Building Canberra in the 1970s: Beaumont Close, Chapman

Canberra was a rapidly growing city in the nineteen-seventies. The suburb of Chapman (named after an early federal politician) was the last part of the satellite town of Weston Creek to be developed. It was evidently planned as an upmarket area, for luxury homes that would benefit from its broad views over the city. These four photographs were taken between 1974 and 1977 from roughly the same vantage point in what became Beaumont Close.

This photograph, taken early in 1974, looks across the existing (but recent) suburbs of Holder (left) and Weston (right) towards Black Mountain.

This view, dated 2 March 1974, looks towards the Murrumbidgee escarpment and the Tidbinbillas. It was taken from a track behind what would become Beaumont Close.

A somewhat scruffy tree marks Beaumont Close. The road has been laid out but building has yet to commence.

Three years later, early in 1977, the first homes surround the tree, but the roadway has not yet been completed.

In 2024, real estate agents describe Chapman as a suburb favoured by diplomats. Properties in Beaumont Close sell for over $2 million.