MacGregor

MacGregor, one of a group of residential suburbs around Mount Gravatt named after Queensland public figures, is 13 km south-east of central Brisbane. Named in 1967, the suburb remembers Sir William MacGregor, Governor of Queensland during 1909-14. MacGregor was also Administrator of British New Guinea, 1887-98.

The suburb was immediately south-west of Logan Road, adjoining the Bulimba Creek and Sunnybank. (The boundary later moved from Logan Road to the south-eastern (Pacific) Highway in 1982). Two years later after MacGregor was named, a State high school was opened, and the Garden City regional shopping centre was opened in its north-east edge in 1970. Primary education was found at Upper Mount Gravatt until MacGregor primary school was opened in 1972. The latter's enrolment peaked at over 1280 in 1998.

The Bulimba Creek and its tributary Mimosa Creek in the middle of MacGregor formed a considerable wetland, and in 1973-74 the local Lions Club began the creation of a community park. Now D.M. Henderson Park, it is joined to linear reserves along the watercourses.

In nearby Nathan, Griffith University was under construction and residents of MacGregor (with expensive brick veneer houses, swimming pools and a go-ahead outlook) thought that their suburb would equal or shoot past St Lucia. Events turned out differently, but retail facilities are decidedly superior. In addition to Garden City there are two warehouse/showroom centres in Kessels Road (1988, 2000), and Sunnybank Plaza adjoining its south-west corner. Transport across by the freeway and the Gateway Motorway a few kilometres east is also superior.

In 2014 the Brisbane City Council announced that a 300-seat Multicultural Performing Arts Complex would be built on Brisbane City Council owned land at Granadilla Street, MacGregor, due to open by mid-2016. 

MacGregor's census populations have been: