Pimpama, Queensland
Encyclopedia
Pimpama is a suburb in the northern Gold Coast
. It is located on the Pacific Motorway
30 km north of Surfers Paradise. The township of Pimpama is presently the last remaining rural town on the Pacific Motorway between Brisbane
and the Gold Coast. However with the urban development of the region, Pimpama's population is set to boom in the next 10 years, almost definitely consuming the township.
in 1882.
The first sawmill in South East Queensland was built at Pimpama in 1863 by Jesse Daniells. Arrowroot
cultivation was an early crop grown widely in the area.
Laurel Hill Farmhouse, a single-storeyed timber farm house with attic, was erected in 1883-84 for Pimpama arrowroot grower and manufacturer, William Doherty. The builder was Alexander Fortune of Coomera. At the time, Laurel Hill Farmhouse was considered the finest residence in Pimpama district, and in 1897 was photographed by the Queensland Lands Department as an example of a successful Queensland selector's home.
Much of the Pimpama district had been taken up in the 1850s by William Duckett White of Beau Desert Station, who leased 20000 acres (80.9 km²) between the Logan and Coomera Rivers, including upper Hotham Creek [a tributary of Pimpama River], as Pimpama run. A small settlement was established on Pimpama River c1860, but the site was abandoned within a few years in preference to Hotham Creek. Much of Pimpama run was thrown open for selection from April 1869, and White forfeited his remaining leasehold on Pimpama from 1 January 1870. The private subdivision and sale in February 1870 of town and farm lots at the junction of the Pimpama River and Hotham Creek, consolidated Pimpama township and initiated a small farming community of predominantly Irish settlers.
In the 1860s, farmers along the Pimpama River experimented firstly with cotton growing, then with sugar, both of which initially were dependent on South Pacific Islands labour. By December 1876 the principal Pimpama sugar plantations [Ormeau, Malungmavel, Pimpama and Yahwulpah] had ceased production, and were devoted either to cattle or arrowroot, but some smaller farms in the district continued with sugar growing for several decades.
The Pimpama selectors of the 1870s, searching for a new commercial crop, discovered that the climate, soil, and abundance of pure water in the Pimpama district were ideal for the cultivation and manufacture of arrowroot. Arrowroot gave about the same return as maize or potatoes, but was more frost, drought and flood resistant. The first commercial arrowroot in Pimpama was grown in the late 1860s, and the Lahey family, who moved to Pimpama in 1870 and eventually took up Sunnyside, adjoining William Doherty on Hotham Creek, went into arrowroot cultivation on a large scale, inventing a mechanical processing method which revolutionised the production of arrowroot, and marketing arrowroot under their own brand. By 1884, arrowroot was widely grown in the Pimpama and Coomera districts, and a number of new manufacturing plants were being established.
Most of the selections along upper Hotham Creek were surveyed in 1871, but not proclaimed for selection until August 1874. In the interim, many farmers were 'squatting' on these selections, with no guarantee that they would ultimately secure the land as leasehold.
Irish-born settlers William Doherty and his wife Eliza Fannon had arrived in Queensland by September 1867. It appears that they were resident in Brisbane until November 1869 at least, but had moved to the Pimpama district by August 1870, when William Doherty signed a local petition calling for a provisional school to be established in the area. It is not known where in Pimpama the Doherty family lived at this period, but William Doherty worked on a number of local sugar plantations and farms before taking up his own selections in the mid-1870s.
In October 1874, Doherty selected portion 21, parish of Pimpama [158 acre (0.63940388 km²) of second class pastoral land on Hotham Creek, on which Laurel Hill Farmhouse was later built]. The block already contained some improvements, including a slab barn and a small humpy [dwelling], and about 12 acres (48,562.3 m²) of scrub cleared and partly under cultivation, for which Doherty paid £20, and was issued with a conditional lease on the property for 10 years from 1 January 1875. At the same time he selected the adjoining portion 31 [135 acres], on which existing improvements comprised a bark-roofed barn, a small slab house
, some cleared scrub and a small stockyard. It appears that the Dohertys resided on portion 31 from October 1874 until mid-1879, when they moved to portion 21. In 1879, Doherty also acquired the lease to portion 151, an 84 acres (339,936.2 m²) block which abutted the eastern boundary of portion 21.
In January 1884 he obtained title to portions 21 & 31, and embarked on substantial improvements to the property, which he had named Laurel Hill. A fine new house, erected for the Dohertys by Coomera builder Alexander Fortune, was completed by late January 1884. [This is understood to be the existing Laurel Hill Farmhouse.] Fortune, resident in the Coomera district by 1872, was a carpenter by trade, and had erected Coomera State School and an Anglican church at upper Coomera.
At Laurel Hill, William Doherty raised cattle and grew various crops. By 1884 he had between 40 and 50 acres (202,343 m²) under arrowroot, and erected his own factory in the first half of the year. Remnants of this mill survive. Before the turn of the century, he purchased Pimpama Plantation at Ormeau, [approximately 1150 acres (4.7 km²) which he used for grazing purposes], and c1901 acquired Sunnyside, the Lahey family's substantial arrowroot plantation adjacent to Laurel Hill on Hotham Creek. Following William Doherty's death in 1904, the properties were divided between his three sons: Laurel Hill went to William Alexander [Alex], Sunnyside [re-named Willowvale by the Dohertys] to Thomas, and Pimpama to Robert.
By 1908, Queensland farmers on about a dozen farms in the Yatala, Pimpama, Ormeau and Nerang districts, were supplying almost the whole of the arrowroot used in Australia. Doherty Brothers of Hotham Creek and Robert Doherty of Ormeau, with together approximately 100 acre (0.404686 km²) under arrowroot [or 50% of the total 200 acre (0.809372 km²) under arrowroot in these districts], were among the largest arrowroot growers/producers in Australia. The Willowvale arrowroot mill was moved further downstream on Hotham Creek, closer to the Pacific Highway at Pimpama, and continued production until the mid-1930s. Alex Doherty at Laurel Hill turned to dairying in the early 1920s before retiring to the Gold Coast c1947. Subsequently the property was purchased by the Miles family of Pimpama, with title to Laurel Hill transferred in 1950. Members of this family resided in the house until mid-October 1997.
The Doherty family were prominent members of the local community, involved in church and civic affairs. William Doherty was a trustee of Pimpama School of Arts and served as a councillor on Coomera Divisional Board from c1887 to c1889. His son Thomas later became chairman of Coomera Shire.
Some changes to the farmhouse were made during the Doherty family's occupation. There is evidence of minor re-arrangement of internal partition walls, and the staircase to the attic has been removed and the stairwell enclosed, possibly in the 1920s. The ceiling linings in several of the rooms may date to the 1920s also. The original kitchen wing reputedly burnt down in the late 1920s, and was replaced with the present kitchen building.
The township was built around a sawmill, after the Second World War
. A railway station was located on the old South Coast railway line, which ran from Brisbane to Coolangatta. From 1930 onwards there was a move toward dairy farming in the Pimpama/Willow Vale region; more recently these farms were used for fattening cattle.
marks the northern boundary of the suburb, which flows from the Darlington Range at Kingsholme down to Moreton Bay
. Hotham Creek also flows through the suburb and meets with Pimpama River to the north-east of the suburb.
Extensive and intensive urban development came to Pimpama in the first decade of the 21st century, as a result of planning that had started ten years earlier.
In 1995 the Gold Coast City Council (GCCC) and the Queensland Government collaborated in staging “The Coomera Charrette Planning Study”. By that year, there was general agreement between the Commonwealth Government, the Queensland Government, and the GCCC that in the northern part of the territory administered by the GCCC a new urban area should be created, involving a new city centre based at Coomera, in what had previously been mainly rural land.
This proposal bore similarities to the earlier Robina project in the south, and a justification was that in large parts of the Pimpama/Coomera area there had been rural subdivisions in the 1970s that had created wide swathes of 2-5 hectare parcels, thought to be useless for anything except further subdivision into much smaller lots.
The innovative Charrette method, never before used in Queensland, assembled everyone who at that time had a stake in the development of the area. Participants included local residents and landowners; clubs and associations; land developers; state and federal officials representing road and railway authorities; GCCC personnel involved in planning, sewerage, water, traffic and so on, and many others. The intention was that this diverse group would be put into a ‘pressure cooker’ environment for a week, charged with coming up with overall concept plans for further consideration by the various authorities. It was purely a study, with no executive power.
The Charrette zone straddled the Pacific Highway, with its northern boundary on Hotham Creek and southern boundary on the Coomera river. The total area was over 5000 hectares, comprising at the time 1207 separate rateable properties in 603 different ownerships.
The GCCC Local Area Plans that flowed eventually from the Charrette - pretty closely following its recommendations - comprised one of the largest re-zonings in south-east Queensland, intended to house 66,000 people.
It was held during the week of 28th June to 3rd July 1995. The Charrette leader was Professor Paul Murrain, a highly-regarded English urban planning consultant who was imported for the occasion and proved an inspirational speaker.
The Charrette process sent a signal to anyone who was paying attention that in due course there would indeed be large-scale rezoning in the Pimpama district. Land developers (the word speculator is also applicable) moved in and a great many properties changed hands before any official rezoning took place, in many cases leading to the consolidation of large parcels. One of the leading developers to emerge in Pimpama was Mirvac Ltd., who acquired a very large tract running along the northern side of Yawalpah Road practically for its entire length (at the time) including the Gainsborough Greens golf course and several farms.
Significant construction works moved ahead in and around Coomera (which had sewerage connections to the existing Coombabah facility) but similar activity in Pimpama had to await environmental studies associated with the construction of the Pimpama Waste Water Treatment Plant, which was not begun until 2006. The completion of Stage 1 late in 2008, with associated trunk sewers, signalled the launch of a spate of housing subdivisions.
course, as well as a go-kart
track.
Gainsborough Greens, a golf course is also located in the suburb. Another golf course, Pacific Springs was partly demolished to make way for the Pacific Motorway upgrade in the early 2000s. Remains of the course, as well as the street formerly accessing the course still exist, west of the Hotham Creek crossing of the motorway.
through Ormeau railway station
, also located in Canowindra.
Gold Coast, Queensland
Gold Coast is a coastal city of Australia located in South East Queensland, 94km south of the state capital Brisbane. With a population approximately 540,000 in 2010, it is the second most populous city in the state, the sixth most populous city in the country, and also the most populous...
. It is located on the Pacific Motorway
Pacific Motorway
The Pacific Motorway is a 100 km long motorway in Australia between Brisbane, Queensland, and the New South Wales-Queensland border at Tweed Heads. The motorway starts at Coronation Drive at Milton in Brisbane, and from 2008 links the Tweed Heads bypass in New South Wales...
30 km north of Surfers Paradise. The township of Pimpama is presently the last remaining rural town on the Pacific Motorway between Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
and the Gold Coast. However with the urban development of the region, Pimpama's population is set to boom in the next 10 years, almost definitely consuming the township.
History
From about 1868 Pimpama was the terminus of Cobb & Co Coach services from Brisbane. As a result of this, two hotels were built on either side of Hotham Creek, neither of which remain today. The route was extended to NerangNerang, Queensland
Nerang is a suburb on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, that lies upon the Nerang River. At the 2006 Census, Nerang had a population of 16,066....
in 1882.
The first sawmill in South East Queensland was built at Pimpama in 1863 by Jesse Daniells. Arrowroot
Arrowroot
Arrowroot, or obedience plant , Bermuda arrowroot, araru, ararao, is a large perennial herb found in rainforest habitats...
cultivation was an early crop grown widely in the area.
Laurel Hill Farmhouse, a single-storeyed timber farm house with attic, was erected in 1883-84 for Pimpama arrowroot grower and manufacturer, William Doherty. The builder was Alexander Fortune of Coomera. At the time, Laurel Hill Farmhouse was considered the finest residence in Pimpama district, and in 1897 was photographed by the Queensland Lands Department as an example of a successful Queensland selector's home.
Much of the Pimpama district had been taken up in the 1850s by William Duckett White of Beau Desert Station, who leased 20000 acres (80.9 km²) between the Logan and Coomera Rivers, including upper Hotham Creek [a tributary of Pimpama River], as Pimpama run. A small settlement was established on Pimpama River c1860, but the site was abandoned within a few years in preference to Hotham Creek. Much of Pimpama run was thrown open for selection from April 1869, and White forfeited his remaining leasehold on Pimpama from 1 January 1870. The private subdivision and sale in February 1870 of town and farm lots at the junction of the Pimpama River and Hotham Creek, consolidated Pimpama township and initiated a small farming community of predominantly Irish settlers.
In the 1860s, farmers along the Pimpama River experimented firstly with cotton growing, then with sugar, both of which initially were dependent on South Pacific Islands labour. By December 1876 the principal Pimpama sugar plantations [Ormeau, Malungmavel, Pimpama and Yahwulpah] had ceased production, and were devoted either to cattle or arrowroot, but some smaller farms in the district continued with sugar growing for several decades.
The Pimpama selectors of the 1870s, searching for a new commercial crop, discovered that the climate, soil, and abundance of pure water in the Pimpama district were ideal for the cultivation and manufacture of arrowroot. Arrowroot gave about the same return as maize or potatoes, but was more frost, drought and flood resistant. The first commercial arrowroot in Pimpama was grown in the late 1860s, and the Lahey family, who moved to Pimpama in 1870 and eventually took up Sunnyside, adjoining William Doherty on Hotham Creek, went into arrowroot cultivation on a large scale, inventing a mechanical processing method which revolutionised the production of arrowroot, and marketing arrowroot under their own brand. By 1884, arrowroot was widely grown in the Pimpama and Coomera districts, and a number of new manufacturing plants were being established.
Most of the selections along upper Hotham Creek were surveyed in 1871, but not proclaimed for selection until August 1874. In the interim, many farmers were 'squatting' on these selections, with no guarantee that they would ultimately secure the land as leasehold.
Irish-born settlers William Doherty and his wife Eliza Fannon had arrived in Queensland by September 1867. It appears that they were resident in Brisbane until November 1869 at least, but had moved to the Pimpama district by August 1870, when William Doherty signed a local petition calling for a provisional school to be established in the area. It is not known where in Pimpama the Doherty family lived at this period, but William Doherty worked on a number of local sugar plantations and farms before taking up his own selections in the mid-1870s.
In October 1874, Doherty selected portion 21, parish of Pimpama [158 acre (0.63940388 km²) of second class pastoral land on Hotham Creek, on which Laurel Hill Farmhouse was later built]. The block already contained some improvements, including a slab barn and a small humpy [dwelling], and about 12 acres (48,562.3 m²) of scrub cleared and partly under cultivation, for which Doherty paid £20, and was issued with a conditional lease on the property for 10 years from 1 January 1875. At the same time he selected the adjoining portion 31 [135 acres], on which existing improvements comprised a bark-roofed barn, a small slab house
Slab Hut
A Slab Hut is a kind of dwelling or shed made from slabs of split or sawn timber. It was a common form of construction used by settlers in Australia and New Zealand during their nations' Colonial periods.-The Australian Settler:...
, some cleared scrub and a small stockyard. It appears that the Dohertys resided on portion 31 from October 1874 until mid-1879, when they moved to portion 21. In 1879, Doherty also acquired the lease to portion 151, an 84 acres (339,936.2 m²) block which abutted the eastern boundary of portion 21.
In January 1884 he obtained title to portions 21 & 31, and embarked on substantial improvements to the property, which he had named Laurel Hill. A fine new house, erected for the Dohertys by Coomera builder Alexander Fortune, was completed by late January 1884. [This is understood to be the existing Laurel Hill Farmhouse.] Fortune, resident in the Coomera district by 1872, was a carpenter by trade, and had erected Coomera State School and an Anglican church at upper Coomera.
At Laurel Hill, William Doherty raised cattle and grew various crops. By 1884 he had between 40 and 50 acres (202,343 m²) under arrowroot, and erected his own factory in the first half of the year. Remnants of this mill survive. Before the turn of the century, he purchased Pimpama Plantation at Ormeau, [approximately 1150 acres (4.7 km²) which he used for grazing purposes], and c1901 acquired Sunnyside, the Lahey family's substantial arrowroot plantation adjacent to Laurel Hill on Hotham Creek. Following William Doherty's death in 1904, the properties were divided between his three sons: Laurel Hill went to William Alexander [Alex], Sunnyside [re-named Willowvale by the Dohertys] to Thomas, and Pimpama to Robert.
By 1908, Queensland farmers on about a dozen farms in the Yatala, Pimpama, Ormeau and Nerang districts, were supplying almost the whole of the arrowroot used in Australia. Doherty Brothers of Hotham Creek and Robert Doherty of Ormeau, with together approximately 100 acre (0.404686 km²) under arrowroot [or 50% of the total 200 acre (0.809372 km²) under arrowroot in these districts], were among the largest arrowroot growers/producers in Australia. The Willowvale arrowroot mill was moved further downstream on Hotham Creek, closer to the Pacific Highway at Pimpama, and continued production until the mid-1930s. Alex Doherty at Laurel Hill turned to dairying in the early 1920s before retiring to the Gold Coast c1947. Subsequently the property was purchased by the Miles family of Pimpama, with title to Laurel Hill transferred in 1950. Members of this family resided in the house until mid-October 1997.
The Doherty family were prominent members of the local community, involved in church and civic affairs. William Doherty was a trustee of Pimpama School of Arts and served as a councillor on Coomera Divisional Board from c1887 to c1889. His son Thomas later became chairman of Coomera Shire.
Some changes to the farmhouse were made during the Doherty family's occupation. There is evidence of minor re-arrangement of internal partition walls, and the staircase to the attic has been removed and the stairwell enclosed, possibly in the 1920s. The ceiling linings in several of the rooms may date to the 1920s also. The original kitchen wing reputedly burnt down in the late 1920s, and was replaced with the present kitchen building.
The township was built around a sawmill, after the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. A railway station was located on the old South Coast railway line, which ran from Brisbane to Coolangatta. From 1930 onwards there was a move toward dairy farming in the Pimpama/Willow Vale region; more recently these farms were used for fattening cattle.
Geography
The Pimpama RiverPimpama River
The Pimpama River is a river situated in South East Queensland, with its catchment located in the northern part of Gold Coast City. It is bounded by the Logan/Albert River catchment to the north, the Coomera River catchment to the south and the Broadwater in the east...
marks the northern boundary of the suburb, which flows from the Darlington Range at Kingsholme down to Moreton Bay
Moreton Bay
Moreton Bay is a bay on the eastern coast of Australia 45 km from Brisbane, Queensland. It is one of Queensland's most important coastal resources...
. Hotham Creek also flows through the suburb and meets with Pimpama River to the north-east of the suburb.
Demographics and urban planning
For the twenty years prior to 2010 most of the population of Pimpama was concentrated in the Canowindra estate, located in the north of the suburb. This estate, first developed in the 1980s is often referred to as a suburb itself. Hawthorne Woods, an estate built since 2000 across the motorway from the township also contained a large portion of the population. At this time the hamlet of Pimpama consisted of a general store surrounded by a handful of homes. Some employment was offered by a large sawmill and hardware business, and by the ambulance station serving the Pacific Motorway. The owners of the general store, Jenny Houston and her son Robert, had enlarged the property to include a bar and a small restaurant.Extensive and intensive urban development came to Pimpama in the first decade of the 21st century, as a result of planning that had started ten years earlier.
In 1995 the Gold Coast City Council (GCCC) and the Queensland Government collaborated in staging “The Coomera Charrette Planning Study”. By that year, there was general agreement between the Commonwealth Government, the Queensland Government, and the GCCC that in the northern part of the territory administered by the GCCC a new urban area should be created, involving a new city centre based at Coomera, in what had previously been mainly rural land.
This proposal bore similarities to the earlier Robina project in the south, and a justification was that in large parts of the Pimpama/Coomera area there had been rural subdivisions in the 1970s that had created wide swathes of 2-5 hectare parcels, thought to be useless for anything except further subdivision into much smaller lots.
The innovative Charrette method, never before used in Queensland, assembled everyone who at that time had a stake in the development of the area. Participants included local residents and landowners; clubs and associations; land developers; state and federal officials representing road and railway authorities; GCCC personnel involved in planning, sewerage, water, traffic and so on, and many others. The intention was that this diverse group would be put into a ‘pressure cooker’ environment for a week, charged with coming up with overall concept plans for further consideration by the various authorities. It was purely a study, with no executive power.
The Charrette zone straddled the Pacific Highway, with its northern boundary on Hotham Creek and southern boundary on the Coomera river. The total area was over 5000 hectares, comprising at the time 1207 separate rateable properties in 603 different ownerships.
The GCCC Local Area Plans that flowed eventually from the Charrette - pretty closely following its recommendations - comprised one of the largest re-zonings in south-east Queensland, intended to house 66,000 people.
It was held during the week of 28th June to 3rd July 1995. The Charrette leader was Professor Paul Murrain, a highly-regarded English urban planning consultant who was imported for the occasion and proved an inspirational speaker.
The Charrette process sent a signal to anyone who was paying attention that in due course there would indeed be large-scale rezoning in the Pimpama district. Land developers (the word speculator is also applicable) moved in and a great many properties changed hands before any official rezoning took place, in many cases leading to the consolidation of large parcels. One of the leading developers to emerge in Pimpama was Mirvac Ltd., who acquired a very large tract running along the northern side of Yawalpah Road practically for its entire length (at the time) including the Gainsborough Greens golf course and several farms.
Significant construction works moved ahead in and around Coomera (which had sewerage connections to the existing Coombabah facility) but similar activity in Pimpama had to await environmental studies associated with the construction of the Pimpama Waste Water Treatment Plant, which was not begun until 2006. The completion of Stage 1 late in 2008, with associated trunk sewers, signalled the launch of a spate of housing subdivisions.
Tourism
Pimpama is home to a few tourist attractions. The Strawberry Farm is a working farm located in the township. It is home to a variety of animals, as well as a kiosk. The Le Mans complex contains Australia's only ZorbZorbing
Zorbing is the recreation of rolling downhill in an orb, generally made of transparent plastic. Zorbing is generally performed on a gentle slope, but can also be done on a level surface, permitting more rider control. In the absence of hills some operators have constructed inflatable, wooden or...
course, as well as a go-kart
Kart racing
Kart racing or karting is a variant of open-wheel motorsport with small, open, four-wheeled vehicles called karts, go-karts, or gearbox/shifter karts depending on the design. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits...
track.
Gainsborough Greens, a golf course is also located in the suburb. Another golf course, Pacific Springs was partly demolished to make way for the Pacific Motorway upgrade in the early 2000s. Remains of the course, as well as the street formerly accessing the course still exist, west of the Hotham Creek crossing of the motorway.
Infrastructure
Pimpama is home to two state primary schools, Pimpama State School, located near the township; and Ormeau State School, located in Canowindra estate. The suburb is serviced by QR CitytrainCityTrain
Citytrain is the brand name of urban, suburban and inter-urban electric passenger railway services in South East Queensland, Australia. Its network, centering in Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, is approximately in route length...
through Ormeau railway station
Ormeau railway station, Queensland
Ormeau is a railway station on the Gold Coast Line of South East Queensland, Australia. It is part of the Queensland Rail City network.-Location:Ormeau station is located in the subub of Ormeau, south of Brisbane Central by rail...
, also located in Canowindra.