Ipswich

From 1827 to 1842 the settlement known as Limestone was an outlying station of convicts from Brisbane under the surveillance of a small military detachment. This station was formed by Captain Patrick Logan, the commandant who explored the Bremer River in early 1827. He subsequently gave the name of Limestone Hills to the ridge overlooking the future site of Ipswich. It was not until February 1842 that the District of Moreton Bay was opened to free settlers, though the penal establishment had been officially closed three years before. Even the agricultural establishment continued on the outskirts of Ipswich until 1848. Early in 1842 Henry Wade surveyed some riverside garden allotments (later Little Ipswich and then West Ipswich), a mile from Governor Gipps’ proposed site for the main settlement. Later in the same year Wade surveyed the township of Limestone including East, Bremer, Bell, Nicholas and Brisbane Streets.