Toogoolawah View map of town area

Population 1200

Name

What is now Toogoolawah township was surveyed privately when Cressbrook estate was subdivided and sold as dairy farms in 1904. The town plan was not registered with the survey office until 1st June 1909. The extension of the Brisbane Valley Branch Railway from Esk to the new town (18.69 km) was opened on 8th February 1904. James Henry McConnel, owner of Cresbrook station, suggested the name Bakewell after a village in Derbyshire, England, for the new town and railway station. The Railways Department however favoured the use of Aboriginal names, so McConnel then suggested Toogoolawah, the Aborigines' name for the locality in the Brisbane suburb of Bulimba where McConnel's town house was situated.

Toogoolawah is derived from the Aboriginal words dhoo, a generic term for tree, and goo/lawa, meaning 'crescent shaped' or 'bent like a crescent moon'. The name probably referred to a tree with a deformed trunk which stood on the site in Bulimba, rather than to the supposed shape outlined by the Brisbane River as it rounds Bulimba Point, as alleged by some people.

A Toogoolawah receiving office was opened in June, 1904 and was elevated to post office status in July, 1905. Toogoolawah State School opened on 30th May, 1905.