Before Forest Lake
Vicki Mynott
The land that became Forest Lake was known as Archerfield Station from the 1880s, and in the mid-1980s it was marketed as Woodlands. It was then the last big undeveloped land parcel in the City of Brisbane.
Such a huge property could only be owned by rich individuals or large companies, and some big names in Queensland history had links to Archerfield. Explorer grazier Michael Durack, brewer Patrick Perkins and Premier entrepreneur Sir Thomas McIlwraith were all involved with Archerfield Station in the 1800s. From 1940, timber merchants Hancock Brothers owned the property.
During World War II, Archerfield was assumed by the Federal Government to allow the US Army to establish one of the largest ordnance depots in the South West Pacific.
Since 1876, cattle, horses, coal, tobacco and timber were tried in a small way, but the property never made money. It was only from 1990, with the Forest Lake project, that Archerfield at last became a commercial success.
The story ends with memories of some of the earliest residents of Forest Lake – people who were here before 1994, when the opening of the Lake confirmed the transformation from Archerfield Station to the urban community that is Forest Lake today.
This record of the early history of the Forest Lake area includes photos, detailed maps, contemporary newspaper items and a chapter on the evidence of traditional Aboriginal presence in the region.