Lawnton (Qld.)

DETAILS

NameLawnton (Qld.)DescriptionLawnton, a residential suburb in the Moreton Bay area lies immediately south of the North Pine River situated between Petrie and Strathpine in the former Pine Rivers Shire.

Lawnton has local shops opposite the train station, a showground, a community hall, Churches and a swimming pool.

Lawnton was named after Stephen Lawn who was a pioneer farmer, blacksmith and wheelwright.

Until the coming of the North Coast Railway in 1888, the locality now known as Lawnton was considered to be part of the North Pine district. Closer settlement of this area dated from 1862 when country farm allotments along the North Pine River were surveyed and first put up for sale. A newspaper report in 1931 on "Lawnton's noted dairy farms" stated that:

Seventy years ago Lawnton was dense scrub, from which valuable timbers were obtained. Later, when the scrub was cleared, mixed farming was taken up, with much of the land being of exceptional fertility, owing to periodic floodings by the Pine River... [Brisbane Courier, 22 August 1931, p.9.]

The first farmers grew a variety of crops, but later farmers specialised in dairying and pig raising and cultivated lucerne, maize, wheat and cow cane as fodder crops. From 1888 until the 1930s, when road transport took over, large quantities of fresh milk were railed to Brisbane from the Lawnton Railway Station.

Stephen Lawn (1836-1917) was a farmer, blacksmith and wheelwright in the North Pine/Lawnton area during the late 19th century. Lawn migrated to Queensland from Helmsley, Yorkshire, England, in 1862 and selected land north of the North Pine River in partnership with John Atkinson Thompson. As Lawn was a blacksmith by trade, he put up a small smithy so that he could supplement his income from farming by obtaining work from other settlers. The extra traffic brought about by the Gympie gold rush provided sufficient business to enable him to concentrate on blacksmithing full-time. In 1873, he bought better land south of the River and moved his business to the new site located near today's Lawnton Tavern. As some of this land was acquired for the construction of the North Coast Railway in 1887, the Lawnton Railway Station and the surrounding district were named in his honour.

An important local industry, first known as the Lawnton Cornflour and Starch Mills, was established in 1898 by Walter Francis. This landmark complex of buildings stood for more than 90 years on land bounded by Four Mile Creek and Gympie Road (near present day Paisley Avenue). Walter's sons, Herbert Stephen Francis and Harold Walter Francis, operated the business for some years in partnership with Robert Joyce who was familiar with the process of extracting cornflour from maize. Maize was bought from farmers in surrounding districts and railed from further afield to the Lawnton Railway Station. Water for the mill came from nearby Four Mile Creek; Walter Francis had tested the water in creeks around Brisbane and found that the purest water came from the Four Mile Creek.

By the late 1920s, the mill was producing between three and four tons of cornflour every week. The name 'Paisley', under which the cornflour was marketed, came from the town of Paisley near Glasgow (Scotland) which had a very large cornflour mill. A third generation of the family, James Walter Francis and his brother William Herbert Francis, took over the operation of the mill and carried on producing cornflour and starch until the business closed down in the 1960s.

The Queensland Acclimatisation Society, first formed in 1862, moved its operations from Bowen Hills to 100 acres (40 hectares) of land on the south bank of the North Pine River at Lawnton in 1905. The Society had been established to facilitate the development of Queensland agriculture by importing, acclimatising and domesticating overseas animals and plants. By the end of 1908, sugarcane, pineapples, papaws, cotton, raspberries, date palms, mangoes, olives, sweet potatoes, citrus trees and cassava, as well as various fibres and grasses, were being trialled on the Lawnton property.

Over one hundred other plants were being grown in bush and glasshouses. In later years, particular success was achieved with avocados, custard apples, pecan nuts and soya beans. By the late 1930s, as the land in the Lawnton area had been worked out as a consequence of several decades of very successful activity, the Society decided to move its operations to Redland Bay. Not long after this, however, the Society voluntarily went out out of existence because it was considered that the C.S.I.R.O. and the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Stock were better equipped to make further contributions to agricultural knowledge.

By the late 1960s, Brisbane newspapers were reporting that developers were rapidly subdividing farms in the Lawnton area into residential lots to cater for the suburban housing boom that had encroached upon the area. By 1969, the population passed the 2,000 mark. Only a few years later, by 1973, this figure had grown to nearly 5,000.

Photograph

2011 Flood - Leis Park - Lawnton

Acclimatisation Society Gardens, Lawnton

Addition of concrete pylons to the North Pine River railway bridge, 1994

Aerial photograph looking east from over Lawnton Pocket Road towards the junction of the North Pine River and South Pine River

Aerial photograph looking east from the Gympie Road bridge over the North Pine River

Aerial photograph looking east over Lawnton and Petrie

Aerial photograph looking north along the railway line and Gympie Road

Aerial photograph looking north over Lawnton and Petrie

Aerial photograph looking north over Lawnton towards the North Pine River and Petrie, 1965

Aerial photograph looking northeast from Lawnton, 1972

Aerial photograph looking northeast towards Strathpine, Bray Park and Lawnton

Aerial photograph looking northwest from Strathpine, 1972

Aerial photograph looking northwest over the South Pine River and Westfield Shopping Centre, Strathpine

Aerial photograph looking south across the North Pine River

Aerial photograph looking south along the railway line and Gympie Road Lawnton and Strathpine

Aerial photograph looking south from the North Pine River at Oxley's Inlet, Murrumba Downs

Aerial photograph looking south over the North Pine River and Bray Road Lawnton

Aerial photograph looking south over the North Pine River towards Strathpine

Map and Plan

BRAY ROAD LAWNTON WIDENING AND KERB & CHANNEL ASTER STREET TO AKERS ROAD [map]

BRAY ROAD LAWNTON WIDENING AND KERB & CHANNEL INTERSECTION DETAILS [map]

BRAY ROAD SHOULDER WIDENING AND KERB AND CHANNEL BETWEEN EBERT PARADE AND AKERS ROAD [map]

BUTCHER AVENUE LAWNTON PLAN LONGITUDINAL AND CROSS SECTIONS [map]

INSTALL 300KVA PADMOUNTED TRANSF. BRISBANE - WOODFORD ROAD LAWNTON [map]

LAWNTON LAWN CEMETERY [map]

LAWNTON SPECIAL SCHOOL [map]

LAWNTON SWIMMING POOL COMPLEX LEARNER'S POOL [map]

LAWNTON SWIMMING POOL COMPLEX [map]

Map of RAAF landing ground at Strathpine

Map of Strathpine A1 & A2 airstrips (World War 2 (WWII))

NORTH PINE CEMETERY AT LAWNTON PLAN [map]

PART OF PINE RIVERS SHIRE COUNCIL OLD DIVISIONS MAP [map]

PLAN OF DETAIL SURVEY OF NO. 1 STRIP LAWNTON USA DISPERSAL AREAS [map]

Reference

INTERVIEW WITH JAMES EBERT

INTERVIEW WITH JOHN WOOD MITCHELL

INTERVIEW WITH KEITH HOUGHTON

INTERVIEW WITH MR KEITH BEAKEY

INTERVIEW WITH SHIRLEY GASCOIGNE

INTERVIEW WITH VERA FRANCIS

INTERVIEW WITH WILLIAM THOMAS BARBOUR

Interview with Mary Bray

LAWNTON : BUILDINGS/CHURCHES

LAWNTON STATE SCHOOL

LETTER

Lawnton : businesses

PIONEER SETTLERS : STEPHEN LAWN

THOMAS NATHANIEL BRAY AND JOHN SANDERS BRAY

Transcript

James Robert (Bob) EBERT - Interviewed on 14 November 2000 - Transcript

Lawnton Cemetery Tour - filmed 23 October 2020

Lee Eccles - Interviewed on 8 June 2004

Neil CHESNEY - Interviewed 14 November 2002 - Transcript

Verna MYLES - Interviewed on 17 May 2001 - Transcript

Wallace YOUNG - Interviewed on 17 April 2001 - Transcript

Video

Brian FRANCIS - Interviewed on 18 June 2001

Lawnton Cemetery Tour - filmed 23 October 2020

Lee ECCLES - Interviewed on 8 June 2004

Moreton Bay Flood Recovery - Asset Maintenance

Verna MYLES - Interviewed on 17 May 2001

Wallace YOUNG - Interviewed on 17 April 2001

Service Personnel

Clarence Leslie Smith, SN 7051, Service Record

James Henry Walker, SN 3399, Service Record

Thomas Henry Slater, SN 2941, Service Record

Walter Robert Herman, SN 5602, Service Record

Oral History

Brian FRANCIS - Interviewed on 18 June 2001

Lee ECCLES - Interviewed on 8 June 2004

Wallace YOUNG - Interviewed on 17 April 2001

Collection

Cadastral 20 Chain Series

Lawnton Swimming Pool photographs, promotional events, 1990s

Document

Certificate of Merit, North Pine Show, 1912

First prize certificate, North Pine Show, 1911

Organisation

Moreton Bay Regional Council

Memorial and Honour Board

Pine Rivers Memorial Gates

Story

Pinelands Street Lawnton - 24 Jun 2020 - Our COVID-19 story

Multimedia

Lawnton Cemetery Tour - filmed 23 October 2020

GEOTAG

Geo coords^[1]Geo address38,Todds Road,Lawnton,4501,Australia

CONNECTIONS

OrganisationMoreton Bay Regional Council Last edited by: Madi.Weight@moretonbay.qld.gov.au

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Lawnton (Qld.)