West End State School

West End Brisbane, Queensland
View down Boundary Street towards West End from Dornoch Terrace
Population	9,474 (2016 census)
• Density	4,990/km2 (12,900/sq mi)
Established	1860s
Postcode(s)	4101
Area	1.9 km2 (0.7 sq mi)
LGA(s)	City of Brisbane (The Gabba Ward)
State electorate(s)	South Brisbane
Federal Division(s)	Griffith
Suburbs around West End: Milton South Brisbane South Brisbane Auchenflower West End South Brisbane Toowong St Lucia Highgate Hill Woolloongabba

West End is an inner-city suburb of southern Brisbane. At the 2016 Australian Census the suburb recorded a population of 9,474.

West End was named by early English settlers who found the area reminiscent of the West End of London.

Before the arrival of Europeans in West End, there was an aboriginal camp in the area around upper part of Musgrave Park where Brisbane State High School now stands. Boundary Streets in both West End and Spring Hill were named due to the racist policy of separating European arrivals from the Jagera and Turrbal peoples.

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 local place name of Kurilpa derives from the name Kureel-pa or ‘place of mice’. The name is still used for various local buildings and institutions in West End and South Brisbane. West End was located in the former Electoral District of Kurilpa.

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.

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.