Capalaba, Queensland


Capalaba is an urban locality in the City of Redland, Queensland, Australia. In the, Capalaba had a population of 17,333 people.

Geography

The suburb has large shopping and commercial centres with two malls and a major bus station, as well as light industrial zones surrounded by bushland and residential streets, making it the second most populous suburb in the Redlands. Surrounding suburbs include Alexandra Hills, Birkdale, and Sheldon, also in Redland City, along with Burbank and Chandler, which lie within Brisbane.
Tingalpa Creek marks the border between Capalaba in the east and the City of Brisbane in the west, making the suburb a gateway to the coastal Redlands region for urban Brisbanites.

History

The name of Capalaba is believed to be derived from the Indigenous Yugarabul word for the ringtail possum, a marsupial native to the area.
European settlement began in the 1850s, led by farmers, lumberjacks, and sawmill operators. The town became important in the overland trade link between the settlements of Brisbane and Cleveland. Crossings and bridges over Tingalpa Creek were established to facilitate such transport.
The town was originally officially known as Tingalpa, presumably taking its name from the creek, this caused confusion due to the existence of another area of the same name and so in 1927 the town's name was officially changed to Capalaba.
The town grew into the 20th century, becoming a major source of freshwater for the then Redland Shire in the 1960s, due to the construction of the Leslie Harrison Dam. This prompted and the introduction of commercial and industrial areas still present today. Continued population growth led to Capalaba ceasing to be a separate town and becoming a suburb within a larger conurbation.
Capalaba West was a related suburb located on the opposite side of Tingalpa Creek, rendering it part of Brisbane rather than the Redlands. It retained the Capalaba name until 2010, when it became incorporated into the Brisbane suburb of Chandler.

Demographics

In the 2016 census, the population of Capalaba was 17,333, an increase from 16,644 in the 2011 census, of whom 50.4% were female and 49.6% were male. The median age of the Capalaba population was 37 years old, 1 year below the national median of 37.
74.4% of people living in Capalaba were born in Australia. The other top responses for country of birth were New Zealand, England, South Africa, the Philippines, and India. 87.7% of people speak English as their first language; the next most common languages were Mandarin Chinese, Hindi, Tagalog, Italian, and Greek.
, viewed from a residential street of Capalaba. Mount Petrie can be seen in the background.

Features

Major commercial and educational features of Capalaba include:
The Capalaba bus station connects the suburb to much of the Redlands and Eastern Brisbane. Services to Garden City bus station and the adjacent Upper Mount Gravatt busway station are operated by Mt Gravatt Bus Service, on behalf of TransLink. The suburb is also connected west to Carindale bus station and the Brisbane central business district, north to the Cleveland railway line, and east to Victoria Point bus station, through bus routes operated by Transdev Queensland on behalf of TransLink.
TransLink's Eastern Busway is planned to extend from UQ Lakes to Capalaba, but currently only reaches Langlands Park busway station in Coorparoo.
Capalaba is also the terminus for major roads crossing Tingalpa Creek from the City of Brisbane, including Old Cleveland Road and Mount Gravatt-Capalaba Road/Mount Cotton Road, both connecting directly to the Gateway Motorway.

Sporting clubs