Moggill

Moggill, an outer south-western suburb of Brisbane, is situated on the northern side of two bends of the Brisbane River, just before the place where the river separates the Brisbane City municipality from Ipswich. It is thought that the name was derived from an Aboriginal word for water lizard.

Moggill was also a shire (142 sq km), extending northwards from the present suburb to Pullenvale, Upper Brookfield, Chapel Hill and Kenmore. When first formed, the shire was named Indooroopilly, but the association with that name was lost in 1891 when a severance put Indooroopilly in Taringa Shire. Named Moggill in 1917, the shire's offices were in Kenmore.

The shire was incorporated into Greater Brisbane in 1924. At that time it was rural, with a population of about 1100, mainly engaged in dairying and mixed farming. Fruit was grown at Brookfield and Pullenvale, with pineapples down near the river at Moggill.

Being within close proximity of Ipswich, coal mining at Moggill occurred as early as 1848. The Riverside Coal Mine later operated during 1925-68. There was also the Moggill forest reserve upstream near today's Mount Crosby, and in 1935 the reserve was proclaimed a State Forest.

A post office (1861) and a school (1866) were opened at Moggill serving a district of farmers noted for their annual ploughing matches. Moggill's position, connected only by a ferry to the Ipswich Road or a long drive to Kenmore, has kept it relatively underdeveloped. In the early 1970s, Moggill extended north to Mount Crosby and Pullenvale, but new suburbs were detached - Bellbowrie (1972) and Anstead (1975). Bellbowrie includes the Moggill cemetery, but the primary school and the Anglican and Uniting churches are inside Moggill's border. There is a drive-in shopping centre at Bellbowrie, leaving Moggill with a general store. Moggill Country Club (1960s) is on the Brisbane River.

Moggill's southern area includes Priors Pocket on the Brisbane River, predominantly rural but under subdivisional approval by the mid-2000s.

Moggill's previous geographic extent is indicated by the location of Moggill Creek, which runs from Mount Coot-tha to its junction with the Brisbane River at Kenmore.

FLOODS 2011

Extensive areas of Moggill were flooded in January 2011, but most were confined to open spaces on Priors Pocket and approaches to the Moggill ferry. The ferry was, in fact, disrupted, imposing an extra inconvenience on people in Ipswich.

Moggill's census populations have been: