Bellbird Park

Bellbird Park, a suburb of Ipswich, is 13 km east of central Ipswich. It is immediately south of Goodna and east of Redbank Plains. The area was regarded as part of the Goodna hinterland, accommodating dirt tracks for access to local farms and a back road through Redbank to Ipswich. Development began after the 1974 floods. Until the late 1980s, with a few early subdivisions, it was still an outlying area of Goodna. The area was named by the developers in the mid-1970s after bellbirds had been heard along Woogaroo Creek. Once development began any remaining bellbirds retreated southwards into undeveloped scrubland.

Bellbird Park has benefited from its proximity to Redbank Plains, with two drive-in shopping centres immediately across the boundary, Redbank Plaza (1985) and Kruger Village. Redbank Plains high school (1987) is similarly located and Kruger primary school (1978) is in Bellbird Park.

In the other direction there is considerable land as far as the suburb's boundary, Woogaroo Creek. Upon crossing the creek there are the new suburbs of Augustine Heights and Springfield with two private schools. Goodna also has a shopping centre and four schools.

The suburb's potential was grasped with the Brentwood estate, at the north-east corner of Jones Road and Augusta Parkway (2006). The site (226 ha) provided for 1500 home sites and about one-third of the area reserved as open space. Sales promotions averred that buyers would be upgrading from Springfield, Forest Lakes, etc.

In 2013 the State government announced the building of a new primary school and a new high school at Bellbird Park as part of 10 new schools to be built in high-growth areas under a private-public partnership model, with the private companies responsible for maintaining the school for up to 30 years.

Bellbird Park has a Church of the Latter Day Saints and a Church of Christ in Redbank Plains where most housing was first established. Its census populations have been: