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Sunnybank

History of Brisbane's Sunnybank

Sunnybank's history has been compiled as a part of the BRISbites community history project.

Aboriginal history

The Jagara people occupied most of the land south of the Brisbane River and Sunnybank would have been the territory of the Chepara clan of Eight Mile Plains. Many years ago a collection of skulls was found in the region and it was presumed at the time that they came from an Aboriginal burial ground.

The rolling hills of Sunnybank provided plentiful game for the original inhabitants of the area. The marshland near Bulimba Creek was a haven for water birds and the 'imboon' or 'jumbun', a bullrush. The Aborigines would strip the roots and chew them. Yimbun Park was named after these. It was rumoured that the fig tree in the grounds of Magnolia Cottage was the site of a dancing or bora ring.

The Aborigines remained in the Sunnybank area for many years after white occupation of Moreton Bay. There was a camp on Bulimba Creek where Beenleigh Road crosses it. The Sirett family came to the region in 1886 and remembered the Aborigines coming to their house at Agnes Street, asking for tea, sugar and 'backy'.

Urban development

The first white settlers in the Sunnybank region were convict groups who were building a road between Brisbane and Ipswich and camping at Coopers Plains. They built the track from McCullough Road to the coast including a bridge over Bulimba Creek.

The area was thoroughly explored by Governor Logan and it was probably due to his comments that it was developed as an agricultural area. Initially the district was exploited for timber but in 1861 Governor Bowen proclaimed the Brisbane (later the Eight Mile Plains) Agricultural Reserve, which included Sunnybank and several other suburbs.

The land was first divided after the railway line went through in 1885. Elizabeth Winter and W. McCullough were the major purchasers in the area. Sugar cane was grown along Bulimba Creek and the area soon became an agricultural centre, with tropical fruits and small crops, as well as poultry farms and nurseries.

After World War I the district was surveyed into quarter acre blocks for soldiers' housing but it was not popular and they were resurveyed into ten acre farm blocks. By the 1920s the area was primarily dairy and poultry farms and small farms with market crops. A 1922 military map shows about thirty houses in the Sunnybank area - mainly strung out along McCullough Road or near the station. The area was still best known for its fruit growing. In 1930 between 5,000 and 7,000 bushels of papaws were sent to the markets from Sunnybank. During the 1940s and 1950s Sunnybank was part of the green belt around Brisbane, which could not be broken up. It remained a rural backwater until the sixties when developers bought up much of the land.

As these blocks were subdivided the population boomed and schools and shopping centres followed. In 1967, Sunnybank had grown so much that it was divided into Sunnybank, Sunnybank Hills, Runcorn, Robertson and Macgregor. By 1980 the rural suburb had almost all been developed for housing.

Notable residents

Mabel Pottinger bought a parcel of land on Turton Street in 1926. In the 1930s she and her two sons, Norman and Lewis, set out to make it a tourist attraction. Lewis planned the gardens and dug the first pool with a pick and shovel. He drilled two bores and a well to draw clear water and convinced the State Tourist Bureau to send busloads of tourists there.

In 1938 the Pottinger family opened ‘The Oasis” - seven acres of subtropical gardens, four swimming pools and rockeries. During the Second World War, Mabel carried on the business while the boys were in New Guinea. There they collected the butterflies that later formed a permanent display. The Oasis was famous for its strict rules - no picnics, no littering, no bare feet or backs, no strapless togs or bikinis. Thousands of Australian, United States and British soldiers visited there during the war and afterwards it remained a popular Brisbane attraction, with up to five thousand visitors daily.

In 1966, the brothers sold the Oasis, but Lewis continued to manage it for another year. Somerville House Girls School later bought it, but sold it again in 1986. In 1989, Miramar bought the land for a housing development, ‘Oasis Gardens Estate’ which opened in 1991.

Samuel and Alison Gillespie migrated from Scotland on the Rajasatan and arrived in Brisbane in 1862. In 1877, Samuel applied to lease forty acres where the Sunnybank Railway Station now stands. They named the farm ‘Sunnybrae’ and went on to have nine children there, including a later alderman of South Brisbane. The railway line was extended from Yeerongpilly to Beenleigh in 1885. Some of the Gillespie land was resumed for the railway line and the station was named after their farm. ‘Sunnybrae’ farm was subdivided for sale in smaller blocks in the 1890s.

Landmarks

‘Seven Trees Holiday Caravan Park’ in Turton Street was reputedly the first caravan park in Brisbane. In 1942 Percy and Beatrice Hetherington rented a house in Young Street and Percy got a job at Archerfield Airport. They parked their plywood caravan in front of their house and rented it to a neighbour for guest accommodation This gave them the idea for a caravan park and they bought 2.75 acres in Turton Street. They cleared and levelled the land by hand and Percy built an amenities block out of iron sheeting which had been part of a shed. They dug a fifty-foot bore by hand and hot water came from drums heated over a fire. They later built a kiosk which sold supplies and drinks. The Hetheringtons sold ‘Seven Trees’ in 1958.

Magnolia Farm was built in 1893 by the O’Brien family. Joshua O’Brien migrated from Ireland with his family and bought twenty acres of rural land at Sunnybank, where they grew oranges, mangoes and potatoes. Magnolia Farm was built out of slabs that were lined with ant-bed clay and calico, which Mrs. O’Brien painted red and stencilled a frieze on. The house originally had a shingle roof and two rooms, including a kitchen. Later a third room and a detached kitchen/store room were built. The name came from the magnolia trees that were planted beside it.

Sunnybank State School opened in 1959, with an enrolment of 104 boys and 95 girls. The school building had five classrooms and a staff room. By 1962 there were 538 pupils and an extra six classrooms were built. The High School opened in 1963.

Bulimba Creek - Bulimba means ‘magpie-lark’ and was the aboriginal name for White’s Hill. Originally the creek was called Moreill Creek but by 1840 it was known as Doughboy Creek. In 1888 it was first referred to as Bulimba Creek. The creek is tidal for one third of its length. The catchment includes numerous smaller creeks and covers about 122 square kilometres. One branch of Bulimba Creek rises in the Kuraby Hills, while the other (Mimosa Creek) begins in the Mt Gravatt foothills. Downstream from where they meet at Rochedale are a series of waterholes and the creek flows through some remnant bush, between Pine Mountain and Mt Petrie and into the wide flat floodplain area of Tingalpa and Murarrie. The main channel and surrounding lands have been greatly modified, particularly near the mouth.

Aborigines relied on the creek and its surrounding vegetation for food. Campsites occur along its length and bora rings, were located at Murarrie and Belmont. After settlement timber getters got licenses to fell timber in the forests along the creek. Settlement along the creek was mainly agricultural and light industrial until after the Second World War. Belmont and Tingalpa residents remember swimming in it in the 1950s when it was pure. In 1967, Brisbane City Council announced the Bulimba Creek Park scheme and began buying and restoring land along the creek.

Reference: Mary Howells, BRISbites, 2000

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