Birkdale

Birkdale, a suburb facing the Waterloo Bay inlet on Moreton Bay, is 19 km east of central Brisbane. It was probably named after Birkdale, near Southport in Lancashire, by William Thorne, an early resident of neighbouring Thorneside. An early homestead known as Birkdale House (1892) is at 27 Roger Street.

Situated on the Brisbane to Cleveland railway line (1889), Birkdale had the benefit of rail transport for its farm produce. A post office was opened in 1892 and a school in 1916, but Birkdale did not develop as a village in the way that Cleveland or Wellington Point did: Pugh's Queensland directory listed only a store and a contractor in 1925, along with a school of arts and a Methodist church. A Church of England of an unusual cottage design was opened in 1934. There was a large poultry industry. With only 650 people in 1961, Birkdale was mostly rural, but by 1981 it had over 5000.

The Birkdale Fair drive-in shopping centre was opened in 1993 (supermarket and 22 shops). The Birkdale South primary school was opened in 1982 and a Catholic primary school opened in 1997. In 1986 a canal estate was commenced at the mouth of Tarradarrapin Creek where it enters the sheltered Waterloo Bay and named Aquatic Paradise Canal Estates. Further south are the Tarradarrapin Wetlands an important habitat for migratory birds.

Birkdale has a sports complex and bushland refuge on the Judy Holt reserve, and linear parks along the waterways forming the Tarradarrapin Creek catchment. Birkdale's western boundary is the Tingalpa Creek, where there is the Howeston Golf Course and a large area of undeveloped land. Its census populations have been: