Amberley

Amberley is an outer suburb of Ipswich 4 km south-west of Ipswich's city centre. The suburb is based around Amberley Air Force Base, an area of 1660 ha bounded to the north and east by the Bremer River.

Amberley was named after the Sussex home town of the district's pioneer farmer, James Collett.

In 1938 the Commonwealth Government acquired the land for use as an air base, and the RAAF began operations there in June 1940, nine months after the outbreak of war in Europe. Used for recruitment and training, Amberley's role was enlarged in 1942 after the outbreak of war in the Pacific. Defence aircraft were assembled and repaired there, with up to 1000 American service personnel stationed on the base. By 1943 there were nearly 2300 personnel. Numbers were wound back to about 500 after the war, but increased again after Amberley became the RAAF's major base for bomber aircraft operations. Equipped with Canberra jet bombers, Amberley supplied squadrons that operated in Malaya in the 1950s and Vietnam in the 1960s. F-111 aircraft were commissioned at Amberley in 1973, along with more varied squadrons of helicopters and Army light aircraft. In the mid-1990s about 2700 military and civilian personnel were employed at Amberley, the home of Australia's Strike Reconnaissance Group.

Immediately adjoining the south-west boundary of the base is a residential area with a primary school (1862, originally known as Warrill Creek State school), local shops and a bowling club. The school was transferred to Yamanto in 2010 to allow for expansion of the base.

Heavy metal contamination was found in nearby Warrill Creek in 2009 adjacent to the air base.

An enquiry was held in 2010 into the safety of technicians who worked on cleaning F-111 fuel tanks at the Amberley base. After 40 years service the F-111s were replaced by F/A-18 Super Hornets in 2010.

Amberley's census populations were: