Pialligo
Pialligo, where Kerrison's Orchard is located, is a semi-rural area barely 5 kilometres from Australia's Parliament House.
It is one of the earliest European-settled areas of Australia. Robert Campbell settled in Pialligo in 1825 - only 38 years after the arrival of the First Fleet in Sydney (and 13 years before Queanbeyan was established). Robert Campbell was a merchant and a politician - a member of the first NSW Legislative Council. He named his property Duntroon after his family estate in Scotland.
In 1911 the property became the site of the Royal Military College - (established on the recommendation of Lord Kitchener).
In the 1930s, under the Burley Griffin plan, land was released in Pialligo for small horticultural enterprises to serve Canberra. (Griffin talked about 'truck farms').
Today Pialligo has orchards, retail nurseries, vineyards, horses, peacocks. Few residents and no kerbs or gutters. Lots of birds - a pleasant place to live (and to visit - tens of thousands of people from Canberra and elsewhere come to Pialligo every year). For more history see: The Early History of the ACT
Growing Apples
Customers often ask us about growing and caring for apple trees. Click on Grow Your Own for what we tell them.
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