New Farm is an inner northern riverside

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separ ...

in the City of Brisbane,

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 , New Farm had a population of 12,542 people.

Geography

The suburb is located 2 kilometres east of the Brisbane CBD on a large bend of the

Brisbane River The Brisbane River is the longest river in South East Queensland, Australia, and flows through the city of Brisbane, before emptying into Moreton Bay on the Coral Sea. John Oxley, the first European to explore the river, named it after the ...

. New Farm is partly surrounded by the Brisbane River, with land access from the north-west through Fortitude Valley and from the north through Newstead.

Merthyr Merthyr Tydfil (; cy, Merthyr Tudful ) is the main town in Merthyr Tydfil County Borough, Wales, administered by Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council. It is about north of Cardiff. Often called just Merthyr, it is said to be named after Ty ...

is a neighbourhood within New Farm; until 1975 it was a separate suburb.The suburb has an eclectic mix of 19th century colonial constructions; 20th century traditional Queenslander and

Federation A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government ( federalism). In a federation, the self-gover ...

homes; and modern architectural hybrids. New Farm is home to Brisbane's most impressive collection of

art deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...

buildings. As the population density increases and apartment, unit and duplex housing continue to exceed its share beyond 70% of the local dwelling mix,

detached housing A stand-alone house (also called a single-detached dwelling, detached residence or detached house) is a free-standing residential building. It is sometimes referred to as a single-family home, as opposed to a multi-family residential dwelli ...

is increasing in demand and price. At the south-eastern end of the peninsula is the historic

New Farm Park New Farm Park is a heritage-listed riverfront public park at 137 Sydney Street, New Farm, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Albert Herbert Foster and built from 1914 to 1950 by Gladwin Legge & Co. It was added to the ...

. Brunswick Street is the main street running northwest–southeast up the centre of the peninsula. To the south of Brunswick Street the suburb is characterised by large ornate Queenslander-style houses, shady streets lined with large trees and tall apartment buildings, predominantly along the river. More modest Queenslander-style houses dominate the north of Brunswick Street, where there are fewer large trees and apartments. The suburb has one main commercial area close to New Farm Park, called 'Merthyr Village'. A wide variety of businesses also operate along Brunswick Street and in adjacent streets. The former electric tramway power station, located at the eastern corner of New Farm Park, has been converted into a community arts and performance space called ' The Powerhouse'. New Farm is known as Brisbane's "Little Italy" as many immigrants from Italian descent first settled in the suburb. The Brisbane City Council operates a public library at 135 Sydney Street. The library opened in 1975 and offers publicly accessible

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio waves ...

History

StateLibQld 1 105536 Houses of New Farm, Brisbane, 1880-1890

Though one of Brisbane's oldest suburbs, the peninsula of New Farm was once called ''Binkinba'' (place of the land tortoises) by the indigenous Turrbal tribe of Brisbane. The suburb derives its name from the fact that the peninsula was used as a farming area in the early years of Brisbane's history. Commandant

Patrick Logan Captain Patrick Logan (1791 – October 1830) was the commandant of the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement from 1826 until his death in 1830 at the hands of Aboriginal Australians who objected to him entering their lands. As he had been hated by con ...

established a new farm in the area in 1827 as part of the Moreton Bay penal colony. The area was also a working site of convicts (lime kilns dating back to 1870 are still evident on the river banks). Politician and judge Samuel Griffith built his house 'Merthyr' in the suburb in 1870. From 1885 to 1897 New Farm's transport needs were met by horse-drawn trams, which operated along Brunswick Street, as far as Barker Street. In 1897, the horse trams were replaced with electric trams and the line was extended, with trams ultimately running as far as Macquarie Street and down to the river at New Farm Park. The electric trams ceased operation on 13 April 1969. Since then the suburb has been served by diesel buses. New Farm State School was opened on 21 January 1901. On 29 November 1919, on what is now known as New Farm, 24 river frontage subdivided allotments between Merthyr Road and Sydney Street, were advertised to be auctioned by Cameron Bros Auctioneers. A map advertising the auction indicated that the home of Sir Samuel Griffith was adjacent to the advertised lots. On 24 April 1920, on what is now known as New Farm, 5 allotments on Welsby Street were advertised to be auctioned on 27 April 1920 at 11am by Cameron Bros Auctioneers. A map advertising the auction indicated that the lots were close to the new tramway. On 6 May 1920, on what is now known as new Farm, 5 residential sites and 2 cottages were advertised to be auctioned on Monday 10 May 1920 by Cameron Bros Auctioneers. A map advertising the auction indicated that the lots and cottages were located between St Clair House and Heal Street. In 1923, the Catholic Church purchased a house to celebrate mass. The Holy Spirit Church opened on 1 June 1930, enabling the Sisters of Mercy to open the Holy Spirit School on 7 July 1930 in the house. The house was replaced with a purpose-built school guilding costing £4,000. In September 1937 the new school guilding was blessed and opened by Archbishop of Brisbane, James Duhig. There was a marine base established in

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

and the suburb was home to many wealthy merchants and lawyers. Spastic Centre School opened on 12 February 1951. It was renamed New Farm Special School in 1974. It closed on 16 December 1994. New Farm developed a reputation in the late 1980s for

street prostitution Street prostitution is a form of sex work in which a sex worker solicits customers from a public place, most commonly a street, while waiting at street corners or walking alongside a street, but also other public places such as parks, benches, ...

and as a drug-addled, low-rent culture depicted in

Andrew McGahan Andrew McGahan (10 October 1966 – 1 February 2019) was an Australian novelist, best known for his first novel ''Praise'', and for his Miles Franklin Award-winning novel '' The White Earth''. His novel ''Praise'' is considered to be part of t ...

's grunge novel ''Praise'', which is set largely in the suburb. Since then, and like many Brisbane suburbs, New Farm has experienced much '

gentrification Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and planning. Gentrification often increases the ...

' and 'infill development' throughout the 1990s and the years since 2000. However, New Farm maintains its diversity, being known for its long-established Anglo-Saxon and Italian communities (as depicted in

Venero Armanno Venero Armanno is an Australian novelist. He was born in Brisbane of Sicilian parents. He received a BA from the University of Queensland, and later an MA and PhD in Creative Writing from the Queensland University of Technology. Armanno comp ...

's novel Firehead), and its many restaurants and cafes. On 23 January 2007, part of the movie '' Fool's Gold'', starring Kate Hudson, was shot at New Farm Park. Scenes from the films ''

All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane ''All My Friends Are Leaving Brisbane'' is a 2007 Australian romantic comedy film directed by Louise Alston and written by Stephen Vagg. It follows Anthea, a 25-year-old girl who hates her job and has to sit back and watch as all her friends mo ...

'' (2007) and '' Jucy'' (2011) have also been shot there. At the , the suburb recorded a population of 11,3305. This meant New Farm had the highest population density in Greater Brisbane at the time with approximately 5,861.7 people per square kilometre. In the , New Farm had a population of 12,542 people; 50.6% female and 49.4% male. The median age of the New Farm population was 37 years of age, 1 year below the Australian median. Children aged under 15 years made up 8.7% of the population and people aged 65 years and over made up 15.7% of the population. 58.7% of people living in New Farm were born in Australia, compared to the national average of 66.7%; the next most common countries of birth were England (3.8%), New Zealand (3.2%), Italy (1.5%), China (1.4%), and Nepal (1.2%). 69.8% of people spoke only English at home; the next most popular languages were Italian (2.3%), Cantonese (1.6%), Mandarin (1.3%), Nepali (1.2%), and Spanish (1.1%). The most common religious affiliation was "No Religion" (36.1%) with a further 18.3% of respondents not stating a religious affiliation. The next most common responses were Catholic (22.7%), Anglican (8.8%), and Buddhism (2.2%).In the , New Farm had a population of 12,542 people. With 5% of household couples identifying as same-sex, New Farm is home to one of Queensland's largest

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

communities.

Heritage listings

New Farm has a number of

heritage-listed This list is of heritage registers, inventories of cultural properties, natural and man-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, that are deemed to be of sufficient heritage value to be separately identified and recorded. In many i ...

sites, including: * 41 Abbott Street: Residence, Abbott Street * 41 Balfour Street: Cairnsville * 388 Bowen Terrace ():

Feniton Feniton is a village and civil parish in East Devon in the English county of Devon. The village lies about west of Honiton, north of Ottery St Mary, and east of Talaton. The parish of Feniton incorporates the hamlets of Colesworthy, Higher ...

* 701 Brunswick Street: Village Twin Cinemas * 790 Brunswick Street
Wynberg
* Cnr James & Heal Streets: New Farm State School * 12 Julius Street: Langshaw Marble Lime Works * 15 Julius Street: Julius Street Flats * Lamington Street: former CSR Refinery * 71-73 Moray Street:

Bertholme Bertholme is a heritage-listed detached house at 71-73 Moray Street, New Farm, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Andrea Giovanni Stombuco and built from 1882 to 1883. It is also known as the Moreton Club. It was add ...

* 186 Moray Street: Glenugie * 209 Moray Street: Santa Barbara *172 Oxlade Drive: Glenfalloch Apartments * 137 Sydney Street:

* 101 Welsby Street: Amity

Education

New Farm State School is a government primary (Prep-6) school for boys and girls at corner of James & Heal Streets (). In 2017, the school had an enrolment of 449 students with 32 teachers (27 full-time equivalent) and 19 non-teaching staff (12 full-time equivalent). Holy Spirit School is a Catholic primary (Prep-6) school for boys and girls at 36 Villiers Street (). In 2017, the school had an enrolment of 255 students with 21 teachers (17 full-time equivalent) and 10 non-teaching staff (5 full-time equivalent). There are no secondary schools in New Farm; the nearest was Kelvin Grove State College until the start of 2020 when the new Fortitude Valley State Secondary College opened.

Amenities

There are a number of parks in the area: * Howard Smith Wharf Precinct () * Merthyr Park () * Merthyr Road Park () * Merthyr Road Park (no.2) () * New Farm Park () * Powerhouse Park () * Welsby Street Park () * Wilson Outlook Reserve ()

Transport

By Ferry New Farm can be accessed via two CityCat stops (operated by Brisbane Transport) - at Sydney Street and at New Farm Park. At the river end of Brunswick Street a small cross-river ferry, operated by Brisbane Transport used to link New Farm with Norman Park. However, the service was removed in July 2020, upsetting many Norman Park residents. By Bus The suburb is serviced by several bus routes. This includes BUZ services 196 and 199, running cross-town via the city centre, as well as the peak-only 195 to the city. The Smart Cities: Rethinking the City Centre report proposes building green bridges from Merthyr Road across the Brisbane River to

Bulimba Bulimba is a suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , Bulimba had a population of 6,843 people. Geography Bulimba is located north-east of the CBD on the southern bank of the Brisbane River, but it is by road. Topony ...

in the east and to Kangaroo Point in the west.

Notable residents

* Sir Samuel Griffith (judge & politician) *

Thomas Welsby Thomas (Tom) Welsby (29 November 1858 – 3 February 1941) was an Australian businessman, author, politician, and sportsman based in Queensland. He was a Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 1911 to 1915. Early life Born in Ipswi ...

(politician & businessman) *

Jim Soorley James Gerard Soorley (born 8 April 1951) is a former Australian politician. He served as Labor Lord Mayor of Brisbane from 1991 to 2003. Soorley is a former Roman Catholic Priest. Soorley has a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in psychology, fr ...

(politician)

References

Sources

External links

* {{Suburbs of Brisbane City Council Suburbs of the City of Brisbane Italian-Australian history Queensland in World War II Red-light districts in Australia Lime kilns in Australia