Moggill, Queensland

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Moggill, one of Brisbane's western suburbs, is about 18 kilometres from the CBD. It comprises a mixture of small-lot and acreage residential homes along with a small number of remaining farms.

[edit] History

The Brisbane River and Moggill Creek were rich in resources and evidence of Aboriginal occupation includes Bora grounds near the Moggill Pony Club and O'Brien Road, another Bora ring is located near Kangaroo Gully Road.

John Oxley the first European visitor, named it Termination plains he landed in the Priors' Pocket area. In 1848 a profitable coal mine owned by John Williams, commenced operation.^[1]The first survey of Moggill was in 1851, with a township planned in the vicinity of Weekes Rd, however it was later established near the present school. A cemetery was established in 1865, the Moggill State School opened a year later starting as a two room schoolhouse and remaining that way until 1970 when the area started expanding rapidly.

At about this time Moggill was divided into three suburbs, the other two were named Anstead and Bellbowrie The name of the creek is derived from 'Magil', an Aboriginal word meaning water dragon. The ferry crossing of the Brisbane River was motorised in the 1940s under the joint control of the Ipswich and Brisbane City Councils, and still operates today. The Moggill Country Club was established in the 1960s. It is one of the oldest sporting and social clubs in the area.

After 2004, the traditional Moggill pineapple farms, situated on the rich red clay soils around Witty Rd and Priors Pocket Rd, began to be subdivided for housing. There was vocal opposition to the subdivision from Moggill residents, who wished to preserve the rural amenity of the area with larger block sizes. In spite of this, the average block size of the new estates is around 700 square metres.