Mansfield’s history has been compiled as a part of the BRISbites community history project.
Aboriginal history
The area around Bulimba Creek was a popular hunting and camping ground for Aborigines, who relied on the creek and its surrounding vegetation for food. Bulimba means ‘magpie-lark’ and was the Aboriginal name for Whites Hill.
Aboriginal campsites occurred along the creek’s length and bora rings were located at Murarrie and Belmont. There was also a corroboree ground in Belmont. Both Logan Road and Mount Gravatt-Capalaba Road were probably originally Aboriginal migration tracks.
Urban development
Mansfield is a very new suburb, having been first named in 1967, after the Governor at the time, Sir Alan Mansfield, who lived in the area in the 1950s. For most of the time since white settlement, Mansfield has been primarily rural. Original large land purchasers in the area included Thomas Illidge and Richard Weedon.
Sandstone from the quarry at Wecker and Ham roads was used in the construction of many Brisbane buildings, including City Hall.
Most settlement in the Mansfield area took place after the Second World War. The suburb was gazetted in 1967. In 1973 the Telegraph reported that Mansfield had developed in two distinctive areas: the Cresthaven Estate had smaller, cheaper homes with Aboriginal street names, while Green Meadows Estate provided a ‘better class of home’ overlooking the housing estate.
The area is sometimes referred to as part of the ‘Bible Belt’ because development in the area has been spurred by a high proportion of Christians moving close to the schools and churches here.
Notable residents
In 1925 David Knox went into partnership with Jack Batchen of the ‘Spring Valley’ wool scour in Belmont. Batchen provided the land for the scour, on Bulimba Creek, just south of Cribb Road, and Knox provided the capital for the machinery. In 1928, the partnership was dissolved and Knox and Batchen became David Knox and Sons. Knox built up the largest scour in the area, with separate companies for the wool scour, fellmongery, and tannery. He also bred trotters and trained them on a track adjoining the tannery. His son, Bill, took over from him.
Jack Batchen was born in Sydney in 1888. In World War I he was appointed Inspector of Wool Scours under the federal government’s wool purchase scheme. In 1928, Batchen’s partnership with David Knox was dissolved. In the 1930s Batchen established Bakers scour on Wecker Road, and during the Second World War he supervised scours for the State Wool Company. After the war he managed Gibson’s wool scour at Stafford. A resident of Holland Park, Jack Batchen died in 1955.
Sir Alan Mansfield was born in Brisbane in 1902 and educated in Sydney. He became a lawyer and, after a varied career, including lecturing in bankruptcy law from 1938 to 1940 and representing Australia on the United Nations War Crimes Commission, he was appointed Governor of Queensland and Chancellor of the University of Queensland in 1966. In 1958 he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG). The Mansfield family had land in Gumdale and Sir Alan lived in the Mount Gravatt area for many years.
Thomas Weedon and his five children migrated to Moreton Bay in 1863 and settled near Doboy Creek. His mother, two sisters, and brother, Richard, followed in 1866 and moved to Cannon Hill where Richard Weedon had bought 120 acres [48.6 hectares] of land between Wynnum and Junction roads. He also owned extensive landholdings in other areas, including 165 acres [66.8 hectares] at Mansfield. In 1894 Richard Weedon died and Cannon Hill House was sold the following year.
Landmarks
Bulimba Creek forms most of the eastern boundary of the Parish of Bulimba. Originally the creek was called Moreill Creek. Although first referred to as Bulimba Creek in 1888, by 1940 it was known as Doughboy Creek (the spelling later changed to Doboy).
The mouth of the creek was originally at Bridge Point, but since construction of the Doboy River wall, it flows out to the east of Gibson Island. 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 Mount 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 Mount 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 of the creek.
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 obtained licences 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 Bulimba Creek in the 1950s when it was pure. In 1967, the Brisbane City Council announced the Bulimba Creek Park scheme and began buying and restoring land along the creek.
Broadwater and Yandina (‘walk’) Picnic Grounds were established as part of the Bulimba Creek Park Scheme in 1967, near the junction of the two branches of Bulimba Creek. In 1979 the Australian Littoral Society planted council trees along the creek at Yandina Picnic Ground. This was an attempt to restore the remnant riverine rainforest, which was a part of the large tract of rainforest known as the Belmont Scrub.
Growth in Mansfield was rapid after the development of the Cresthaven Estate. Swelling population put extra pressure on Mount Gravatt East and Mount Gravatt South State Schools. In 1969 the District Inspector investigated and reported that a school would soon be needed in the Mansfield area. The school was opened on 27 January1970, but the day was not without drama. The new principal, Mr De Bruyn had not been given the keys so the children had to be enrolled from the car park.
Reference: BRISbites, 2000
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