Lawnton

Lawnton, a residential suburb in the Pine Rivers district, is 22 km north-west of central Brisbane. It is immediately south of the North Pine River. The area east of the Gympie Road was known as Wyllie, but was included in Lawnton in 1989.

When the North Coast railway was constructed the government acquired land for a station from Stephen Lawn, and named the station (1888) Lawnton. A post office was opened in 1889. The district had mixed rural occupations: timber cutting, dairying, pig-raising and maize growing. Silt flats along the river grew good maize, and in about 1900 the Paisley corn flour and starch mill began operation in Gympie Road, beside Four Mile Creek. Paisley Park is a reminder of the mill. In 1905 the Acclimatisation Society, having lost much of Bowen Park in Brisbane to the Exhibition and the railways, moved its operations to the south bank of the North Pine River. Ten years later the Pine Rivers Agricultural, Horticultural and Industrial Association moved its showground from Petrie to a site 2 km up from the corn flour mill. After World War I the showground was graced by elaborate memorial gates which were later transferred to the Kallangur RSL.

Situated between Petrie and Strathpine, Lawnton awaited the spread of housing from those areas until the 1960s. A prominent local firm, Chesney Caravans, opened its factory in Lawnton in 1968. A State primary school was opened the year before, and by 1973 had an enrolment of 600. Churches and a swimming pool (next to the showground) followed in the 1970s, although St Thomas Anglican church (near the railway station) had been there since 1878. It was erected on land donated by Stephen Lawn.

Lawnton has local shops in Ebert Parade opposite the station, more shops to the south along Gympie Road, and the showground, a community hall and a swimming pool to their north. Leis Park and Stephen Lawn Park are along the North Pine River and the One Mile Country Club golf course is in the west of Lawnton.

Lawnton's census populations have been: