Stretton, Queensland

Stretton Brisbane, Queensland
Track into Karawatha Forest at Stretton
Population	4,067 (2011 census)
Postcode(s)	4116
Location	18 km (11 mi) from Brisbane GPO
LGA(s)	City of Brisbane (Calamvale Ward)
State electorate(s)	Electoral district of Stretton
Federal Division(s)	Oxley
Suburbs around Stretton: Sunnybank Hills Runcorn Kuraby Calamvale Stretton Karawatha Drewvale Drewvale Karawatha

Stretton is a suburb on the south side of Brisbane, Australia. It is 17 kilometres (11 mi) from the Brisbane Central Business District, and borders the suburbs of Calamvale, Sunnybank Hills, Karawatha, Kuraby, and Drewvale.

In the early 19th century, the area and many of today's suburbs around the Sunnybank area were part of a vast area known as Coopers Plains. In 1861, Governor Bowen declared a wide area that included Eight Mile Plains to Stretton as a Brisbane Agricultural Reserve.[1] This agricultural reserve was originally used as a source of timber, but when it was found to be good farming land, settlers quickly turned it into farms that produced sought-after fruit, vegetables, and poultry.

Stretton was gazetted as a suburb of Brisbane in 1972, and was named after George Stretton, a settler, postmaster and hotelier at Browns Plains in the 1870s.

More than 65 per cent of households in Stretton are couples with children; 22 per cent are couples without children, and 10 per cent are single-parent households. In 1989 there was controversy regarding the sale of land to Asian investors,[2] and there is a large Asian population in the suburb today. With rare exceptions, the dwellings in Stretton are stand-alone houses — generally modern, brick and tile. Houses in the north-west corner of Stretton include many huge, multi-storey mansions.

In the 2011 census, the population of Stretton was 4,067: 51.5% female and 48.5% male.

The median age of the Stretton population was 36 years, 1 year below the Australian median.

41.6% of people living in Stretton were born in Australia, compared to the national average of 69.8%; the next most common countries of birth were China 7.1%, Taiwan 7%, New Zealand 4.1%, Hong Kong 4%, India 3.1%. 41.4% of people spoke only English at home; the next most popular languages were 16.2% Mandarin, 11.3% Cantonese, 3.3% Vietnamese, 2.9% Hindi, 2.4% Korean.