Eagle Farm is an eastern

industrial suburb An industrial suburb is a community, near a large city, with an industrial economy. These communities may be established as tax havens or as places where zoning promotes industry, or they may be industrial towns that become suburbs by urban ...

of the

City of Brisbane The City of Brisbane is a local government area (LGA) which comprises the inner portion of Greater Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, Australia. Its governing body is the Brisbane City Council. The LGAs in the other mainland state capitals ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, Australia. In the , Eagle Farm had a population of 11 people. The neighbourhood of Whinstanes is located in Eagle Farm ().

Geography

Eagle Farm is situated north-east of 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 also colloquially referred to as the "Brisbane CBD", "the city", or simply "town". The CBD is located on a point ...

. It is bounded to the south by the median of the

Brisbane River The Brisbane River (Turrbal language, Turrbal: ) is the longest river in South East Queensland, Australia. It flows through the city of Brisbane, before emptying into Moreton Bay on the Coral Sea. John Oxley, the first European to explore the ...

. Eagle Farm is within the industrial-development zone known as Australia TradeCoast. Kingsford Smith Drive passes through the suburb from west (

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

) to east ( Pinkenba). The Gateway Motorway passes through the suburb from the south ( Murarrie) crossing the Brisbane River via the Sir Leo Hielscher Bridges and then exits to the north (

Brisbane Airport Brisbane Airport is an international airport serving Brisbane, the capital of the Australian state of Queensland. The airport services 31 airlines flying to 50 domestic and 29 international destinations, total amounting to more than 22.7 mill ...

). The Southern Cross Way splits from the Gateway Motorway and also heads north-west, becoming the north-western boundary of Eagle Farm with Hamilton. The Doomben/Pinkenba railway line passes through the suburbs from west (

Ascot Ascot, Ascott or Askot may refer to: Places Australia * Ascot, Queensland, suburb of Brisbane * Ascot, Queensland (Toowoomba Region), a locality * Ascot Park, South Australia, suburb of Adelaide * Ascot (Ballarat), town near Ballarat in Victoria ...

/Hamilton) to east (Pinkenba) to the north of Kingsford Smith Drive. There are no railway stations within the suburb any more. The Royal Queensland Golf Club is located at 431 Curtin West Avenue and extends south to the river. Apart from the golf course, the suburb is industrial. Despite the name, the

Eagle Farm Racecourse Eagle Farm Racecourse is a heritage-listed horse racing venue in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is located at the northern end of Racecourse Road in the suburb of Ascot, from the Brisbane central business district. The turf track is wi ...

, home of the Queensland Turf Club (QTC) and the main racecourse for

thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a list of horse breeds, horse breed developed for Thoroughbred racing, horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thorough ...

gallopers in Brisbane, is located in neighbouring Ascot.

History

Eagle Farm first appeared as a name in 1839, identifying a cultivation area in the

Moreton Bay penal settlement The Moreton Bay Penal Settlement operated from 1825 to 1842. It became the city of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. History The Moreton Bay Penal Settlement was established on the Redcliffe Peninsula on Moreton Bay in September 1824, under t ...

. In 1829, Captain

Patrick Logan Captain Patrick Logan (baptised 15 November 1791 – 17 October 1830) was a Scottish army officer who was the commandant of the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement from 1826 until his death in 1830 at the hands of Aboriginal Australians. As he had b ...

chose this well-watered, fertile site between the

and Serpentine Creek to farm mostly maize, pigs and cattle. The origin of the name apparently arose from eagles being observed around the farm. By 1834, women prisoners were working as field labour at Eagle Farm. By 1836, forty female prisoners were housed there, washing and mending clothes, growing vegetables. The site remained a prison for twice convicted female felons until transportation ended in 1839. Conditions for the females at the prison were documented by the Quaker missionary

James Backhouse :''See alsfor two other James Backhouse botanists and nursery owners of York.'' James Backhouse (8 July 1794 – 20 January 1869) was a botanist and missionary for the Quaker Church body, church in Australia. His son, also James Backhouse (bota ...

in 1836. In the 1850s, Aboriginal people set up camps in the Breakfast Creek Eagle Farm area, including groups of the

Bribie Island Bribie Island is the smallest and most northerly of three major sand islands forming the coastline sheltering the northern part of Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia. The others are Moreton Island and North Stradbroke Island. Bribie Island is ...

, Ningy-Ningy ( Toorbul Point to Redcliffe) and Wide Bay Aboriginal peoples, who were losing their traditional territory further north. Eagle Farm State School opened on 1 August 1864. In 1908, the school was renamed Hendra State School. In October 1895, the Queensland Government approved the extension of the Racecourse railway which terminated at Racecourse railway station (now Ascot railway station) through Eagle Farm to Pinkenba to provide access to the Pinkenba Wharf on the

. This created a number of new railway stations: Doomben, Whinstanes, Baraini (later renamed Airport to service Eagle Farm Airport, then later renamed Eagle Farm), Bunour, Meeandah and Pinkenba. The line opened to Meeandah on 31 March 1897, but the section to Pinkenba was below the high tide level and had to be reclaimed using sand dredged to construct a railway wharf on the river. The line opened to Pinkenba on 1 September 1897. In 1976, a new Whinstanes-Doomben railway station was created between the original two stations to replace them, and was renamed simply Doomben railway station in the 1990s. From 27 January 1998, the line terminated at this station and the following stations are now abandoned. On 24 April 1920, auctioneer Thorpe and Sharp offered 87 "park like" suburban allotments in the Whinstanes Junction Estate to the north-east of the Whinstanes railway station (no longer extant). The estate was bounded by Lamington Avenue to the south and the Doomben Racecourse to the north with allotments facing two streets Birdwood Street and Monash Streets. As at 2019, this area is an industrial estate with Western Avenue passing through it with no sign of Birdwood and Monash Streets. The Eagle Farm Airport served as Brisbane's main airport until the opening of the present

in 1988. During WWII U.S. Navy

Seabee United States Naval Construction Battalions, better known as the Navy Seabees, form the U.S. Naval Construction Forces (NCF). The Seabee nickname is a heterograph of the initial letters "CB" from the words "Construction Battalion". Dependi ...

s of the 55th CB built Camp Seabee adjacent to Australian CCC Camp by the Airport as a staging centre for Construction Battalions assigned to MacArthur's 7th Amphibious force. It was the smallest of the military installations at Eagle farm. They also built an adjoining Advance Base Construction Depot (ABCD) and the USN Ordnance depot at Mt. Coot-Tha. CBs that were there were the 19th, 55th, 60th, 77th, 84th, 91st, 104th and the CBMU 564. The base operated from March 1943 until mid October 1945. The

Royal navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

moved into Camp Seabee and the

Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of Australia. It is a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF), along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army ...

took over the ABCD and Ordnance depot.

Demographics

In the , Eagle Farm had "no people or a very low population" . In the , Eagle Farm had "no people or a very low population". In the , Eagle Farm had a population of 11 people.

Heritage listings

Eagle Farm has a number of

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

sites, including: * the Allison Engine Testing Stands * the Eagle Farm Women's Prison and Factory Site * the Second World War Hangar No. 7

Allison Engine Testing Stands

The Allison Engine Testing Stands site is part of Brisbane's TradeCoast Central at the old Brisbane airport site in the suburb of Eagle Farm, where new and rebuilt

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Allison V-12 in-line liquid cooled aero engines were tested in the open air prior to fitting into reassembled aircraft, notably the P38-Lightning, Curtis Kittyhawk and Bell Airacobra. The masonry sections of the remains, being buildings and dividers between the engine testing bays, are largely intact. The engines were refurbished at the

Holden Holden, formerly known as General Motors-Holden, was an Australian subsidiary company of General Motors. Founded in Adelaide, it was an automobile manufacturer, importer, and exporter that sold cars under its own marque in Australia. It was ...

Breakfast Creek facility. Many of the workers in the Holden facility were women.

Education

The nearest government primary school is in neighbouring

and the nearest government secondary school is Aviation State High School in neighbouring Hendra. Gateway College opened in 1966. It is now known as

TAFE Queensland SkillsTech TAFE Queensland SkillsTech (previously known as SkillsTech Australia and Trade and Technician Skills Institute) is a pre-eminent provider of vocational education and training in Queensland, Australia. It operates four trade training centres acr ...

, featuring trade courses such as electrical, plumbing, glass and glazing, renewable energy and electronics. Construction of a $40 million Robotics and Advanced Manufacturing Centre (RAMC) began in October 2023.

References

External links

* * *
Queensland Turf ClubTradeCoast Central Heritage Park
{{Suburbs of Brisbane City Council Suburbs of the City of Brisbane Queensland in World War II Moreton Bay penal settlement