Mount Ainslie
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Mount Ainslie is a hill with an elevation of Template:Convert Template:AHD<ref name=peak/> that is located in the northeastern suburbs of Canberra, in the Australian Capital Territory, Australia. Mount Ainslie lies within part of the Canberra Nature Park.
Cultural significanceEdit
According to the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people, Mount Ainslie is a sacred place primarily for women’s business. Mount Ainslie and adjacent Galambary (Black Mountain) are referred to as women’s breasts.Template:Cn
Current community usage includes opportunities for wildlife spotting along the network of walking and fire trails in the nature park, notably grey kangaroos and gang-gang cockatoos. There is a heritage "Heroes Path" linking the Australian War Memorial with the summit, marked by signs and plaques describing the difficult campaign along the Kokoda Track during WW2. Regular community sporting events include the "Mount Ainslie Run-Up"<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and Mount Ainslie parkrun, held every Saturday morning along the bush trails marking the western edge of the nature park. <Ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Location and featuresEdit
Mount Ainslie borders on the inner suburbs of Template:ACTcity, Template:ACTcity and Template:ACTcity and is named in honour of James Ainslie, a 19th-century settler who was the overseer on Template:ACTcity, a large property in the area.<ref name="White1954">Template:Cite book</ref>
The Mount Ainslie tourist outlook, one of Canberra's most popular,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> provides excellent views of central Canberra and Template:ACTcity to the south and Black Mountain to the west, especially towards sunset. According to an article written in 1922, this outlook "will afford an ever changing bird's eye and panoramic picture of the city's buildings and beauty spots, as well as of the lovely plains that run to join the Yass Plains on the north."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> An air beacon located at the summit is part of the national capital's air navigation system guiding air traffic towards the nearby Canberra Airport.
A walking trail which leads from the back of the Australian War Memorial, called the Mount Ainslie Kokoda summit trail, is well maintained with steps and is paved. The trail is used by around 200 people each day.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> It has a number of plaques commemorating the battles fought in World War II in the Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea, with the plaques set out as though it was on the Kokoda Trail.<ref name="Inglis2008">Template:Cite book</ref> A quarry is located around Template:Convert from the peak.<ref name="Owen1987">Template:Cite book</ref>
Mount Ainslie is the northernmost point of a land axis, planned by Walter Burley Griffin,<ref name="GriffinWatson1998">Template:Cite book</ref> that stretches through North and South Canberra. This axis takes in the Australian War Memorial and the old and new Parliament Houses. In 1912, Burley won the international design competition for the capital and called the area an "irregular amphitheatre". The design included his wife's inputs, and thus the view from the summit of Mount Aisle was named as Marion Mahony Griffin in 2013.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Summit design competitionEdit
In 2016 the ACT Government and the National Capital Authority ran a design competition for, with the aim to produce a ten-year strategy for the Mount Ainslie summit.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The competition winners were Sue Barnsley and Jane Irwin, who proposed new parking, signage, picnic areas, lawns and plantings.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
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