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Ipswich, Queensland

Ipswich is Queensland's oldest provincial city. It is located on the Bremer River 40km west of Brisbane. Today, the city is the fourth largest in Queensland with a population of 135,000. Prior to white settlementment in 1827, the area was occupied by the Yaraga people.

The European history of Ipswich began with the exploration of the Bremer River in 1826 by the commandant of the Brisbane convict settlement, Captain Patrick Logan. Logan discovered hills of limestone along the banks of the Bremer, and relocated an overseer and 5 convicts there to mine the lime and erect a lime-burning kiln. The number of convicts grew, and the camp also took to grazing sheep. Logan called the settlement Limestone Hills, and the product of this mining was used to build many early Brisbane buildings. The first free settler arrived in Queensland in 1837, but there was very little free settlement allowed until after 1842 when the penal settlement was closed and the Ipswich area was officially opened to free settlement. The first name for Ipswich was ‘The Limestone Hills’ or ‘The Limestone Station’, the name used in convict days

In 1843, the township was renamed Ipswich by Sir George Gipps, Governor of New South Wales. One possibility is that he remembered what Harry Rous had said when he visited Moreton Bay about 10 years earlier. Harry Rous must also have visited the country near Limestone because he is reputed to have said that it reminded him of the town of Ipswich which was near his home at Stradbroke in England. Maybe Governor Gipps remembered this and picked Ipswich when he wanted a new name instead of a convict name. Governor Gipps might also have liked jokes with words. Ipswich in England is a very old town and it used to be spelled “Gippeswic’ which means Gippi’s Wic or Gippi’s Village. So Ipswich was Gippi’s Village. In other words, Governor Gipps might have named the town after himself. Whatever the reason for its name, by mid 1840s the town had became the main river port for industry on the Darling Downs (first settled in 1840) to the west and the coastal properties to the south

In 1827, Captain Logan recorded the discovery of coal on a track between Brisbane and Ipswich. Despite these early finds, it was not until 1843 that the first coal mine in what is now Queensland was opened at Redbank, near Ipswich, by John Williams. The abundance of coal on the West Moreton fields near Ipswich accelerated the development of southern Queensland. Ipswich boomed in the mid 1850's as a coal mining stronghold for the region, river steamers began a regular service on the Brisbane and Bremer rivers and the settlement was granted municipal status in 1860. By the time Queensland became a separate colony in 1859, annual coal output had reached a little over 5000 tonnes.

In th 1860s, Ipswich suffered the at the hands of mother nature experiencing droughts and floods, and subsequently high unemployment. This was only mitigated by the demand for cotton after the American Civil War, which resulted in a booming cotton growing industry. The first railway line in Queensland was opened in 1865 between Ipswich and Grandchester. The City soon developed woollen mills, a cotton mill, foundaries and timber mills. It was during this period that Ipswich became the transportation gateway to the rural areas of the State's south-east with steam locomotives bringing wool and grain from the Darling Downs to the port of Ipswich, to be loaded on river steamers for Brisbane. As a result, by the end of the 1870's Ipswich was

As coal was required for the increasing number of steam engines employed in boats, trains, mills and works, there was remarkable growth of mining to the north and east of the town from the mid-1870's onwards. Miners swelled the population of the Ipswich area.

By the 1880s, American had regained its economic impetus, so local farmers increasingly turned from cotton to dairy farming. Floods, droughts and severe economic depression also affected the Ipswich area in the early 1890s. Nevertheless Ipswich was partially insulated by its relatively diversified economy.

Ipswich was a city of firsts, apart from the first railway, it was also the location of the first secondary school in Queensland (Ipswich Grammar School built in 1862), the first place to undertake coal mining by underground shafts and after WW2, Queenslands first department store Cribb and Foot, opened in Ipswich. By 1901, the district headed into another period of prosperity including industrial, business and residential growth. The mining impetus was renewed, railways and tramways were laid to tap the coalfields, engineering works opened and meat preservation plants developed. The inter-war years were varied in fortune for Ipswich. Following the disruption of the First World War in 1914-18, the region, like the nation at

During the post-war period of immigration and reconstruction, Ipswich got back onto its feet. Progress continued with the development of new collieries and expansion in meat and butter processing, the production of timber products and the introduction of chemical and tobacco manufacture in general, accompanied by a marked growth of industry at Redbank. In 1949 the Moreton field was still the largest producer of coal in Queensland, with 67 small mines yielding 47 percent of the State's output.

By 1960 the railway workshops at north Ipswich employed 2500 people while coalmining engaged 3000 and the woollen mills another 1000. Other major works included sawmills, foundries, brickworks, potteries, printeries, engineering and boilermaking works, plywood and bondwood factories and abattoirs. Agriculture was still important, especially cotton, closely followed by barley, sorghum and wheat. Other crops included maize, lucerne, potatoes, soybeans and onions. None of these crops except barley, which was used locally in the production of malt, were processed in the area. Though little timber remained in the vicinity, other reserves were being used for production purposes. The major joinery, cabinet-making and woollen textile industries were in New South Wales and Victoria, while the engineering and steel fabricating industries supplied the needs of both the southern states and Queensland.

Since the 1960s, Ipswichs fortunes have not fared so when, changes in the Queensland economy have seriously eroded the original base of blue-collar industries such as mining, industry and agriculture. The rail, coal and wool industries have suffered job losses since then, which have not necessarily been replaced with jobs in new and emerging service industries. Ipswich is now developing in new directions. The Ipswich region has more than 2000 heritage-listed homes and a number of historic sites, including the Old Ipswich Court House built in 1862 and St. Mary's Catholic church, the first Cathedral in Queensland, built in 1858.

§ Ipswich Timeline of History
§ Early photographers of Ipswich
§ Ipswich City Council - Heritage