Forest Lake is an outer south-western suburb 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 ...

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 , Forest Lake had a population of 22,904 people. It was the first Master Planned Community within the City of Brisbane.

Geography

Forest Lake was considered instrumental in the creation of

affordable housing Affordable housing is housing which is deemed affordable to those with a household income at or below the median as rated by the national government or a local government by a recognized housing affordability index. Most of the literature on af ...

within Australia. The development was the first modern-day community to contain small lot product, a first during its time. The master-planned community contained

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and ...

commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...

educational Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Vari ...

, residential,

retirement Retirement is the withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from one's active working life. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours or workload. Many people choose to retire when they are elderly or incapable of doing their j ...

, and

recreational Recreation is an activity of leisure, leisure being discretionary time. The "need to do something for recreation" is an essential element of human biology and psychology. Recreational activities are often done for enjoyment, amusement, or pleasur ...

uses. The entire community is linked by an extensive network of pedestrian and cycle paths, which are integrated into the large open-spaced network. Forest Lake lies within the

Brisbane City Council Brisbane City Council (BCC) is the democratic executive local government authority for the City of Brisbane, the capital city of the state of Queensland, Australia. The largest City Council in Australia by population and area, BCC's jurisd ...

municipality and is approximately from the

Brisbane central business district Brisbane City is the central suburb and central business district of Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, Australia. It is colloquially referred to as the "Brisbane CBD" or "the city". It is located on a point on the northern bank of the ...

. It adjoins the suburbs of Doolandella, Inala, Richlands and Heathwood. It successfully mixes wildlife with residential development. The Forest Lake Shopping Centre (formerly Forest Lake Village Shopping Centre) is located in Forest Lake.

Villages

The Forest Lake development consists of a series of neighborhoods known as villages. Each village was marketed separately and features an entry statement. These villages are; Woodvale Village, Parkland Village, Homestead Village, Lavender Court, Banksia Village, Pine Village, Lakeside Village, Settlers Village, The Chase, The Woods, Brooklands, Hillbrook Village, The Point, Greentree Pocket, Jetty Walk, Centennial Park, College Park, Creekwood, Creekwood Pocket, Chain of Ponds, Jubilee Crossing, The Cascades, Sanctuary Pocket, Sanctuary Point and The Peninsula. There is also a retirement village called The Terraces and an apartment precinct adjoining the Forest Lake Shopping Centre called Prima on Grand.

The Lake

The centrepiece of Forest Lake is an $8.9 million, 10.9 hectare man-made recreational lake, with a perimeter of . $1.8 million was spent on the dam wall, outlet structure and boulevard embankment. It has an average depth of 2.6 with a 300 to 600 mm around the safety ledge, deepening to 4 metres in the centre. The volume of the lake is 310,000 cubic metres or 269 Olympic sized swimming pools. Surrounding the lake is 3.5 kilometres of pedestrian and cycleways and 8 hectares of adjacent parkland. It was completed and opened in 1994.

History

Forest Lake is situated in the

Yugara The Jagera people, also written Yagarr, Yaggera, and other variants, are the Australian Aboriginal people who spoke the Yuggera language. The Yuggera language which encompassed a number of dialects was spoken by the traditional owners of the te ...

bul traditional

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

country. A homestead was built by Henry Farley in the late 1870s on a site that is now Homestead Park (). It was a substantial building of two-stories and timber construction. In 1881 the homestead and surrounding property were purchased by Michael (Stumpy) Durack. The surrounding area became part of "Archerfield Station". In the 1930s it was destroyed by fire, although it has been said that termites caused a great deal of damage to the structure beforehand. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, there was a command post of the Darra Ordnance Ammunition Depot in the area now Forest Lake. This depot was the largest ordnance depot in the

South West Pacific Area South West Pacific Area (SWPA) was the name given to the Allied supreme military command in the South West Pacific Theatre of World War II. It was one of four major Allied commands in the Pacific War. SWPA included the Philippines, Borneo, the ...

. On 31 August 2005 the Richlands-Inala History Group erected an honour stone in Homestead Park, the site of the command post, commemorating the ammunition depot and the American army camps in Inala and

Wacol Wacol is a suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , Wacol had a population of 3,761 people. Geography Wacol is bounded to the west by the Brisbane River and to the north loosely by Wolston Creek. It is south-west of t ...

nearby. In 1990, construction of the master planned community commenced by Delfin Lend Lease. In 1991, Forest Lake was officially launched by the then

Premier of Queensland The premier of Queensland is the head of government in the Australian state of Queensland. By convention the premier is the leader of the party with a parliamentary majority in the unicameral Legislative Assembly of Queensland. The premier is ap ...

Wayne Goss Wayne Keith Goss (26 February 1951 – 10 November 2014) was Premier of Queensland from 7 December 1989 until 19 February 1996, becoming the first Labor Premier of the state in over thirty two years. Prior to entering politics, Goss was a solic ...

. The development lasted until 2006, when the last block of land was sold. Forest Lake State School opened on 1 January 1994. Forest Lake College (College Avenue Campus) opened in 1994. By 1998 the suburb had 10,100 residents.

The master planned community which was created by Delfin Lend Lease was so successful, that in the latter years of the development, up to 40% of new homes sold were purchased by existing residents. (David Keir, Project Director 1996-2000).

Grand Avenue State School opened on 1 January 1999. Forest Lake State High School opened on 1 January 2001. As the first Master Planned Community within the City of Brisbane, Forest Lake won numerous awards for its design and Delfin, the developer of Forest Lake, was absorbed into

Lend Lease Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (), was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, ...

in 2001. Now operating as Delfin Lend Lease, they are developing the adjacent Springfield Lakes Master Planned Community. Forest Lake College (Alpine Place Campus) opened on 2002.

Mary McConnel School Mary McConnel School (MMS) is a joint initiative of the Anglican Church of Australia and the Uniting Church in Australia. It is operated by EDUCANG Limited, along with Forest Lake College, The FLC International Centre, The Lakes College and T ...

opened on 28 January 2003. In 2011, Forest Lake College was renamed St John's Anglican College. In 2011, the lake experienced a

blue-green algae Cyanobacteria (), also known as Cyanophyta, are a phylum of gram-negative bacteria that obtain energy via photosynthesis. The name ''cyanobacteria'' refers to their color (), which similarly forms the basis of cyanobacteria's common name, bl ...

(cyanobacterial) bloom, causing some concern to local residents. A local councillor advised people to not enter the water due to the high toxicity levels from the algle bloom. Fairy ring on a suburban lawn 100 1851

In the , Forest Lake recorded a population of 22,426 people, 51.9% female and 48.1% male. The median age of the Forest Lake population was 33 years of age, 4 years below the Australian median. 61% of people living in Forest Lake were born in Australia, compared to the national average of 69.8%; the next most common countries of birth were New Zealand 7.9%, England 4.7%, Vietnam 3.1%, India 1.8%, South Africa 1.6%. 73.6% of people spoke only English at home; the next most popular languages were 5% Vietnamese, 1.6% Samoan, 1.4% Sinhalese, 1.3% Mandarin, 1.2% Hindi. According to the , Forest Lake includes the largest Sri Lankan Australian community of any suburb in

, numbering 344 individuals and making up 1.5% of the suburb's population. In the , Forest Lake had a population of 22,904 people.

Education

Forest Lake State School is a government primary (Prep-6) school for boys and girls at Kauri Place (). In 2017, the school had an enrolment of 865 students with 69 teachers (59 full-time equivalent) and 38 non-teaching staff (26 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. Grand Avenue State School is a government primary (Prep-6) school for boys and girls at the corner of Centennial Way and Grand Avenue (). In 2017, the school had an enrolment of 1225 students with 90 teachers (78 full-time equivalent) and 46 non-teaching staff (30 full-time equivalent). It includes a special education program.

Forest Lake State High School Forest Lake State High School (FLSHS) is a secondary state school located in Forest Lake, Queensland, Australia. History The school was opened in 2001, with only year 8. Year levels increased each year with the first cohort of year 12 studen ...

is a government secondary (7-12) school for boys and girls at High Street (). In 2017, the school had an enrolment of 1485 students with 121 teachers (117 full-time equivalent) and 57 non-teaching staff (43 full-time equivalent). It includes a special education program. St John's Anglican College (formerly Forest Lake College) is a private primary (Prep-6) and secondary school (7-12) for boys and girls. It operates two campuses: a primary campus at Alpine Place () and a secondary campus at College Avenue (). In 2017, the school had an enrolment of 927 students with 80 teachers (69 full-time equivalent) and 63 non-teaching staff (43 full-time equivalent).

Amenities

Forest Lake is serviced by a weekly visit of the

's mobile library service at the Forest Lake Shopping Centre. Forest Lake Samoan Church conduct their services on the cornern Corsair Avenue and Inala Avenue in Inala; it is part of the Wesleyan Methodist Church.

Sport

Sports include: Australian rules football, rugby union, netball, baseball, basketball, tennis, swimming, water polo, triathlon, cricket and athletics.

Transport

Transport for Brisbane Transport for Brisbane, previously called Brisbane Transport'','' is an organisational division of the Brisbane City Council, responsible through its related Council Committee for providing policy and advice to Brisbane City Council, and for de ...

operates 5 routes that serve stops in Forest Lake: *100: to Brisbane City via Inala, Ipswich Road and

South East Busway The South East Busway is a grade separated bus-only road running south from the Brisbane central business district to Eight Mile Plains in Queensland, Australia. The busway was completed to Woolloongabba in September 2000 and to Eight Mile P ...

*101: to Oxley Station via Inala and Richlands Station *118: to Brisbane City via Heathwood,

Logan Motorway The M2/M6 Logan Motorway is a 30-kilometre toll road between Ipswich and the M1 or Pacific Motorway at Loganholme, and the Gateway Motorway, providing access to the Gold Coast on the eastern seaboard and to the rural areas of the Darling Down ...

and Upper Mt Gravatt (Garden City) *460: Heathwood to Brisbane City via Richlands Station and

Indooroopilly Indooroopilly is a riverside suburb 7km west of the Brisbane CBD, Queensland, Australia. In the , Indooroopilly had a population of 12,242 people. Geography Indooroopilly is bounded to the south and south-east by the median of the Brisbane Ri ...

*463: to Goodna Station via Ellen Grove *534: to Springfield Central Station and to Browns Plains Bus Station

Awards

The following awards have been received for the project: * 1991 - Royal Australian Planning Institute (QLD): Award for Excellence in Planning * 1991 - Australian Institute of Traffic Planning and Management: Annual Award - Homestead Village Design * 1992 - Queensland Association of Landscape Industries: 1st Prize (Commercial One Landscaping) - Forest Lake Sales and Information Centre * 1994 - Urban Development Institute of Australia: Queensland Award for Excellence - Marketing * 1994 - Urban Development Institute of Australia: Queensland Award for Excellence - Urban Design * 1995 - Case Easrth Awards Queensland: Category Two Award - Forest Lake * 1995 - Case Easrth Awards Queensland: Category Three Award - Forest Lake * 1996 - Urban Development Institute of Australia: Queensland Awards for Excellence - Environment * 1996 - Institute of Engineers (QLD): Engineering Excellence Award - Environment * 1998 - Urban Development Institute of Australia: Queensland Awards for Excellence - Premier Award * 1999 - Urban Development Institute of Australia: National Awards for Excellence - Community Creation * 2000 - Urban Development Institute of Australia: Queensland Awards for Excellence - Community Creation * 2002 - Urban Development Institute of Australia: Queensland Awards for Excellence - Master Planned Community

References

Notes

External links

* {{Suburbs of Brisbane City Council Suburbs of the City of Brisbane Queensland in World War II