Kirwan

Kirwan, a residential suburb in Townsville (formerly in Thuringowa City), is 11 km south-west of central Townsville. It surrounds Thuringowa central on all sides except the south.

In 1968, as new suburbs were laid out along the western side of the Upper Ross River, the Thuringowa shire council named the northern-most one Kirwan, after an early farming family. Before coming under residential development Kirwan had been farmed and later occupied by air force hangars and associated uses during World War II.

Kirwan's earliest point of concentrated population was probably at a bend on the Ross River where a camping reserve (1872) was set aside for travellers on the Charters Towers Road. Eight years later families petitioned for a school, and in 1881 the Ross River provisional school was opened on a site excised from the camping reserve. It is now known as the Weir School, named after the Black Weir (1935) built for Townsville's water supply.

Suburban Kirwan grew quickly during the 1970s-80s. Its primary and high schools were opened in 1977 and 1979. Ryan Catholic College was also opened in 1979 and another State primary school, The Willows, was opened in 1997. Shopping centres were opened at the intersection of the Hervey Range Road and Upper Ross River Road, (Thuringowa Central): Willows Shopping Town (1985) has two discount department stores, two supermarkets and over 80 other shops; Sunland Plaza has a supermarket and several specialty stores.

Recreational spaces include The Willows golf course, a sports stadium, and memorial gardens where Council offices and a library are found. A women's hospital adjoins the gardens. There are two other drive-in shopping centres in the east and north of Kirwan, Parkside and Mount View.

When Kirwan began, the camping reserve next to Weir primary school was infested with weeds. The council cleaned it up, built several sports facilities and named it Pioneer Park.

Kirwan has had census populations of: