Grange Forest Park urban development

Originally a project of the GreenBrook Association -
(now shared with other BushCare groups)

Location
The sketch is not of good quality but it does show the location of the park.

The first two photos illustrate the changing land uses over a period of nearly 60 years, while the remainder illustrate how much can be achieved on a difficult site with constant attention. The latter will have meaning only if you are familiar with the site. If you are not, we suggest you try the 2km circuit walk sometime and return to see the changes that have occurred over the last 20+ years.

(Click on each photo to enlarge).

1936 Aerial photo
Webster Rd and Raymond Rd are in place. It shows a skin-drying facility on the site of the present Stafford Mail Centre. Also the Stafford Tannery. The land which is Grange Forest Park has been almost totally cleared of vegetation, the length of the shadows of the remaining trees indicating that suckering from eucalypt tubers has begun. So the large gums in Grange Forest Park are 70-80 years old.

1946 Aerial photo Part of the future Grange Forest Park is showing substantial regrowth. The white areas are an extraction site which operated during the war years. The fill was used to build Eagle Farm airport. This area is still heavily scarred from that period. Aerial photograph used with permission of the Brisbane City Council.
1958 Aerial photo Blandford St, Alcester St and Leyton St are under construction. Aerial photograph reproduced with permission of the Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Queensland.
Aerial photo circa 1975 ? The skin-drying sheds have been replaced by the Stafford Mail Centre. Stafford Tannery has closed, waiting for Stafford City to be built. The collection of buildings at the bottom left of the photo is a Council depot.
Blandford St entrance 1985 Building an access bridge, and later a trail bike barrier, was our first task.

Blandford St entrance 1986 The bridge and trail bike barrier, now complete. Hand rails were added later.
Mornington St 1983 The whole of the area from the road to the edge of the gully was originally bare. The site was ripped prior to planting. The lower part of the site turned out to have been a rubbish dump.
Mornington St 1987 The goal of the first planting was to test the feasibility of converting mown grass into a closed-canopy forest, without going through the traditional succession planting of wattles and other pioneer species. As can be seen from this photo, it was hugely successful. On the other hand, it took enormous effort and convinced us to focus instead on the regrowth bushland portions of the park.
Mornington St Gully bridge 1987 This bridge was the last link in the 2km circuit walk. The bridge floats on two rafts over several metres of mud. The photo was taken looking east. Back to Greenbrook Association

Grange Forest Park History of urban development

Frank Box 07/07/2008