Darling Heights is a residential suburb of Toowoomba, and is generally 5 km south-west of the CBD. It is separated from the old settlement of Drayton by the railway line from Toowoomba to Warwick and by Luck Street.
In the 1960s the then largely undeveloped area was chosen as the site for the Darling Downs Institute of Advanced Education, and named 'College Heights', although the name was changed in 1966, a year before the Institute's opening. In 1980 a local State primary school was opened. Residential development – a mixture of detached houses, duplexes and low-rise units – began around the primary school (to the north of the Institute) and spread westward during the 1990s. In 1992 the Institute became the University of Southern Queensland. The area to the south has largely remained rural/residential.
With additional campuses at Ipswich, Hervey Bay and Springfield, the University has two faculties and 11 schools, over 27,000 full and part-time students, nearly 3500 International students and over 17,500 distance education students.
The census populations of Darling Heights have been:
| census date | population |
|---|---|
| 2006 | 5035 |
| 2011 | 4923 |
