Nudgee, Queensland


Nudgee is a north-eastern suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the, Nudgee had a population of 3,578 people.

Geography

Nudgee is north-west by road of the Brisbane CBD.
The suburb is bounded to the north-east by the Gateway Motorway, including Nudgee Golf Club down to Kedron Brook which forms the south-east boundary, then along Gateway Motorway, including Nudgee Waterhole Reserve and roughly following Farnshaw Road and Red Hill Road to the south, and then roughly following the Shorncliffe railway line to the north-west.

History

The name Nudgee is derived from the Yuggera word in the Yugarabul dialect nardha or nedgee meaning place of ducks, from nar meaning duck' and dha' meaning place.
St Vincent's Orphanage opened on Queens Road on 18 December 1866 with children transferred from St Vicent's Orphanage in New Farm. The orphanage was operated by the Sisters of Mercy and had its own school. In 1935 it was renamed St Vincent's Home for Children. The school operated until the 1950s after which the children attended local schools. The home closed in 1971. Having started with 47 children, over 10,500 children lived in the home throughout its operation. The site now accommodates the head office of Mercy Family Services, which provides services to children, adolescents and families. The buildings of the orphanage complex are listed on the Brisbane Heritage Register.
Nudgee Cemetery was established at 493 St Vincents Road in 1867. In 2014 a crematorium was added with columbarium walls for the placement of ashes.
Nudgee State School opened on 28 June 1875 on the western side of Nudgee Road, just south of the junction with Tufnel Road on land donated by Isaac Stuckey. By 1924 frequent flooding of the school building and growth in the local population led to new school buildings being erected at 453 Earnshaw Road. On 31 December 2002 it was closed as part of an amalgamated with Banyo State High School to form Earnshaw State College, which operates from the site of the former high school. "A" Block of the former state school is listed on the Brisbane Heritage Register but is now within the suburb of Banyo, just beyond the boundary with Nudgee.
St Joseph's College opened on January 1891 as a boarding campus of St Joseph's College, Gregory Terrace by the Congregation of Christian Brothers. Some of the buildings of the school are listed on the Queensland Heritage Register but the school is now within the suburb of Boondall, just west of Nundah Creek, which is the boundary separating Boondall from present day Nudgee. In 1967 the course was increased to 27 holes.
In 1895 a paper was read at Brisbane's Natural History Society meeting at the Queensland Museum about the bora ring identified at Nudgee, described as a circle in diameter and sitting higher than the surrounding land. It was believed there was a second bora ring in the area but it had been lost to farming. Bora rings came in pairs, one for the initiation of young men and the other for communal use. Circa 2000, the surviving bora ring was thought to be the communal bora ring and being oval in shape with dimensions of with an entrance to the west and that the smaller men's initiation bora ring was about away near Redway Street.
Nudgee Golf Club was established on 18 January 1930 on land formerly used for grape growing by the Childs family. The first clubhouse opened on 21 January 1931. Initially the course had nine holes, which increased to 16 holes in 1950. On 6 November 1954 the club opened its new clubhouse. In 1985 the Queensland Government wanted to resume part of the golf club's land to construct the Gateway Arterial Road. Following two years of negotiations an arrangement was reached in which the government made additional land available to the south to compensate for the resumed land, enabling the course to be extended to 36 holes.
Nudgee was part of the Shire of Toombul until 1925 when the shire was amalgamated into the City of Brisbane.
In 1971 the Banyo Devils Rugby League Club opened beside the Bora Ring on Childs Road in Nudgee.
In the, Nudgee had a population of 3,578 people.

Transport

Nudgee is served by the Nudgee railway station on the Shorncliffe railway line and provides access to regular Queensland Rail City network services to Brisbane and beyond.
In the 2011 census, 18.0% of employed people traveled to work on public transport and 60.3% by car.

Telecommunications

Nudgee will be amongst the first suburbs in the Brisbane Area to be connected to the National Broadband Network, with services predicted to be available in November 2013. Nudgee's upcoming fibre network will be serviced by the 4NDG fibre serving area.

Facilities

is located on St Vincents Road and is operated by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane. It is the largest private cemetery in Brisbane. Although most people buried there are Catholics, non-Catholics can also be buried there.
Nudgee Golf Club is at 1207 Nudgee Road.
Despite its name, the Banyo Devils Rugby League Club is at 51 Childs Road in Nudgee.

Education

There are no schools within the suburb. Earnshaw State College is both the nearest primary and secondary school in neighbouring Banyo.

Attractions

Tours of Indigenous culture including the bora ring and the Nudgee waterhole are available.

Demographics

In the 2011 census, Nudgee recorded a population of 2,856 people; 53% female and 47% male.
The median age of the Nudgee population was 37 years of age, which was the same as the national median. Children aged under 15 years made up 19.8% of the population and people aged 65 years and over made up 15.4% of the population.
78% of people living in Nudgee were born in Australia, compared to the national average of 69.8%; the next most common countries of birth were New Zealand 3.6%, England 2.5%, India 2.3%, Philippines 1.8%, Ireland 0.9%.
88.1% of people spoke only English at home; the next most popular languages were 1.3% Filipino, 1.1% Punjabi, 0.6% Tagalog, 0.6% German, 0.6% Mandarin.