Algester is a southern
suburb in the
City of Brisbane
The City of Brisbane is a local government area (LGA) which comprises the inner portion of the metropolitan area of Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, Australia. Its governing body is the Brisbane City Council. Unlike LGAs in the other mainlan ...
,
Queensland
)
, nickname = Sunshine State
, image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, establishe ...
, Australia.
In the , Algester had a population of 8,433 people.
Geography
Algester is south-west of the central business district. The suburbs of Algester, Calamvale and now Parkinson, sit on the southern border or boundary of the City of Brisbane
The City of Brisbane is a local government area (LGA) which comprises the inner portion of the metropolitan area of Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, Australia. Its governing body is the Brisbane City Council. Unlike LGAs in the other mainlan ...
local government area with suburbs of Logan City
Logan City is a local government area situated within the south of the Brisbane metropolitan area in South East Queensland, Australia. Situated between the City of Brisbane to the north and the City of Gold Coast to the south, the City als ...
such as Browns Plains and Regents Park.
The suburb's name is a corruption of the name of the English town of "Alcester
Alcester () is a market town and civil parish of Roman origin at the junction of the River Alne and River Arrow in the Stratford-on-Avon District in Warwickshire, England, approximately west of Stratford-upon-Avon, and 7 miles south of Reddit ...
". Briefly in the mid-to-late-1970s the suburb was colloquially named Ridgewood Heights after the Ridgewood Heights property development that then made up most of its land area, but had officially been known as Algester from 1972.
History
Algester was detached from Acacia Ridge and named in 1972, after the main road in the district. The road's name dates from about 1910 when a local family formed it and gave it the name 'Alcester', after an English town.
In 1968, Leighton Properties planned a suburban estate with the proposed name of 'Ridgewood Heights'. Whilst the estate's main access route retains that name, the Queensland Place Names Board, substituted 'Algester' in 1972. During this time, Algester Road and Dalmeny
Dalmeny ( gd, Dùn Mheinidh, IPA: t̪uːnˈvenɪʝ is a village and civil parish in Scotland. It is located on the south side of the Firth of Forth, southeast of South Queensferry and west of Edinburgh city centre. It lies within the tradit ...
Street were connected as non-sealed roads and the only thoroughfare into the suburb, which was then still virgin bushland. Dalmeny Street ended at the first house to be built in the suburb known then as Lot 22 (now numbered as 133). These early residents were exposed to the abundance of native Australian flora and fauna, before development in the mid-1970s. Algester was heavily developed from the mid-1970s and has also seen considerable recent development. It forms part of the Brisbane Agricultural Reserve, which once covered a large area of southern Brisbane.
Algester State School opened on 24 January 1977 with a student population of about 200.
In 1977, the Anglican Church of the Holy Spirit began with a small congregation meeting at the library of the Algester State School. In 1979 land was purchased in Algester Road and a kit home was built for a rectory with the first service being conducted on 21 October 1979 and the first baptism on 4 November 1979. In 1980 St Alban's Anglican Church at Acacia Ridge
Acacia Ridge is a southern suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , Acacia Ridge had a population of 7,429 people. Geography
Acacia Ridge is south of the central business district. It is within the local government are ...
was decommissioned and the church building relocated to the Algester Road site to be used as a parish hall. The Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane
The Archbishop of Brisbane is the diocesan bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane, Australia, and '' ex officio'' metropolitan bishop
In Christian churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan ...
, John Grindrod, laid the foundation stone for the new church building on 4 July 1981 with the first service being held in the church on 9 August 1981 with its official dedication on 18 October conducted again by John Grindrod. All debts having been paid, Archbishop Peter Hollingworth
Peter John Hollingworth (born 10 April 1935) is an Australian retired Anglican bishop. Engaged in social work for several decades, he served as the archbishop of the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane in Queensland for 11 years from 1989 and was the ...
consecrated the new church on 29 May 1993.
The Islamic Society of Algester began in 1990 as the population of Moslems grew in southern Brisbane. In 1997 an old house was purchased to use as a mosque and community centre at 48 Learoyd Road. It has continued to acquire adjacent land amassing where it will build a purpose-built mosque costing $4.5 million.
St Stephen's Catholic Primary School opened on 26 January 2004 on a site offering Prep to Year 3, extending each year until the full range of Prep to Year 6 was on offer.
In the , Algester had a population of 7,368 people.
In July 2007, a major leak of an oil pipeline resulted in the forced evacuation of residents in Algester.
In the , Algester recorded a population of 8,262 people, 51.3% female and 48.7% male. The median age of the Algester population was 34 years, 3 years below the national median of 37. 58.5% of people living in Algester were born in Australia, compared to the national average of 69.8%; the next most common countries of birth were New Zealand 7.1%, England 4%, China 2.9%, Philippines 1.8%, India 1.5%. 70.9% of people spoke only English at home; the next most popular languages were 4% Mandarin, 2.2% Cantonese, 1.2% Spanish, 0.9% Hindi, 0.8% Vietnamese.
In the , Algester had a population of 8,433 people.
Education
Algester State School is a government primary (Prep-6) school for boys and girls at 19 Endiandra Street (). In 2017, the school had an enrolment of 990 students with 68 teachers (61 full-time equivalent) and 39 non-teaching staff (24 full-time equivalent). It includes a special education
Special education (known as special-needs education, aided education, exceptional education, alternative provision, exceptional student education, special ed., SDC, or SPED) is the practice of educating students in a way that accommodates th ...
program.[
St Stephen's School is a Catholic primary (Prep-6) school for boys and girls at 156 Ridgewood Road ().] In 2017, the school had an enrolment of 510 students with 33 teachers (30 full-time equivalent) and 18 non-teaching staff (11 full-time equivalent).[
There is no secondary school in Algester. The nearest government secondary school is ]Calamvale Community College
Calamvale is a southern suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , Calamvale had a population of 17,124 people.
Geography
The suburb is loosely bounded to the north by Beaudesert Road and Compton Road, to the east by Gowa ...
in neighbouring Calamvale to the east.
Amenities
The Anglican Church of the Holy Spirit is at 362 Algester Road (), now within Calamvale.
Notable people
*Karmichael Hunt
Karmichael Neil Matthew Hunt (born 17 November 1986) is a former multi-code international rugby league footballer who last played for the Brisbane Broncos in the NRL.
Having played professional rugby league, rugby union and Australian rules ...
, Brisbane Broncos
The Brisbane Broncos Rugby League Football Club Ltd., commonly referred to as the Broncos, is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in April 1987, the Broncos play in Australia's elite c ...
fullback
* Kym Tollenaere, Australian softball catcher
See also
* List of Brisbane suburbs
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
{{Suburbs of Brisbane City Council
Suburbs of the City of Brisbane