Forest Hill

Forest Hill, a rural town, is 70 km south-west of central Brisbane and midway between Gatton and Laidley. It is on the Ipswich to Toowoomba railway line, away from the Warrego Highway.

Forest Hill is part of the fertile Lockyer Valley, and was part of the Rosewood pastoral run taken up by David McConnel in 1840. The opening of the railway line saw two sidings established in the district, and subdivisions in the late 1890s resulted in the emergence of a township. A State primary school opened in 1895, and by the early 1900s the relatively densely populated farm district was sustaining a population of around 600. The 1904 post office directory recorded a farmers' progress association, a branch of the Queensland National Bank, two produce merchants and the Crown and Station (later Forest Hill) hotels. The 1949 directory recorded additional businesses, including two motor garages and a cinema.

Forest Hill's population held a steady 500 or more people until the mid-1960s, but declined to the 300s during 1971-86 when dairying became less profitable. Since then Forest Hill has also hosted a dormitory population employed in Gatton or further afield.

Forest Hill has a school of arts, a heritage-listed war memorial, two heritage-listed hotels (Lockyer and Forest Hill), several shops (including second-hand and bric-a-brac) a post office, kindergarten and a primary school. Both hotels are two-storey Queenslanders, and the Lockyer is positioned on a prominent corner.

Residents of Forest Hill evacuated their houses during the 2011 Lockyer Valley floods and houses in the town's back streets were all submerged. Farmland in Forest Hill suffered severe damage.

Forest Hill's census populations have been: