) was born in 1898.

From 1913, pieces of their land were progressively resumed for sites for development of the new National Capital. Two such sites were for the Hotel Canberra and the Albert Hall. Eventually, in 1924 the Kaye family returned to Springbank where they and their descendants continued to farm until 1962 when they were forced to vacate to allow for the development of Lake Burley Griffin.

I was born in 1932 in Canberra and, from my earliest childhood memories, Sunday visits to Springbank were regular events. To get to Springbank we travelled through Acton via the Lennox Crossing low-level bridge, past the administrative buildings (where both my mother and father had worked), Acton House (where my grandmother had lived), and the racecourse, sporting fields and the golf courses.”