South East Queensland is growing rapidly with new suburbs being added to the postal delivery routes but there are also many old suburbs which are no more. The places, the homes and the people are still there but the names have been wiped off the maps.
According to Australia Post, these places ‘do not compute’ – they have no post code and are no longer part of official addresses.
If you are new to Brisbane it can be hard to find evidence these places ever existed but we've managed to uncover some of the lost suburbs of our city…Let us know if you remember any others.
Suburb names lost to history
Ashgrove has swallowed the smaller communities of St John’s Wood, Rainworth and Dorrington although many parts of the community still bear those names, eg Rainworth State School, Dorrington Park and St Johns Wood Scout Group. In fact, these names seem to be in such common use that they may not be lost at all (except in the post).
Wooloowin ate Kalinga.
Ekibin and Wellers Hill are now simply part of Tarragindi.
Queensport used to be near Murarrie.
Myrtletown became Pinkenba.
Who remembers Priors Pocket? It is now part of Moggill.
Nashville isn’t just in Tennessee, it’s now part of Brighton. And Clapham is best found in London these days, not near Moorooka.
Galloway’s Hill became Hawthorne, Ironside became St Lucia and Bindha became part of Banyo.
Ithaca and Normanby are now simply Red Hill.
The suburb of Fruitgrove suggests a productive past for the area now known as Runcorn.
Torwood only exists in Victoria, not the suburb near Auchenflower anymore.
These places are train stations but not officially suburbs anymore:
- Doomben
- Eagle Junction
- Grovely
- Oxford Park
- Lindum
- Fruitgrove
- Banoon
- Altandi
- Bindha
- Mayne railway yard
But one move in the opposite direction is that Teneriffe is now officially a suburb, declaring independence from New Farm.
A Brisbane history website writes about even older suburbs such as Thorroldtown, Mowbraytown, O’Connelltown and Boggo District.
If you’ve got memories of long-lost suburbs please share your thoughts and recollections.
