West Ipswich

West Ipswich is immediately west of Denmark Hill and central Ipswich, with the Bremer River and the Deebing Creek as its western border.

Until 1991 the Brisbane Street shopping area, Denmark Hill, the showground, Sandy Gallop Golf Course and the Ipswich cemetery were in West Ipswich but those areas were transferred to central Ipswich, more than halving the area of West Ipswich.

Originally known as Little Ipswich, the area was one of early urban settlement, being situated between central Ipswich and One Mile Bridge over the Bremer River. The heritage-listed Little Ipswich primary school in Omar Street was opened in 1861. A separate boys' school was erected in 1882 and remains in use. The settlement has existed since the late 1840s, however, and the Wesleyan Church built a weatherboard chapel on a crown grant at the corner of Limestone and Ellenborough Streets, one block south of the main through road, Brisbane Street.

A more substantial Wesleyan Church was built in 1858, of Gothic style with buttresses and slender vertical windows. It remains the oldest Queensland church still in use. The site became the Uniting Church Central Mission, incorporating a Sunday School hall (1877), a caretaker's cottage and various building extensions.

The commercial precinct developed along Brisbane Street, west of Ellenborough Street (now in Ipswich central). Most surviving buildings date from the 1900s, an outstanding example at 227 Brisbane Street having begun in 1901 as the Ipswich Flour Mill. The commercial strip ends at Limestone Street with the Baptist church (1876, with several later additions). Further west there are three notable two-storey hotels, the heritage-listed Metropole (1906), the Federal and City View. Near here is a five-ways intersection around a small reserve known as Baines Park. The elaborate war memorial (1917) is in the park, known as the Western Suburbs Honour Stone. Omar Street, running southwards from five ways, is a heritage housing area. Additional heritage houses can be seen in Brisbane Street (to the west of Omar Street) and Murphy Street to the east (now in Ipswich central). 'Brixton', at 11 Murphy Street, is a grand mid-Victorian dwelling (c1865) listed on the Queensland heritage register.

Floods 2011

In January 2011 the Bremer River flooded into West Ipswich, just short of the Home HQ Store and the One Mile Hotel. One Mile Bridge, however, was in the flood zone.

West Ipswich's census populations have been: