Yeronga is a southern riverside suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , Yeronga had a population of 6,535 people.
Geography
The suburb is bounded to the west and north by the Brisbane River and to the south-east by Ipswich Road.
A total of 16 streets in the Yeronga West area begin with the letter O, including Orvieto Road, Orsova Road and Oriana Crescent, locally known as the 'O zone'. Many of these streets appear to be named after ships and passenger liners owned by the Orient Line, which became part of P&O. They include , , Ormuz and . Some names were used for two or more ships over time. For example, the first was launched in 1911 and sunk by a torpedo in 1917, and the second was launched in 1924 and sunk in the Norwegian campaign in 1940.
Four streets in Yeronga (including two forming a circuit) appear to have been named after prominent architects, being Dalton St, Grounds St, Seidler St and Utzon St.
There were a series of lagoons adjacent to the river, and these were initially used as rubbish tips for the expanding area. Once the lagoons were filled, they were topped with clay and became parks. This explains the relatively large area of parkland, sports fields and open space adjacent to the river in Yeronga today.
History
The name Yeronga is thought to be either derived from the Aboriginal words yarung (meaning sandy or gravelly) and ba (meaning place), or that it derives from the name of the house Yerong-lea, the residence of Charles Hardie Buzacott.
The first inhabitants of the Yeronga area were the Jagera people, whose traditional country is the south side of the Brisbane River.
In 1823 the first Europeans passed through the Brisbane region, being the former convicts, then timber getters, Thomas Pamphlett, John Finnigan and Richard Parsons. Their journey around the Moreton Bay area following being blown off course by a cyclone is an epic story in itself. Suffice to say that in their attempt to walk north along the coastline to Sydney (they thought the cyclone had pushed their boat south of Sydney) they followed the south bank of the Brisbane River (around May 1823) upstream through Yeronga to Oxley Creek (originally named Canoe Creek), where they found a bark canoe and used it to travel further north. The present Pamphlett Bridge at that spot honours the member of the party who could swim, as the canoe was on the west bank of the creek.
The explorer John Oxley sailed into Moreton Bay in November 1823 but didn't see the entrance to the Brisbane River due to the extensive mangrove forest there at the time. He then sailed north and encountered Pamphlett and Finnegan around Bribie Island (Parsons had continued north to the Noosa area). Finnegan then guided Oxley to the entrance of the river, where he sailed upstream as far as Goodna. Thus whilst Oxley is traditionally credited with the discovery of the Brisbane River (and Canoe Creek was renamed in his honour), but for his encounter with Pamphlett and Finnegan he may never have known it was there.
Following the establishment of the Moreton Bay Penal Colony at the site of what is now the Brisbane central business district in 1825, and the opening up of the area to free settlers in 1842, European settlement spread from that site.
The first recorded land sale at Yeronga occurred in 1854, with 154 acres (~62 hectares) being purchased by Edward Cooke and TLM Prior. Being part of NSW at that stage, the contract was sent to Sydney and has not been located. After Queensland became a separate colony in 1859, a second land sale of 100 acres (~40ha) occurred in 1861. When local government was established, Yeronga became part of the Shire of Stephens. This and other councils amalgamated to form the Brisbane City Council in 1925.
Yeronga was originally used for agricultural purposes, and dairy farms were established, especially on the fertile riverside and adjacent floodplains. Crops recorded as grown in the area were cotton, sugar, maize, potatoes and arrowroot. Urban residential settlement first occurred along Fairfield Road, and especially around Station Avenue (now Kadumba St) once the railway opened.
A small coal mine was established near Newcastle Street but appears to have been quickly mined out.Boggo National School opened in January 1867 or on 6 February 1871. In 1886, it was renamed Yeronga State School.
In July 1884, 180 subdivided allotments of "Yeronga Estate", were auctioned by Simon Fraser & Son Auctioneers. A map advertising the shows the estate to be adjoining the Yeronga railway station.