Seventeen Mile Rocks is a

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 separate ...

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 mainl ...

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 , established_ ...

, Australia. In the , Seventeen Mile Rocks had a population of 2,720 people.

Geography

Seventeen Mile Rocks is located south-west of the

Brisbane CBD 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 ...

on 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 Go ...

. It is bounded to the north-east by the median of the Brisbane River and partly bounded to the west by the riparian zone on the western bank of Jindalee Creek. The north-west of the suburb is an industrial area () while the north-east is the Rocks Riverside Park (). The remainder of the suburb is residential apart from another industrial area in the south-west of the locality ().

History

Man-made sandstone cairn at Seventeen Mile Rocks in the Brisbane River - circa 1940s

The suburb Seventeen Mile Rocks is named after a collection of rocks of the same name () that marked a distance of from the mouth of the Brisbane River, as noted by

John Oxley John Joseph William Molesworth Oxley (1784 – 25 May 1828) was an explorer and surveyor of Australia in the early period of British colonisation. He served as Surveyor General of New South Wales and is perhaps best known for his two exp ...

on 3 December 1823. They ran diagonally across the river from Counihan Road (see map). These rocks were partially removed in the 1860s to make the river more navigable. However, some of the rocks survived and were marked with beacons to warn shipping. Between 1960 and 1966 all of the remaining rocks were removed to widen the river and allow access for marine vessels to further reaches of the river. A Bible Christian Chapel (a denomination of

Methodism Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's br ...

) was opened in Seventeen Mile Rocks in July 1869. Seventeen Mile Rocks State School opened circa 1874. It closed on 1966. It was Goggs Road opposite the junction with Seventeen Miles Rocks Road () which is now within the suburb of Jindalee. Jindalee Home shopping centre is now on that site. A portion of Seventeen Mile Rocks comes from the Wolston Estate, consisting of 54 farms on an area of 3000 acres, offered for auction at Centennial Hall, Brisbane, on 16 October 1901. Wolston Estate is the property of M. B. Goggs, whose father obtained the land forty years previously in the 1860s and after whom Goggs Road is named. Only three of the farms sold at the original auction. The suburb was previously an industrial one; but in recent years new housing estates have been developed greatly increasing the residential population. The major estate is Edenbrooke, while the newest is Verandah. The major road through the suburb is Seventeen Mile Rocks Road which links the suburb to Jindalee and the Western Freeway at the western end and

Oxley Oxley may refer to: Places Australia Australian Capital Territory * Oxley, Australian Capital Territory is a suburb of Canberra, Australia Queensland *Oxley, Queensland is a suburb of Brisbane, Australia ** Oxley railway station, Brisba ...

at the eastern end. The Western drive-in movie theatre was on the south-eastern corner of Seventeen Mile Rocks Road and Fremont Street (). It extended almost through to Argyle and Molesworth Streets (apart from a row of houses facing each of those streets). It operated from 10 November 1966 until 22 June 1988. It initially opened with a capacity of 500 cars but expanded that to 642 by 1971. It was replaced in the late 1980s by a housing estate. Several of the new estates also feature walking tracks and lakes. In the , Seventeen Miles Rocks had a population of 2,899 people. In the , Seventeen Mile Rocks had a population of 2,720 people.

Education

There are no schools in Seventeen Miles Rocks. The nearest primary schools are Darra State School in neighbouring Darra to the south, Corinda State School in

Corinda Corinda is a suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , Corinda had a population of 5,064 people. History The suburb takes its name from the Corinda railway station, which in turn was likely named after a local cattle stat ...

to the east and Jindalee State School in Jindalee to the north-west. The nearest secondary schools are Corinda State High School in Corinda and

Centenary State High School Centenary State High School is a government secondary (7–12) school at 1 Moolanda Street, Jindalee, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is a co-curricular, co-educational school that opened in 1999. At that time, it catered for stud ...

in Jindalee.

Facilities

Rocks Riverside Park is located in Seventeen Mile Rocks. It is one of Brisbane's largest riverside parks. It features walking and cycling tracks, a

basketball court In basketball, the basketball court is the playing surface, consisting of a rectangular floor, with baskets at each end. Indoor basketball courts are almost always made of polished wood, usually maple, with -high rims on each basket. Outdoor sur ...

, a

flying fox ''Pteropus'' (suborder Yinpterochiroptera) is a genus of megabats which are among the largest bats in the world. They are commonly known as fruit bats or flying foxes, among other colloquial names. They live in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Aust ...

, a climbing web as well as picnic facilities and playing fields. Seventeen Mile Rocks includes three Christian churches: * iSee Church at 308 Seventeen Mile Rocks Road () * 17 Mile Church * Riverlife Baptist Church (previously the ''Kenmore Baptist Church'' on Kenmore Road, Kenmore).

References

External links

* {{Suburbs of Brisbane City Council Suburbs of the City of Brisbane