Acton is an inner city suburb of the nation's capital, Canberra, in the Australian Capital Territory. It is best known as the address of the Australian National University (ANU), one of the nation's leading tertiary institutions. Acton largely houses the ANU campus, and related residences.

The Canberra region was inhabited by the Walgalu and Ngunawal Aboriginal people before the mid-nineteenth century, with European settlement in the area. Lake George, north east of Canberra was first reached by white explorers in 1820. That same year, Charles Throsby, Joseph Wild and James Vaughan sighted the "Limestone Plains", the present day Canberra.

It appears that Throsby's further discovery of the Murrumbidgee River in 1821, rendered the region a most attractive pastoral district. Governor Macquarie immediately awarded ex-convict Peter Cooney, the first land grant in the area in 1821. Although the first permanent settlement within the Canberra limits is believed to be "Canberry Station", of Lieutenant Joshua Moore. By 1824, Lieutenant Moore's cattle and sheep occupied a run upon the Acton peninsula. In 1843 the suburb received its name from Lieutenant Arthur Jeffries, after a Denbighshire town.

The unification of the colonial states culminating in Australian Federation in 1901 was the major factor promoting the development of the Canberra region. Although the choice of Canberra as the site of the national capital was delayed by initial inter state rivalry between New South Wales and Victoria, and further indecision on the part of the New South Wales Government. After much deliberation the site was announced in 1908, and the National Capital was transferred from New South Wales the following year.

The Federal Government announced an international competition for the design of the national capital, and the successful entry was declared in 1912 as that of Chicago architect Walter Burley Griffin. Griffin's original proposal included a site marked "for university purposes". With the creation of the Australian National University in 1946, Griffins proposal was realised upon the specified site of the suburb of Acton. Upon an expanse of 145 hectares, the ANU attracts students and academics internationally, for both its academic excellence, and its impeccably preserved native park land alike.

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