Goodna is a suburb on the eastern edge of the City of Ipswich in Queensland, Australia. In the 2021 census, Goodna had a population of 10,391 people.
Goodna is situated in the Ugarapul traditional Aboriginal country. The Ugarapul people, custodians within the traditional Ugarapul country, spoke a dialect of the Ugarapul language group that continues their culture today.
In 1823 John Oxley led an exploration party who were the first Europeans to visit the area. The area had extensive beds of sandstone. In 1826 Patrick Logan established the Woogaroo Quarry to provide building materials for the Moreton Bay penal colony.
The district was known as Woogaroo, derived from Woogaroo Creek, which in turn appears on the 1840 map of Moreton Bay District prepared by surveyor Robert Dixon. The name Woogaroo is derived from Yuggera language, Ugarapul dialect, indicating shady or cool. The name Goodna superseded the original name, Woogaroo, in 1865.
As early as 1841 there was a sheep run called Woogaroo Station belonging to H.S.Russell and Dr. Stephen Simpson. Simpson was the lands commissioner and magistrate for the Moreton Bay district, and lived in a slab hut while he farmed on the riverbank near the mouth of Woogaroo Creek. As the main road intersected with the track from Coopers Plains and the river, it was a strategic location for Simpson.
The Grenier family of South Brisbane came from New Zealand to Brisbane in 1845 and, while operating the Grenier Inn at South Brisbane, also farmed land known as "The Willows" where Archerfield Airport stands today.
In 1851–1852 Simpson purchased 2,000 acres (8 km) of land, including 640 acres (2.6 km) on Wolston Creek. Other well known pioneers settled or purchased land in the Goodna area: James Holmes arrived in 1851 and established himself as a grazier; Charles Pitt married Thomas Grenier's daughter Mary in 1855 and grew cotton and maize at Redbank Plains. According to "Aldines History of Queensland" Pitt was the second to grow cotton in that area and received £400 from the New South Wales Government (the establishment of Queensland did not occur until 1859). Pitt was also a JP and later on the Purga Divisional Board and involved in the beginnings of the Redbank School.
Historically Goodna was a farming community, primarily in sugar, cotton, livestock (sheep and cattle), and also had a large local timber industry. Large amounts of timber were taken by bullock teams to the Goodna wharf and shipped to Ipswich and Brisbane.
Further settlement took place after Goodna was proclaimed a village in 1856. In the following year Joseph and Ellen (née Thompson) Broad built a store on the site, and sold the store later to Edwin Pitt, son of Charles and Mary Pitt. Edwin and his wife Cecilia (née Thompson sister of Ellen Broad) ran the store as a mixed business and Cecilia was the postmistress (see Aldines). They survived the 1893 Brisbane flood but a little later built Pitt's Hotel Cecil on the store site. It was later burnt down and the RSL is now on that site. Edwin and Cecilia's daughter Zora Brenda Pitt grew up and learnt to ride in Goodna and she became Royal National Show champion woman rider in the early 1900s.
The cemetery opened in 1859.
Harriet Holmes bought 33 acres (130,000 m) in 1860; and Joshua Jeays, later Mayor of Brisbane, bought 40 acres (160,000 m) in the next year.
By 1863 there was a small run to Holmes Inn, where Harriet Holmes was postmistress. The Congregational Church was also opened in 1863. It was built by Mr ES Thomas who was also the lay preacher. Mr Thomas was an Ipswich Councillor and the local JP. As a JP he also filled the role of acting magistrate on occasions. He built the now heritage-listed house at 43 William Street and owned the adjacent general store and bakery. Thomas originally operated a general store in Brisbane Road but this was flooded in 1893. They had to move their best things into the top floor of the nearby hotel.
There was one acting police sergeant and a constable by 1868. W. Law established himself as a blacksmith in 1870.
The first school in Goodna was the Goodna State School which opened on 1 February 1870. By 1874 it had 175 pupils. A pre-school was added in 1975.
On Sunday 16 October 1870 a Primitive Methodist Church was opened.
Goodna Baptist Church opened on 31 December 1871.
On 30 January 1873 the ceremony of "turning the sod" for the first rail link between Ipswich and Brisbane took place at Goodna. Two thousand people attended the event, most arriving by paddle steamer. To officially start the work, the Queensland Governor George Phipps, 2nd Marquess of Normanby, used a solid silver spade to dig a small piece of earth and place it in a wheelbarrow. Cobb and Co coaches stopped at Goodna on their way to and from Brisbane (their only other stops were Oxley and Rocklea). This ended after the railway link was completed in 1875.
The foundation stone of St Patrick's Catholic Church had been laid in 1880 by Bishop James Quinn and the church opened in the following year. It was later renamed St Francis Xavier Catholic Church.
Daniel Jones built the first sawmill in 1884, which was located below the Catholic Church/School grounds in the paddock that reached from Mill Street to Alice Street (known by locals as 'the mill paddock'). In the smaller paddock immediately behind the Presbyterian Church and Manse stood the wooden 'Honey Shed' used by Daniel's brother Harry in conjunction with his apiary. By World War II this use had been discontinued and the site was used by a group of CWA ladies who made camouflage nets for the war effort. The site was also used at one time by the Goodna Scout Group.
By 1888 the population of Goodna was 500, and there were three friendly societies, the Oddfellows, Loyal Rose of Denmark and Good Templars.
St Patrick's Primary School was established on 3 July 1910 by the Sisters of Mercy, whose convent opened in 1911. Circa 1924 it was renamed St Francis Xavier's School.
The Diggers Rest on the corner of Queen and Church Streets is the Goodna War Memorial and was dedicated in September 1921.
Goodna Special School opened on 1 August 1975.
Westside Christian College opened its Stuart Street campus on 1 February 1977.
Westside Christian College opened its Alice Street Campus in 2002.
Goodna celebrated its 150-year anniversary in 2006.
The 2009 Goodna Town Plan introduced buildings up to 12 stories in the main shopping centre area.
In October 2012, Goodna was the first Brisbane/Ipswich suburb to receive the NBN (National Broadband Network) providing fast broadband services.
In the 2016 census, Goodna had a population of 10,461 people. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 5.7% of the population. 54.2% of people were born in Australia. The next most common countries of birth were New Zealand 9.1%, Samoa 3.4%, Vietnam 2.9%, England 2.3% and Philippines 2.2%. 60.1% of people spoke only English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Samoan 7.7%, Vietnamese 4.6%, Tagalog 1.3%, Swahili 1.3% and Spanish 1.2%. The most common responses for religion were No Religion 25.5% and Catholic 18.3%. The median age of the Goodna population is 30 years of age, 8 years below the Australian median. The unemployment rate was 14.3%, compared to the Australian average of 6.9%.
In the 2021 census, Goodna had a population of 10,391 people.
History info courtesy of Wikipedia
