Ipswich

Sister cities

• Wenzhou

History

Ipswich was tribally known as Coodjirar in the Yugararpul language. Known as the Ugarapul and Yuggerabul people are Australian Aboriginal languages of South-East Queensland. Ipswich City Council, Lockyer Regional Council and the Somerset Regional Council. The languages of Greater Brisbane are related – there is uncertainty over which dialects belong to which language. The Yugarabul language region includes the landscape within the local government boundaries of Brisbane City Council, Ipswich City Council and the Scenic Rim Regional Council. Prior to the arrival of European settlers, what is now called Ipswich was home to one indigenous language groups, including the Warpai tribe, Yuggera and Ugarapul Indigenous Australian groups. The area was first explored by European colonists in 1826, when Captain Patrick Logan, Commandant of the Moreton Bay penal colony, sailed up the Brisbane River and discovered large deposits of limestone and other minerals. The town began in 1827 as a limestone mining settlement and grew rapidly as a major inland port. Ipswich was initially named "The Limestone Hills" and later shortened to "Limestone", however in 1843 it was renamed after the town of Ipswich in England. The population was 932 in 1851 and had risen to 2459 by 1856. It became a municipality in 1858. Ipswich had been a prime candidate for becoming the capital of Queensland from about 1847 when the Rev. John Dunmore Lang had toured both Ipswich and Brisbane, and noted the strength of Ipswich as a port town with access to the wool suppliers of the Darling Downs, but Brisbane was instead chosen due to its mercantile and colonial interests. Brisbane was declared the capital of the new Crown Colony of Queensland in 1859. It was proclaimed a city in 1904. The city became a major…

Most-observed species

• Torresian Crow

  Corvus orru Bonaparte, 1850 · Aves
  13,176
• Noisy Miner

  Manorina melanocephala (Latham, 1801) · Aves
  12,732
• Rainbow Lorikeet

  Trichoglossus haematodus (Linnaeus, 1771) · Aves
  12,538
• Australian Magpie

  Gymnorhina tibicen (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  11,793
• Laughing Kookaburra

  Dacelo novaeguineae (Hermann, 1783) · Aves
  10,039
• Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

  Cacatua galerita (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  9,585
• Pied Butcherbird

  Cracticus nigrogularis (Gould, 1837) · Aves
  8,439
• Pied Currawong

  Strepera graculina (Shaw, 1790) · Aves
  8,325