Mango Hill

Mango Hill, a residential suburb in the Pine Rivers district, originally began at the junction of the Bruce Highway and Anzac Avenue, the road to Redcliffe. Its southern boundary was Fresh Water Creek and most of its northern boundary was Saltwater Creek. Mango Hill is one of the suburbs running in a north-westerly arc from the Petrie rail corridor across to the Redcliffe district. Not only was the landscape of Mango Hill devoid of a public-transport service, it was criss-crossed with waterways. Modern earth-moving turned the watery landscape into a subdivider's opportunity.

Mango Hill had been known locally by that name since the 1950s, and it was defined as a suburb in 1980. It included North Lakes, which was formally named and detached in 2006, reducing Mango Hill's area by about two-thirds.

In the mid-1990s design and subdivision began at the north end of Kinsellas Road, and the project was named Mango Hill Estate after part of Anzac Avenue which was planted with Mango trees. A water course west of Anzac Avenue was made into a lake, and another was made the central axis of the North Lakes Golf Club. Henceforth, North Lakes became an accepted name, and the State secondary school is North Lakes College (2002). Westfield North Lakes (2003) has a supermarket, a discount department store and over 70 other shops.

During 2001-03 Mango Hill's population grew by 20%, and Lend Lease (the developer) predicted a final population of about 25,000 people. Some time before the population reached this figure a railway was expected. Meanwhile North Lakes, 'only 30 minutes north of Brisbane CBD', involved a journey time of 1 hour 15 minutes by bus and train.

North Lakes has been more intensively developed than Mango Hill, and has the State secondary college, the Anglican Lakes College (2005), the drive-in shopping centre and the golf course. Mango Hill has seen the opening of a State primary school in 2012 and St Benedict's Catholic primary and secondary schools in 2008 and 2013 respectively. A proposed railway station is due to open at Mango Hill in 2016, while the area has a discarded golf course, considerable undeveloped land, and wetlands on its eastern fringes.

Census populations have been: