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Redbank
The Redbank area owes its origin to pastoralism and agriculture, but it has had a more diverse history. Though said to have been named by the explorer Major Edmund Lockyer in 1825, his red bank was near Bryden. Redbank probably took its name later and more directly from the red soil in the riverbank.
In 1836, during the convict era, a government station was established for breeding sheep and cattle. Free settlement was allowed in 1842. In late 1842 the Petrie family, builders of early Brisbane, established a wharf and store, in conjunction with the public house of ship’s captain John Chambers. Their ambition to develop a river port, which tapped the wool trade in competition with Ipswich, lapsed within a few weeks.
The first known coal mine in Queensland was opened on the riverbank at Redbank in 1843 to supply coal for paddle steamers. The first farmers settled on the river flats' north of the current railway station in the late 1850s. The instigator was James Campbell, a Scotsman who founded the well-known Queensland hardware and building materials company. The settlement included a brickworks, sawmill, stores, cottages, a school and a nondenominational church. Some years later these were relocated south of the railway station due to severe flooding.
Redbank was a centre for industrial enterprises including coal mining, brickworks, food processing and a woollen mill. Military training camps were held at the Redbank Rifle Range and during World War II, a large army camp was established in the area.
References (offline)Ipswich Heritage Study (1992)