Calamvale, Queensland

Calamvale Brisbane, Queensland
Part of the Golden Pond wetlands at Calamvale
Population	10,973 (2006 census)
Postcode(s)	4116
Location	18 km (11 mi) from Brisbane GPO
LGA(s)	City of Brisbane
Federal division(s)	Moreton, Oxley
Suburbs around Calamvale: Acacia Ridge Sunnybank Hills Runcorn Algester Calamvale Stretton Parkinson Parkinson Drewvale

Calamvale is a suburb on the south side of the city of Brisbane, Australia. A relatively large suburb, it adjoins Stretton, Parkinson, Sunnybank Hills, Acacia Ridge, Algester and Drewvale. It is 18 kilometres from Brisbane's central business district.

Overview of Calamvale

Calamvale is close to the Karawatha nature reserve. The suburb has a medium-high average income per household. The schools in Calamvale include Calamvale Community College (which combines a primary and a secondary school), Stretton State College (Prep year to Year 9), and Calamvale Special School.

The size of Calamvale is approximately 7 km². It has nine parks covering nearly 1% of the total area. There are three childcare centres located in Calamvale. The population of Calamvale in 1996 was 6053; by 2001 it had risen to 9011, and by 2004 the population was 9836.[1] The predominant age group in Calamvale is 20-29 years.

Households in Calamvale are primarily couples with children who are likely to be repaying between $1000 and $1200 per month on mortgage repayments. In general, people in Calamvale work in professional occupations. In 1996, 71% of the homes in Calamvale were owner-occupied, compared with 67% in 2001. The median house price for the calendar year 2005 was $359,750.[2]

History

Calamvale was named after James Calam, an early settler and prominent landowner in the area. The Calam family built their homestead on a hill at the top of Calam Road near Beaudesert Road. The area was known as Calamvale long before it was officially listed as a suburb in 1972. In 1984, the Calams sold the homestead to the McGuire family, who built the Calamvale Hotel on the land.[3] Urbanization took place in the early 1990s, and development took place in several stages.

Pronunciation of Calamvale

Sid Calam, a descendant of the Calam family, once told a local newspaper journalist that the name Calamvale should be pronounced KAY-lem-vale, because that is how the Calams pronounced it.[4]

Shopping

Calamvale has shopping centres at each end of Kameruka Street, and a larger marketplace with a Woolworths supermarket on the corner of Nottingham Road. A new shopping centre, Calamvale Central has recently opened opposite the Sunnybank Hills Shoppingtown Complex and next to the Calamvale Hotel. It contains a Big W discount department store and another Woolworths supermarket. [5]

Transport

No train stations are in Calamvale, although Altandi and Runcorn train stations are only about a five-minute drive away. Travel to the Brisbane CBD is roughly 30 minutes (off-peak) by car, 40-55 minutes by bus, and 30-45 minutes by train from Runcorn and Altandi railway stations.

Calamvale is serviced by nine bus routes operated by Brisbane Transport and Park Ridge Transit, as listed below. It is in Zone 5 of the TransLink zoning scheme.

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Other services

There is a police station near the western end of Kameruka Street, and several churches, including the Coptic Orthodox Church of St Mary and St Joseph in Hamish Street, Salvation Army Worship Centre in Kameruka Street, Amitabha Buddhist Association of Queensland in Toona Place, and Trinity Independent Baptist Church on Beaudesert Road.

Golden Pond wetlands

An eco-friendly feature of Calamvale is the Golden Pond Wetlands attached to Calamvale Creek.

A natural creek (part of a longer channel known as Scrubby Creek, but locally known as Calamvale Creek) and a riparian wetland run through the lower part of Calamvale. In the late 1990s, two constructed wetlands relying on stormwater runoff were built upstream of the creek on each side of Golden Avenue. They are known as the Golden Pond wetlands.

The wetlands and creek, collectively called the Golden Pond wetland system, provide a small wildfowl habitat and a stormwater treatment train designed to improve the quality of stormwater runoff as it progresses down the creek.[6]

Treatment train

The treatment train is made up of several parts, and purifies water as it flows through each part.

An upstream stormwater drainage channel runs into a sediment basin, which collects the heaviest sediments and allows better-quality water to flow into Wetland 1. Water flows through a gross pollutant trap into Wetland 2, which was originally a small farm dam on the south side of the Golden Avenue road bridge. Overflow water from Wetland 2 runs into a natural riparian wetland fringed with melaleucas, and this runs into a natural creek with small lagoons.

Wildlife

The Calamvale wetlands and creek provide a home and a retreat for ducks, egrets, cormorants, spoonbills, herons, water dragons, turtles, eels, and a large number of other wildfowl and animals.[7]

Water quality

Environmental engineers from Brisbane’s Griffith University have conducted numerous studies on water quality at the creek and wetlands, and have presented papers at conferences internationally on the design and effectiveness of the treatment train.[8]

External links

• Brisbites: Suburban Sites (History)

• ourbrisbane.com website — Calamvale section
• Critters of Calamvale Creek — Photos, and scientific and historical information about the wildlife and research undertaken at Golden Pond and Calamvale Creek