West End

West End is an inner southern suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

West End is an inner southern suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the 2016 census, West End had a population of 9,474 people.The Aboriginal name for the area is Kurilpa, which means place of the water rat.

Before the arrival of Europeans in West End, there was an important habitual Aboriginal camp in the area around the upper part of Musgrave Park where Brisbane State High School now stands. Boundary Street in West End and in Spring Hill were named as along with Vulture Street and Wellington Road, they formed the original boundary of the Town of Brisbane. Later, when Brisbanegrew out to these boundaries, police probably illegally prevented the Jagera and Turrbal peoples from being within the boundaries of the British settlement at night and on Sundays.The entire riverbank in the West End area was covered with impenetrable rain forest. This was described as a "tangled mass of trees, vines, flowering creepers, staghorns, elkhorns, towering scrub palms, giant ferns, and hundreds of other varieties of the fern family, beautiful and rare orchids, and the wild passion flower". Along the river bank itself were sandy beaches, water lilies in thousands and dangling convolvulus.Bush rats or fawn-footed melomys existed in large numbers in the rain forest and were hunted by driving them into nets. They were roasted and eaten by women only. They featured in various dreaming tales and tribal lore. The Aboriginal place name of Kurilpa derives from the name Kureel-pa meaning place of water rats. The name is still used for various local local places, buildings and institutions in West End and South Brisbane area, e.g. West End was located in the former Electoral District of Kurilpa.

West End was named by early British settlers after the West End of London.European settlers took advantage of the fertile soil to establish farms and orchards. There were strawberry farms where for an entry fee, visitors could eat all they wanted.A creek ran down from the Dornoch Terrace area into a reservoir at the corner of Melbourne and Manning streets from where water was sold. After heavy rain, this creek caused local flooding in West End. There was a spring near the site of the Boundary Hotel which was used by residents from the south side of Brisbane to collect water with long queues forming in dry periods.

A Primitive Methodist Church opened in Hill End in October 1873.On 16 August 1875 three schools opened: West End Boys State School, West End Girls State School and West End Infants State School, with a total of 236 pupils. On 30 June 1936 the boys' and girls' schools were merged creating West End State School. The infants' school was merged into West End State School on 16 December 1994.In the 1880s there was industrial development along Montague Road, including the South Brisbane Gas Works, sawmills and a steam joinery.The farms and orchards were steadily subdivided into suburban allotments which were popular due to the proximity of West End to the city, the river breezes and improving public transport.

West End was one of the first suburbs of Brisbane to be serviced by a tram line, being opened in 1885. Initially the tram was horse-drawn and terminated in Boundary Street, but in 1897 the line was electrified and extended to the corner of Hardgrave Road and Hoogley Street, via Vulture Street. It was subsequently extended down Hoogley Street to the ferry terminus at the end of Hoogley Street in 1925. The tram line closed on 13 April 1969.

St Peter's Anglican Church was dedicated on 11 September 1888 by Archdeacon Nathaniel Dawes. The church was at 14 Mitchell Street (27.4860°S 153.0056°E? / -27.4860; 153.0056? (St Peter's Anglican Church)). Its closure on 24 April 1995 was approved by Archbishop Peter Hollingworth. The site is now an apartment complex.

The West End Library opened in 1925.The foundation stone for St Francis of Assisi Catholic Church was laid on 10 June 1923 by the Apostolic Delegate, Monsignor Bartolomeo Cattaneo. On 26 November 1923 it was opened and blessed by Archbishop James Duhig. It was quickly realised that the site would not be large enough to build a school, so in 1926 an 8-acre (3.2 ha) site immediately across the road from the church was purchased and the church building relocated to the new site (now 47-59 Dornoch Terrace 27.4872°S 153.0089°E? / -27.4872; 153.0089? (St Francis of Assisi Catholic Church)). On 22 January 1928 St Francis' Catholic Primary School opened adjacent to the church by Archbishop Duhig; the school was operated by the Sisters of Mercy with 113 students on the opening day. In 1928 a convent and a presbytery were also built on the larger site. The school closed in 1974 due to the changing demographics of the area.The Dornoch Terrace Bridge was completed in 1941, replacing an older bridge across Boundary Street built in 1888. The 1941 bridge was a precursor to a new bridge across the Brisbane River to the University of Queensland, which was never built. The 2017 University of Queensland Master Plan is still calling for a bridge from West End.The former Tristram's Drink Factory at 79 Boundary Street was built in 1928 and is one of Australia's best examples of the Mission Revival Style architecture. It was converted into a market in the 1990s and remains a heritage landmark of West End.In 1988 the Brisbane School of Distance Education was established at 405 Montague Road. It was the amalgamation of the Primary Correspondence School (opened on 24 January 1922), the Secondary Correspondence School (opened in 1958) and the Preschool Correspondence (opened in 1974). It relocated to Coorparoo in 2011.Scenes for the feature film Jucy (2010) were shot at the now-defunct video store Trash Video in the suburb.The suburb was affected by the 2010–2011 Queensland floods as the Brisbane River broke its banks. From 11 January low-lying areas of the suburb and other places in Brisbane were evacuated.

In the 2016 census, West End had a population of 9,474 people.