Karana Downs, Queensland

Karana Downs is a suburb of Brisbane's west in south-east Queensland, Australia, 22 km from Brisbane's CBD.

A typical leafy cul-de-sac in Karana Downs.

The semi-rural, leafy suburb is bordered by the Brisbane River to the south and east, and Mount Crosby to the west.

The people of Karana Downs are represented in the Queensland Parliament by Bruce Flegg the Liberal Party member for Moggill.

The suburb is serviced by Mount Crosby State School, built in 1984. Karana Downs was developed from the areas of Kholo, Lake Manchester, and Mount Crosby with 5 square kilometres of land being divided in 1973.

As of the 2001 Census, there were 5,177 people residing in Karana Downs. Between the 1996 census and 2001 census, there was a 0.3% population increase.

Originally a suburb of Ipswich, in the 1990's residents lobbied to be integrated into Brisbane City Council, and in 1998 the suburb was rezoned to Brisbane.

Recreation

The Karana Downs Country Club is a major landmark, and this formed the original plans for the Karana Downs development. Kookaburra Park is a large park on the banks of the Brisbane River, with a boat ramp, for water skiing. Karana Downs also has many more parks such as Dumburru Park, Kupi Park, Heritage Park, Burrun Park, Murri Park, Lion's Nature Trail and Illawong Reserve. Many of the streets and parks in Karana Downs were named after Aboriginal nature meanings.

Public Transport

Due to the distance of Karana Downs to the centre of Brisbane, the suburb lacks a public bus service, however, in late 2006, a taxi van with a capacity of 10 people, will ferry people every 20 minutes from 6:30am to 9am from Karana Downs, and nearby Mount Crosby and Anstead, to Bellbowrie, where commuters can link up with the city council bus service. Fares to the taxi company will be subsidised by the Brisbane City Council