Raby Bay

If you go far enough back into history you will find that the name Raby comes from the Danish ra meaning a secluded corner and by meaning a village, but its transportation to this side of the world is due to its association with the English duke after whom Cleveland is named. The first Lord Raby seems to date from the reign of King Cnut (1017-1036) whose kingdom included England, Norway and Denmark. At the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II in the 17th century the owner of Raby Castle was executed, but his grandson later married the grand-daughter of the king. Their grandson, William Harry Vane, born 1766, inherited the Raby castle and honours and was later raised to the dukedom of Cleveland. Politics did not take up all his time. He was called by J.W.Carelton, �The Confucius of Gambling, in all its branches.� So Raby was both the family seat and a title for the Duke of Cleveland.  

Raceview                                                                                                  

Ipswich developed as the squatters� town and these men who lived with horses every day soon started holding race meetings. The first were held along the creek flats at a place which they called Sandy Gallop, but when the first proper racecourse was built it gave the name of Raceview to the suburb which was developed nearby.  

Rainbow Bay, Rainbow Beach                                                                            

The rainbow name was suggested by the tall, multi-coloured sand cliffs along the coast here.  

Rainworth                                                                                           

Rainworth, the name of the home of Queensland�s first Surveyor General, A. C. Gregory ( later Sir Augustus Gregory) and subsequently the name of the suburb which grew up nearby comes from Raungwarth, a Scandinavian name used in England meaning a clean ford.  

Ransome                                                                                            

M.C.H.Ransome ran a firewood business at Lota and procured his supplies from the area which, since 1975, has been officially known by his name. The railway siding put in, 1910, as the Sixteen Mile Siding, two years later was renamed Ransome�s Siding because he was the principal user of it, loading his firewood for transport for sale in Brisbane.  

Rathdowney                                                                                          

Queensland�s Rathdowney is named after the town of Rathdowney in Ireland, north-east of Kilkenny.  

Ravensbourne                                                                                           

Named after a district in Kent, England.  

Redbank                                                                                                   

Charles Fraser, Colonial Botanist, accompanying Captain Logan and his fellow botanist, Allan Cunningham, on journeys of exploration out from Brisbane Town in 1828 wrote that some lightly wooded, black soil country they came across between the Bremer River and Six Mile Creek was of the richest description. A sheep station was established there under the convict settlement administration and coal was extracted for use in the penal settlement of Brisbane. Its name came from the presence of a red soil embankment in that part of the countryside.  

Redcliffe                                                                                                       

On the foreshore at Redcliffe today there is a substantial monument marking the location of the first settlement in what is now South East Queensland. The monument is much more substantial than the buildings of that first settlement, for it was seen as a temporary location until a more permanent site could be found.

Red Cliff Point had been marked on Matthew Flinder�s chart after he anchored off it at 10.30 am on Wednesday, 17 July, 1799. This was what is now known as Woody Point. John Oxley reported that ships could get in reasonably close to the shore there and that there was no difficulty in effecting a landing at any tide. He could not be sure about navigation in other parts of Moreton Bay or into the Brisbane River until further marine survey work was done, so he said that if a settlement were to be established in the Moreton Bay area Red Cliff Point offered the best site in the first instance. When the principal settlement was established up the Brisbane River it could, he thought, be retained as a military post and stores depot.

The settlement was established September, 1824, under the command of Lieutenant Henry Miller who had with him 14 soldiers, some accompanied by wives and children, and 29 convicts. They arrived in the government brig Amity from Sydney. They drew their water from Humpybong Creek. The relocation to a site on the banks of the Brisbane River took place in May of the following year.

The spelling Redcliffe is in official records from 1878.

The buildings of the first settlement were used for a short period by the German missionaries who tried to start mission work among the Aborigines in the late 1830s. One of the long-term residents who benefited from the land sales of the 1880s was the Anglican minister, Rev. John Sutton, who had gone to live there in convalescence after being injured in a fall from a horse. His name lingers in Sutton�s Beach.  

Red Hill

The Aboriginal name for the area covered by this Brisbane suburb was Boonah, the bloodwood tree.

Redland Bay

Europeans named it after the soil there, but to the Aboriginal people it was Talwurrupin, wild cotton tree.

Reesville

The Landsborough Shire Council named this locality near Maleny, Reesville, in 1922, to commemorate the late Mr H. O. Rees who had owned a plant nursery and mixed fruit orchard there.

Regents Park

The name, which had been used for a housing estate developed early in the 1980s, was gazetted, June 1987,

Reynolds Creek

Reynolds was an early settler in the area drained by Reynolds Creek which flows into Warrill Creek. Its Aboriginal name was Pal-loden.

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