Where is Kangaroo Point?
Kangaroo Point is a 1.3 km suburb in a peninsula located in the east across the
Brisbane River from the Brisbane central business district, Queensland. The Shafston University, the National Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts (ACPA) tertiary campuses are located in Kangaroo Point. The Queensland University of Technology (Garden Point campus) is directly across the Brisbane River. Along the Brisbane River is the South Bank Parkland, a popular recreation area.
What to Do
The suburb is known for
rock climbing and abseiling at the
Kangaroo Point Cliff. Another prominent attraction is the Story Bridge which can be climbed with the authorised tourist groups. The site on the Kangaroo Point gives an awesome view of Brisbane and the long stretch of the
Brisbane River.
Who lives in Kangaroo Point?
The 2011 census of population reported that Kangaroo Point has
7,000 people with a median age of
35 years of age. Kangaroo Point population is composed of 53.1% people
born in Australia together with people with common countries of
birth of New Zealand, England, India, Ireland and Taiwan. Kangaroo Point has the highest proportion of people living in high rise apartments towards the tip of the peninsula and low-medium residential apartments and houses in the opposite end. Only 16.6% were the stand alone houses and most of the dwellings are flats, units and apartments. Only 18.7% residents are fully owners of their dwelling, while the 59.95 residents are renters.
The History of Kangaroo Point
Kangaroo Point is one the
oldest suburb in the city of
Brisbane. Turrbal people occupied and settled in Brisbane prior the British settlement. The suburb in the 1900 had a reputation for gangs that caused disorder and street violence with a number of riots. An explorer in 1823 named John Oxley described the suburb as a “jungle, fringed with mangroves with the higher land open forest, covered with grass.” In the 1825 to 1841, Kangaroo Point was cleared and cultivation of crops became its use. On the later years, it soon opened for free settlement. And on 13th of December 1843, the first land sale took place. Captain J.C. Wickman, the Police Magistrate, was one of the early purchasers. Then in 1844, the first house in the Kangaroo Point was built by Surveyor James Warner.
In the British settlement, the Church of England opened the
first school in Kangaroo Point in 1861. In 1867, the school was eventually controlled by the Board of Education with separate departments for boys and girls. On the 2nd of March 1874, a separate school was opened for girls and infants. It was then replaced on 20 January 1890 with the
Kangaroo Point Girls School and the
Kangaroo Point Infants School. But in 28 April 1950, the Kangaroo Point Boys School, Kangaroo Point Girls School and Kangaroo Point Infants School was closed and amalgamated to become the Kangaroo Point State School. The school was then closed on 30 June 1965 and the location of the school was redeveloped into parkland in January 2010.
The Yungaba Immigration Centre was built in 1887 on Main Street to replace the poor facilities situated in the William Street. For many years, the suburb was dominated by factories of heavy engineering industries and maritime. Evans Deakin, who is into maritime engineering, constructed the largest ship in Brisbane River and the oil rig called Southern Cross. Southern Cross was the last vessel Evans Deakin built in the Brisbane River. Eventually, Evans Deakin vacated the site and later years after 1976, the high-rise accommodation development emerged. Kangaroo Point is formed peninsula by harder rhyolite rock. The stone from the cliffs was quarried and used as building materials.
In the 1930s, the steam locomotives were built by
Evans Anderson & Phelan for Queensland Railways. Because the construction site is not near the railway, the steam locomotive was then delivered along the Main Street with temporary track. By 1901, the main storage facility of Queensland Navy was located in the Kangaroo Point. In 1903, the building of the first ship-based radio transmission in Australia happened. The Royal Australian Navy occupied the naval stores buildings by 1959 and in 1984 it was occupied by Australian Army. Currently, the buildings become part of Australia’s heritage listing and used by a company providing river activities and rock climbing.
In July 1940, in the opening of the Story Bridge, great development happened in Kangaroo Point. The Brisbane City Council operated Trolleybuses connecting the suburb with the Fortitude Valley in 1953 to 1969 then operating along the Main Street from Woolloongabba and other suburbs in the east.
Land developers and investors have developed great facilities, museums, establishments and residential buildings. Today, Kangaroo Point has continuously developed as a suburb attracting people for their holidays and work.
