Booval

The Queensland Government Railway Department in their publication 'Nomenclature of Railway Station' states that Booval is a 'Place where young men make kippas.' The ceremony of Kippa-making was part of the initiation of the young Aboriginal to manhood.

European settlement of Booval derived from a private estate and its strategic location on the road and railway between Ipswich and Brisbane.

Booval House was built in the late 1850s for Ipswich bank manager George Faircloth. He might have taken the name from the French 'Beau Val' (beautiful valley) or from England, though Aboriginal derivations have been suggested, including a place of initiation or the frilled lizard. The first Governor of Queensland, Sir George Bowen, and his wife paused at Booval House en route to Ipswich in 1859 and it became one of the Cobb & Co coach stops. The adjacent Raceview cotton fields were worked by the Ipswich Cotton Company.

In 1876, the railway station named Booval was opened on the Brisbane-Ipswich line. By 1882, the only buildings along Brisbane Road were H. Pocock's residence at the Bundamba Creek bridge, Tamar Cottage on the corner of Booval Street and Brisbane Road, a two-storeyed Methodist Church between Marion and Fox Streets, and a shingle-roofed dwelling between Fox and Wilson Streets. From there to the Ulster Hotel in Ipswich there were no further buildings.

There were three public wells in Booval, one at the southwest corner of Cameron Park, one in Cole Street on the southern side of the current Woolworths, and one in Station Road near Clifton Street. In 1898, the Booval Brewing Company sunk a well in Railway Street.

By 1915, the Booval area leading to Blackstone was largely occupied by miners, many of whom were Welsh immigrants. At that time Blackstone Road from Macquarie Street to Margaret Street was fairly well settled with Hastings' bakery, R.H. Lewis' store, Davey Downs butchery and the post office to serve the community. Station Road from the railway station beyond Blackstone Road had quite a few homes, but the Booval stretch remained largely vacant. Along Station Road were two picture theatres, the Alpha run by Jack Neville and the National operated by the Miners Union.

Two of the early houses in the area were Cooneys on Cooney Hill and Jenkins House on the old Brisbane Quarry area. In North Booval, which was sparsely settled, was the original wooden butter factory.

The largest of the suburban shops was the Co-operative Store on the corner of Station and Brisbane Roads, which did well until the 1930s depression.

There were four churches in area: the Methodist Church on the corner of Station and Brisbane Roads; the Church of England in Cothill Road (later moved to Stafford Street); the newly constructed Sacred Heart Church; and the Church of England near the northwest corner of Brisbane and Station Roads.

Several community buildings were completed after the start of the First World War. These included the Booval Police Station with its corrugated fibro roof, while the Sacred Heart Church received a slate roof, which was subsequently replaced.

The Silkstone-Booval State School, with a tile roof and high brick piers, opened in 1915.

The National Hall in Station Road was built for Councillor Easton, squire of Buttonsville, in 1914. A concert and dance was held for the opening, with proceeds going towards war relief in Belgium. After purchase three years later by the Queensland Colliery Employees Union, it continued to operate as a dance hall and picture theatre. In the 1930s the Union extended the hall and built offices at the rear. The building, which was sold to the Ipswich-Blackstone Cambrian Choir in 1983, is now known as the Cambrian Centre, in this Welsh-influenced area.