Toowong, Queensland
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| Toowong Brisbane, Queensland | |||||||||||||
 Looking down Sherwood road to the commercial centre of Toowong, with Toowong Village in the background. | |||||||||||||
| Population: | 14,572<ref>ABS Statistics for Toowong</ref> | ||||||||||||
| Postcode: | 4066 | ||||||||||||
| Area: | 5.1 km² | ||||||||||||
| LGA: | Brisbane City Council, Toowong Ward | ||||||||||||
| State District: | Indooroopilly,Mount Coot-tha | ||||||||||||
| Federal Division: | Ryan | ||||||||||||
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Toowong is an inner suburb of Brisbane, Australia which is located 5 km west from of the Brisbane CBD. At the centre of Toowong is a commercial precinct including Toowong Village and several office buildings. The remainder of the suburb is predominantly residential with a mix of medium density dwellings and detached houses.
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[edit] Geography
Toowong is situated between Mount Coot-tha and the Brisbane River and is made up of rolling hills with little true flat land. Since European Settlement most of the land has been cleared for residential and commercial use with the exception of some park land and bushland near the Western Freeway.
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- Street map from Street Directory, MSN Maps and Multimap.
- Satellite image from Google Maps, WikiMapia and Terraserver.
[edit] Attractions
The Brisbane General Cemetery, started in 1866 and formally opened in 1875, is Queensland’s largest cemetery, placed on 437,300 square metres of land. It replaced Brisbane’s first cemetery which was located near Skew Street in the centre of Brisbane under the Suncorp Stadium Site. The cemetery contains a sign posted walk that provides information on various people buried in the cemetery. <ref> Toowong Cemetery Heritage Register</ref>
Brisbane Boys' College is a day boarding school estabished in Clayfield in 1902. In the late twenties it was decided that there were insufficient facilities at the Clayfield location, and the school was moved to Toowong on Moggill Road.
Built in 1986, Toowong Village is an office tower and shopping centre situated at the centre of Toowong. The blue glass office tower is a prominent landmark visible from Toowong and surrounding suburbs. The shopping centre situated on the lower levels of the office tower contains the Toowong Railway Station, Brisbane City Library and the standard mix of retail stores.
Located on Sylvan Road, Toowong Memorial Park is a large park with gum trees, football ovals and a commanding view of the suburb. It was officially opened in 1918 in honour of those who enlisted from the Town of Toowong during the World War I. The park contains the Soldiers' Memorial on top of the hill was dedicated in 1922 and a RSL memorial is located near the Memorial gates on Sylvan Road, and also contains the Western Districts Rugby Football Club and a Basketball centre. Anzac Park is located next to the Western Freeway opposite the Toowong Cemetery. Originally the land was part of the cemetery grounds, but was converted to a rifle range in 1877. At the end of World War I the trees were planted in memory of the men from Toowong. The park land was proposed as a site for the Botanic Gardens, but the construction of the Western Freeway forced the move of the proposed site to its current location closer to Mount Coot-tha. The Mount Coot-tha Botanic Gardens and the Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium are located at the base of Mount Coot-tha.
The Toowong pool, now demolished, was designed along with the Toowong Library by James Birrell, Brisbane City Chief Architect. The Toowong pool was demolished in 2003, with development of apartments on the site planned and due to start development in the near future. The original Toowong Municipal Library was built 1961 on Coronation Drive and was the district library for the western suburbs. The library was designed by Brisbane City Chief Architect James Birell, and the library is one of the few remaining examples of his work.
The original Toowong library, now used as commercial premises, is located on Coronation Drive near the Regatta Hotel. It comprises a two storey library surrounded by trees and landscaped terraces, with cavity brick lower floor, the structure is formed by three intersecting circles. Above this base floor is a ‘floating’ crystalline form with 12 sided polygon (dodecagon) floor plan whose external walls taper outward as they rise and which houses the principal public floor of the library. The external steel wall framing of the upper floor is diagonally braced, and sheeted with plywood panels set within the structural framing and framed with silky oak beading. The library was threatened for closure in 1982 following the opening of a new municipal library at Indooroopilly in 1981. The Toowong Library did in fact close but local residents’ action saw it re-opened in 1983. Alterations were made to the building in 1983 when one of the rooms on the lower floor was acquired for use by the local councillor as a ward office, until 2005. Despite a campaign by local residents to prevent the closure of the library and redevelopment of the library and adjoining swimming pool site, the library was moved to Toowong Village shopping centre in March 2001, and the original building, which is protected by Heritage listing, is now business premises. <ref>Toowong Library Heritage Register</ref>
The workshops and a bus depot of Brisbane Transport is located at the western end of the suburb.
[edit] Transport
Toowong is a major transport node, with almost all bus and train routes passing through Toowong from the western suburbs.
By Train, The Toowong train station on the Ipswich Line is located under Toowong Village.
By Bus, Buses travel along Coronation Drive from the city stopping on Bensen Road and then on towards the University of Queensland, or stop on High Steet outside the Royal Exchange Hotel and continue towards Indooroopilly and other western suburbs.
By Road, Toowong is accessed by Coronation Drive and Milton Road from the north, and by Moggill Road and the Western Freeway to the south and west. The main roads inside Toowong are High Street and Sherwood road.
By City Cat, the Regatta CityCat stop located outside the Regatta Hotel on Coronation Drive allows transport downstream towards the Brisbane CBD and upstream towards the University of Queensland
By Bicycle, Toowong two main bicycle paths, one that starts at Coronation Drive and proceed towards the University of Queensland and the second that again starts from Coronation Drive but runs to and along the Western Freeway.
[edit] Community Groups
The West Toowong Community Association was formed in 1999 by a group of residents concerned about what they saw as increasing inappropriate development in the area. The group soon branched out to protect and develop community activities in the suburb. It has run several campaigns about development in the area including an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the demolition of the James Birrel designed Toowong Pool, and a successful campaign to prevent the construction of a mobile phone relay station tower within a residential area of West Toowong. It was also instrumental in successfully lobbying for the construction of a safe crossing over the Western Freeway at Toowong, which is under community consultation at present. <ref>West Toowong Community Association</ref>
The Vera Street Community Garden was formed in 2005 and operates as a community vegetable growing and creek rehabilitation group. Open to members of the public, it is located within the grounds of Toowong College (entrance via Vera St) on the former site of a Chinese market garden. <ref>Vera Street Community Garden</ref>
[edit] Politics
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Toowong is split between two State government electorial divisions, Indooroopilly and the Mount Coot-tha.
Toowong belongs to the federal government electorial division of Ryan.
[edit] Sport
The West Juniors Australian rules football club has its home ground at Toowong opposite Brisbane Boys College.
[edit] History
In 1861 the McDougall pastoral lease, which extended to Moggill, was broken up and sold. Several early settlers subdivided their blocks, including Richard Drew who named his subdivision the 'Village of Toowong' in 1865. Toowong started developing with the arrival of the Ipswich railway line in 1875. It was originally suburb of detached villas and large yards owned by an elite upper-middle class that worked in the city and socialised with each other. As access to the suburb improved with regular train services the population increased. The Shire of Toowong was created in 1880, in response to a petition from Toowong residents. In 1881 the population numbered 1,275 and seven years later it had almost doubled to 2,230. By 1901 the population numbered around 4,700.
In 1903 the Brisbane Tramways Company built a tram line along Milton Road to service the western side of the suburb. Initially the tram line terminated at the cemetery, but was later extended up Dean Street, to the home of the then Manager of the tram company Joseph Stillman Badger. In 1922, along with the rest of Brisbane's tram system, the line was taken over by the government (see Brisbane Transport.) The tram line closed in December 1962, after the disastrous Paddington tram depot fire.
In 1903 the shire of Toowong was also gazetted as a town and it retained this status until it was subsumed into the City of Greater Brisbane in 1925 (see Brisbane City Council, history of Brisbane.)
[edit] Folklore
Toowong is mentioned in the folksong Brisbane Ladies (c 1891) [1] which begins
- Farewell and adieu to you, Brisbane ladies
- Farewell and adieu, you maids of Toowong
[edit] Notable People
Anatomist and anthropologist Raymond Dart was born in Toowong in 1893. Toowong is the home to Ziggy the bagman, a homeless man who has been a controvertial issue for Brisbane.
[edit] References
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