Our Regional History

Our Region

How was “our region” determined?
RIHG was established in 1996. The group’s “area of interest” was influenced by these facts:

• Richlands was once deemed to be part of Darra.
• Older suburbs Darra and Wacol are equidistant from Richlands – and both provided services and employment for the local community.
• The entrance to Archerfield Station – which stretched from Carole Park /Wacol to Pallara/ Oxley Creek from the 1870s – was on Richlands’ southern border (Archerfield and Government Roads).
• No other history groups covered these areas – which were then largely bush.
• Thus our region stretches from the Brisbane River (at Wacol) to Oxley Creek (at Pallara).

Our “borders”

Waterways, highways and railways often limit or block local movement and so become borders. RIHG borders reflect this.
The Brisbane River forms our western border. Our eastern border is formed by Oxley Creek in the north and the Brisbane-Sydney railway in the south.
Our southern border is effectively the Logan Motorway – which virtually separates municipal Brisbane from Ipswich and Logan City councils.
To the north our interests often overlap with those of the Oxley-Chelmer and Centenary Suburbs history groups, with whom we share much early history.

First explorers and Last settlers

This region of south-west Brisbane can claim to be part of the earliest written history of Queensland. In 1823, John Oxley landed on the western edge of our region (at Wacol) on his trip of “discovery” up the Brisbane River.

Soon after, more explorers are recorded – this time on the eastern edge of the region (at Willawong). In 1828, the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement commandant Patrick Logan camped in our area with botanists Cunningham and Fraser: their diaries record the site as being near Oxley Creek, Willawong.
Conversely, our region also includes some of the last land in Brisbane to be settled. Several of our communities – such as Forest Lake – were first developed in the last 30-50 years. A few areas are still bush. Much of the region is still in flux, as urbanisation is overtaking what was largely a sparsely settled, semi-rural district on the fringes of Brisbane.