Mount Forbes is a rural

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 ...

split between the

City of Ipswich The City of Ipswich is a local government area (LGA) located within the southwest of Greater Brisbane, which in turn, is situated within the vast South East region of the state of Queensland. Positioned between the City of Brisbane and the Ci ...

and the

Scenic Rim Region The Scenic Rim Region is a local government areas of Queensland, local government area (LGA) in the West Moreton region of South East Queensland, South East Queensland, Australia, and is located approximately 80 kilometres due south of Brisban ...

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 , Mount Forbes had a population of 262 people.

Geography

There is a mountain in the south-east of the locality, known as The Sugarloaf (), rising to . The land use is predominantly

grazing In agriculture, grazing is a method of animal husbandry whereby domestic livestock are allowed outdoors to free range (roam around) and consume wild vegetations in order to feed conversion ratio, convert the otherwise indigestible (by human diges ...

on native vegetation.

History

John Oxley John Joseph William Molesworth Oxley (1784 – 25 May 1828) was an English List of explorers, explorer and surveyor of Australia in the early period of British colonisation. He served as Surveyor General of New South Wales and is perhaps bes ...

chose the name ''Mount Forbes'' in 1824, after Sir

Francis Forbes Sir Francis William Forbes (1784 – 8 November 1841) was a Chief Justice of Newfoundland, and the first Chief Justice of New South Wales. Early life Forbes was born and educated in Bermuda, the son of Dr. Francis Forbes M.D. and his wife Mar ...

(1784-1841) the then

Chief Justice of New South Wales The Chief Justice of New South Wales is the senior judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and the highest-ranking judicial officer in the Australian state of New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States a ...

to name the mountain now known as Mount Walker. Mount Forbes Post Office opened on 1 July 1927 (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 ...

had been open from 1897) and closed in 1953. Mount Forbes Provisional School opened on 10 November 1896. On 1 January 1909, it became Mount Forbes State School. It closed in 1948. It was at 222 Mount Forbes School Road (). Tenders were called in September 1910 to build a Methodist church. The

stump-capping ceremony Queenslander architecture is a modern term for a type of residential housing, widespread in Queensland, Australia. It is also found in the northern parts of the adjacent state of New South Wales, and shares many traits with architecture in oth ...

was held on Saturday 18 February 1911. Mount Forbes Methodist Church was officially opened on Sunday 7 May 1911 by Dr Henry Youngman, the President of the

Methodist Church of Australasia The Methodist Church of Australasia was a Methodist denomination based in Australia. It existed from 1902 to 1977, when the Uniting Church in Australia was formed. It did missionary work in Australia through two organisations: the Methodist Overse ...

; about 200 people attended. The timber church was and high with an iron roof; it could seat 100 people. It was designed by Thomas Freeman Theaker and built by Jacob Hoffman for . The church was at 211-215 Mount Forbes School Road (). In October 1994, the Woogaroo Koala Protection Society was established, being renamed Ipswich Koala Protection Society in 2000 as the group expanded its services to a wider area. A dedicated koala rehabilitation clinic was established in Mount Forbes in 2010.

Demographics

In the , Mount Forbes had a population of 263 people. The locality contains 93 households, in which 50.0% of the population are males and 50.0% of the population are females with a median age of 35, 3 years below the national average. The average weekly household income is $1,520, $83 above the national average. 3.0% of Mount Forbes's population is either of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent. 70.5% of the population aged 15 or over is either registered or de facto married, while 29.5% of the population is not married. 34.3% of the population is currently attending some form of a compulsory education. The most common nominated ancestries were Australian (35.7%), English (27.5%) and German (9.9%), while the most common country of birth was Australia (78.7%), and the most commonly spoken language at home was English (83.3%). The most common nominated religions were No religion (24.3%), Not stated (20.6%) and Anglican (14.7%). The most common occupation was a technician/trades worker (17.6%) and the majority/plurality of residents worked 40 or more hours per week (46.3%). In the , Mount Forbes had a population of 262 people.

Education

There are no schools in Mount Forbes. The nearest government primary schools are

Mutdapilly State School Mutdapilly State School is a heritage-listed state school at 4 Mutdapilly-Churchbank Weir Road, Mutdapilly, Queensland, Mutdapilly, Scenic Rim Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Richard George Suter and built from 1874 to 1880 by ...

in neighbouring Mutdapilly to the south-east and Rosewood State School in

Rosewood Rosewood is any of a number of richly hued hardwoods, often brownish with darker veining, but found in other colours. It is hard, tough, strong, and dense. True rosewoods come from trees of the genus '' Dalbergia'', but other woods are often ca ...

to the north. The nearest government secondary school is Rosewood State High School in Rosewood to the north.

Amenities

The Ipswich Koala Protection Society is at 110 Brass Road (). It has two ambulances designed for

koalas The koala (''Phascolarctos cinereus''), sometimes inaccurately called the koala bear, is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only extant representative of the family '' Phascolarctidae''. Its closest living re ...

and rescues over 180 koalas each year. It provides care for sick, injured or orphaned koalas with the aim of rehabilitating them and returning them to the wild.

References

{{Scenic Rim Region City of Ipswich Scenic Rim Region Localities in Queensland