Woolloongabba
Postcode: 4102
Woolloongabba is an inner suburb of Brisbane, Australia located 1km south of the Brisbane CBD. Experts are divided regarding the Aboriginal meaning of the name, preferring either ‘whirling waters’ (woolloon and capemm) or ‘fight talk place’ (woolloon and gabba). The locals refer to it as The Gabba.
The suburb is home to the Brisbane Cricket Ground (known as “The Gabba”) and the Princess Alexandra Hospital. Woolloongabba is being developed with new apartment buildings due to its proximity to the city, river and South Bank Parklands. Park Road railway station and Mater Hill and Woollongabba Busway Station provide access to public transport. The Pacific Motorway cuts through it.
The suburb has a significant transport history. Between 1884 and 1969 the main railway locomotive depot for lines south of the Brisbane River was beside Stanley St. It was reached via a line that ran beside Stanley St, then crossing it, Logan Road and Ipswich Road to the main line at Dutton Park. By the 1960s services from the depot were causing significant delays to traffic as they crossed these three major roads.
The suburb was served by horse-drawn trams from 1885 to 1897, which were replaced by electric trams, which in turn ceased operation on 13 April 1969. All but one of Brisbane’s trolleybus routes traversed the suburb, from 1953 to 1969. The Gabba Fiveways (the intersection of Stanley St, Main St, Logan Rd and Ipswich Rd) was a complex junction with tram and railway lines, and tram and trolleybus overhead. Trams were controlled by a signalman, who operated the points (or switches) from a signal cabin near the eastern side of the junction. From 1927 until 1969 the largest of the Brisbane City Council’s tram depots was on Ipswich Road, opposite the Princess Alexandria Hospital. It was also used by the council’s buses.