Middle Ridge

Middle Ridge, an outer residential suburb, is generally five km south of central Toowoomba.

Originally known as German Settlement, the district became a separate local government division of 7.25 sq miles in 1880. It was a farming community, and the post office directory of 1902 recorded several farm families with German names, some described as fruit growers and vignerons. The shire clerk was E.C. Schmidt. In 1917 the shire was abolished and absorbed by Drayton Shire and Toowoomba.

Middle Ridge's civic precinct was around Stenner and Hume Streets where there were the primary school (1884), St Luke's Anglican Church and the shire hall (Hume Street). Martin Stenner, one of the shire's first councillors, lived at the corner of Stenner and Hume Streets, and he was also the chair of the school committee.

Middle Ridge's school served a large district, having an enrolment of 160 by the early 1900s. The enrolment fell after a school in neighbouring Rangeville opened in 1909. Being on the periphery of urban Toowoomba, Middle Ridge was chosen as the site of the Toowoomba Golf Course (1926) and the Methodist Epworth care complex. Other out-of-town facilities included the Lourdes home for the aged next to the school and, further afield, the Echo Valley motor circuit. By the 1980s Middle Ridge attracted rural/residential settlement, and residential subdivisions came during the next decade.

There are local shops at the corner of Stenner and Spring streets, and a campus of the Exclusive Brethren Agnew School is near the State School.

Middle Ridge's census populations have been: