QLDRail & telegraph
Wynnum
A bayside picnic ground that the railway turned into a town.
1889Cleveland railway opens
WHAT STARTED IT
Wynnum faces Moreton Bay just south of the Brisbane River mouth, and its shore was already a favourite picnic ground for people prepared to make the long drive from town. Land had been sold there from 1860, but settlement stayed thin until the Cleveland railway put a station at Wynnum, eleven miles from Brisbane.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
The line opened on 1 November 1889, and its first timetable added Sunday trains running only to Wynnum and back for suburban passengers and day-trippers. The local divisional board took the name Wynnum in 1892 and became a shire in 1902; Wynnum was absorbed into Greater Brisbane in 1925.
TURNING POINTS
1889The Cleveland railway opens on 1 November with a station at Wynnum.
1892The Kianawah divisional board, based at Wynnum, is renamed Wynnum.
1901Alice and Anne Greene open Moreton Bay High School for Girls above the shore.
1925Wynnum is absorbed into the City of Greater Brisbane.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A bayside suburb with its main shopping street on Bay Terrace, a foreshore esplanade, jetty and wading pool. Its heritage-listed convents and old school sites recall the separate seaside town it once was.