Carina

Carina, a residential suburb, is 7 km east of central Brisbane. Travel by Old Cleveland or Wynnum Roads is considerably further. It was named after Ebenezer Thorne's estate on Creek Road (1850s): his daughter was Kate Carina.

Carina was the main place of settlement in Belmont Shire (1888-1925) and included the shire offices. The Carina post office was opened in 1889, and the primary school (at Creek and Meadowlands Roads, now in Carindale) was opened in 1917. Old Cleveland Road was the main east-west thoroughfare, and Carina included Pine Mountain and the rise near Creek Road known as Carina Heights (the Belmont Hospital site).

The Belmont Shire had built a tramway from the Bulimba Creek to Norman Park, via Carina and Seven Hills. It was motivated by a desire for better transport and the prospect of land subdivisions. The latter did not come to pass as hoped, and the tramway had a life of 14 years, closing in 1926. In 1948 the Brisbane tram network was extended along Old Cleveland Road from Camp Hill to Mayfield Road, about 800 metres short of the Carina village and school. Suburbia was on the point of moving beyond Camp Hill. The post office was at the tram terminus (known as the Belmont terminus) and beyond there was a Congregational church. Carina also had two mixed businesses, a butcher, a bus proprietor and a motor garage.

St Martin's Catholic primary school near Carina's eastern boundary was opened in 1954, the Mayfield primary school was opened in 1956 and the San Sisto Catholic College was opened in 1961. A trolley bus service along Stanley Road to Creek Road ran during 1960-69, coinciding with Carina's period of rapid growth. Suburbia also moved south of Old Cleveland Road, with a new suburb, Carina Heights, opening a post office in Winstanley Street in 1957. The suburb of Carina Heights was severed from Carina for the 1976 and subsequent censuses.

There were several Housing Commission estates in Carina. An unused swamp land on Creek Road, where Thorne had his farm, was cleared and drained for sports ovals. Named the Clem Jones Centre, swimming, gymnasium and squash facilities were later added. (Jones was Lord Mayor of Brisbane, 1961-74, and was active in the Carina community.) East of Creek Road there is mixed-use industrial and residential land along with a large reserve along Bulimba Creek. There is a local shopping centre in Stanley Road and regional shopping in Carindale.

A short surviving section of the 1948 tramline in Cleveland Road, near Jones Road, is listed on the Queensland heritage register.

Carina's census populations have been: