QLDPlanned settlement
Goodna
A riverside village on the Ipswich road, where Brisbane’s railway began.
1856Village of Woogaroo proclaimed
WHAT STARTED IT
Goodna stands where Woogaroo Creek meets the Brisbane River on the road between Ipswich and Brisbane, and its sandstone beds had been quarried for the penal settlement as early as 1826. A village site, then called Woogaroo, was proclaimed in 1856 to serve farmers moving up the river valley.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
The Woogaroo asylum, coal pits to the west and quarries added work, and on 30 January 1873 about two thousand people came by river steamer and road to watch the Governor turn the first sod of the Brisbane–Ipswich railway at Goodna. The line opened in stages in 1874–75 with Goodna as one of its original stations.
TURNING POINTS
1856The village site is proclaimed, then known as Woogaroo.
1862A post office opens.
1873The Governor turns the first sod of the Brisbane–Ipswich railway at Goodna.
1881A sandstone Catholic church, now St Francis Xavier, is built from local stone.
2011The Brisbane River flood inundates about 300 houses.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
An eastern suburb of Ipswich beside the motorway and railway, with the heritage-listed St Francis Xavier church on higher ground. Low-lying parts along the river and Woogaroo Creek flooded in 2011.