Yamanto

Yamanto, a residential suburb, is five km south-west of central Ipswich. It is immediately east of Amberley and bounded on the south by the Cunningham Highway. The name is thought to have derived from the Yama-hanto cotton plantation. In the south-west of the suburb there is the locality named Loamside, an early name for Yamanto.

When it was part of Moreton Shire (1917-95) Yamanto’s main road was the Ipswich-Warwick route, and a railway line ran southwards from Ipswich to Purga (1882-1964). There were a couple of local abattoirs, a brickworks and the Ipswich sanitary depot to the east in present-day Flinders View.

In the early 1980s urban subdivisions began east of Goddards Road, immediately south of the Ipswich municipal boundary. Moreton Shire shifted its offices from Ipswich to a new site in Warwick Road, between the municipal boundary and Winston Street. A housing estate upwards of 4000 sites was envisaged.

With the construction of the Cunningham Highway, a site at its intersection with Warwick Road was chosen for a drive-in shopping centre. It supplemented another shopping centre north-east along Warwick Road, near the shire offices.

When Moreton Shire was amalgamated with Ipswich, the Yamanto offices were used as a branch outlet before being transferred to Ipswich Water.

Yamanto has two hotels, a shopping centre and two kindergartens. Residents had a long trip to schools in the direction of Ipswich before the transfer of the Amberley State school to Yamanto in 2010. It had an initial intake of 480 pupils.

Floods 2011

Yamanto is bordered by Purga Creek (west side) Deebing Creek (east side) and the Bremer River. In January 2011 the Bremer River flooded southwards, entering the Churchill abattoir, Deebing Creek‘s waters flooded downstream Churchill.

Yamanto’s census populations have been: