Springfield, a residential suburb on the south-western outskirt of Ipswich City, is 25 km south-west of central Brisbane. It is situated on a former eucalyptus plantation that was on hilly landscape which declines to the Opossum Creek in the west. Further west is Redbank Plains. About eight km south-west of Springfield, amidst tree-covered ranges, is Spring Mountain (355m). Springfield Lakes, formally named in 2000, is immediately south-east of Springfield, next to the Centenary Highway extension.

In 1992 the Springfield Land Corporation acquired a 28.5 sq km parcel of land for the new suburb of Springfield, planned to have 15,000 home sites, a 200 ha town centre, a research and development centre, 1000 ha of open space and a golf course. The corporation was required to finance an extension of the Centenary Highway, running in a south-westerly arc from the Logan Motorway to the proposed suburb. A westerly extension to Ripley was under construction (2008). Public transport from Darra to Springfield was a definite idea in the draft South East Queensland Regional Plan, and a public transport extension to Ripley was a dotted-line idea. Meanwhile the public transport journey via the Wacol bus station to the CBD in 2004 was one hour and ten minutes.

Springfield's and Springfield Lakes' estimated population in September 2003 was 5000 and in a year's time it was 10,000. The final figure is put at 60,000 by 2020. Most civic and public facilities are in Springfield: Woodcrest State College (P-12, 1997), TAFE, Anglican and Uniting Churches' Springfield College (P-12, 1998) and Staines Memorial College (2005). St Peter's Lutheran College (2008) is in the Springfield town centre, known as Springfield Central, and next door to it there is a campus of the University of Southern Queensland.

Springfield Fair Shopping centre has a supermarket and 14 shops (2004), much less than the Orion regional centre begun in October 2003 with 150,000 sq metres of lettable area, bigger that anything else in Queensland, in the Springfield Central district.

Springfield Lakes has a shopping centre next to one of two lakes constructed on Opossum Creek. It is adjoined by Springfield Lakes State primary school (2007).

The census populations in 2006 were 5732 for Springfield and 4852 for Springfield Lakes.