Minden

Minden is a rural locality on the Warrego Highway between Marburg and Hatton Vale, 23 km west of Ipswich. The area was originally named Back Plain or Rosewood. Settled by mostly German farmers in the 1870s, it was named after a town in Westphalia in about 1879. Late in World War I it was renamed Frenchton, but reverted to Minden in 1930.

The German heritage is strongly to the fore with the survival of three churches, two Lutheran and one Baptist, dating from the 1880s. St John's Lutheran Church and cemetery are on the Lowood-Minden Road.

The German Baptist community began worship perhaps as early as 1879 and built its church in Lowood-Minden Road near the Minden primary school in 1885. It later affiliated with the Baptist Union and now serves congregations from Marburg to Tarampa.

Community organisations also extended to agriculture. The post office directory (1911) recorded the Back Plain Farmers Co-operative and the Minden Farmers Co-op Dairy. There were also two stores, two blacksmiths and a State primary school (1878). About 30 of the 34 farmers listed in the directory had German surnames.

Minden's population fell to under 200 by the 1960s, but its position on the highway between Ipswich and Gatton has prompted considerable rural/residential living. In 2013 the school had 146 students enrolled. There are also a motor garage and a produce barn.

Minden's census populations have been: