Forest Hill is a rural town and

locality Locality may refer to: * Locality, a historical named location or place in Canada * Locality (association), an association of community regeneration organizations in England * Locality (linguistics) * Locality (settlement) * Suburbs and localitie ...

in the

Lockyer Valley Region The Lockyer Valley Region is a local government area (LGA) in the West Moreton region of South East Queensland, Australia. The region is located between the cities of Ipswich and Toowoomba, and is bordered by the Somerset and Southern Downs ...

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 , the locality of Forest Hill had a population of 935 people.

Geography

The town is located west of the state capital,

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

and east of the regional centre of

Toowoomba Toowoomba ( ), nicknamed 'The Garden City' and 'T-Bar', is a city on the border of South East Queensland and Darling Downs regions of Queensland, Australia. It is located west of Queensland's capital, Brisbane. The urban population of Toowoom ...

Forest Hill railway station Forest Hill is an interchange station between the Windrush line of the London Overground and National Rail services operated by Southern, located in Forest Hill in the London Borough of Lewisham. It is down the line from , between and , in ...

is an abandoned railway station on the

Main Line railway The main line, or mainline in American English, of a railway is a track that is used for through trains or is the principal artery of the system from which branch lines, yards, sidings, and spurs are connected. It generally refers to a route be ...

(). There is an aircraft landing ground between Gatton Laidley Road and the railway line ().

History

In 1880, AJ Boyd purchased 975 acres (394.6 hectares) of land from the

Queensland Government The Queensland Government is the state government of Queensland, Australia, a Parliament, parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Government is formed by the party or coalition that has gained a majority in the Queensland Legislative Assembly, ...

for reportedly five shillings an acre. The land was located approximately six kilometres south from the

, towards Woodlands. Boyd named this property Forest Hill, after seeing Allan Cunningham's map of the region where he had marked "extensive indifferent forest ground". A stopping place was established on the Main Line railway to service the property called Boyd's Siding which later changed its name to Forest Hill. StateLibQld 2 72203 First World War memorial monument in Forest Hill

StateLibQld 2 72203 First World War memorial monument in Forest Hill

Forest Hill was recorded as a railway station in 1881 and was located one kilometre east down the line from its later location. The railway station moved to its later location in 1886. In the 1920s, it was Queensland's largest produce loading centre. However, the increasing use of road transport for farm produce led to the railway station's closure on 3 July 1992. The main railway station was relocated to the

Queensland Pioneer Steam Railway The Queensland Pioneer Steam Railway is located near Ipswich, Queensland, Ipswich, Queensland, Australia and runs through the former West Moreton pioneering coal fields. It was first opened in 1881 by colliery proprietor and politician Lewis Thom ...

Swanbank Swanbank is an industrial Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the City of Ipswich, Queensland, Australia. In the , Swanbank had "no people or a very low population". Geography The predominant land usage in Swanbank is industrial, ...

. The railway station waiting room was restored and relocated to Anzac Park (also known as Forest Hill Place) in Forest Hill. The first Forest Hill Post Office opened on 1 February 1890 at the railway station (replacing a

receiving office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

named Forest Hill Siding open since 1889). The office moved to its current site at 40 Victoria Street on 7 January 1908. Forest Hill Provisional School opened on 23 January 1893, becoming a state school in 1899. St Thomas's Anglican Church was dedicated on 2 August 1903 by Archdeacon Arthur Evan David. Its closure on 3 May 2005 was approved by Assistant Bishop Rob Nolan. Forest Hill was once home to five hotels, a hospital, a bakery and butcher, and was the largest rail freight hub for agricultural produce in Queensland. The Forest Hill War Memorial was erected to commemorate those in the district who had died or served in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. It was unveiled by five mothers of deceased soldiers on 26 March 1921. During the

2010–11 Queensland floods 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, much of the population of Forest Hill was required to be evacuated by helicopter to nearby Gatton to avoid rapidly rising floodwaters.

Demographics

In the , the locality of Forest Hill had a population of 968 people. Material was copied from this source, which is available under
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
In the , the locality of Forest Hill had a population of 935 people.

Heritage listings

Forest Hill 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: * Forest Hill State School, 15 Church Street * Forest Hill War Memorial, Gordon Street * Lockyer Hotel, Victoria Street *

Queensland National Bank The Queensland National Bank is a former bank in Queensland, Australia. History In 1872, the bank was established in Brisbane. In December 1914, the bank had its head office in Brisbane with branches throughout Queensland at Allora, Queensland, ...

, 3 Victoria Street * Forest Hill Hotel, 38 William Street

Education

Forest Hill State School is a government primary (Prep-6) school for boys and girls at 15 Church Street (). In 2018, the school had an enrolment of 137 students with 10 teachers (9 full-time equivalent) and 10 non-teaching staff (5 full-time equivalent). There is no secondary school in Forest Hill. The nearest secondary schools are Laidley State High School in Laidley to the south-east and Lockyer District State High School in Gatton to the west.

Attractions

The former waiting room at Forest Hill railway station is in Anzac Park.

Amenities

Forest Hill Post Office is at 40 Victoria Street (). It is also a cafe called Cafe 4342 (the postcode for the area) and gift shop. St Joseph's Catholic Church is at 8-10 Hunt Street (). Forest Hill's Fire and Rescue Station is at 4 Williams Street beside the railway line (). Forest Hill's

State Emergency Service The State Emergency Service (SES) is the name used by a number of separate civil defence organisations in Australia that provide assistance during and after major incidents. Specifically, the services deal with floods, storms and tsunamis, b ...

facilities are at 24 Railway Street beside Furley Park (). Despite the name, Forest Hill Cemetery is on Logan Road in neighbouring College View).

References

External links

* * {{authority control Towns in Queensland Lockyer Valley Region Localities in Queensland