Northgate

One of the oldest suburbs in Brisbane, Toombul was known for many years as Germantown on account of the large number of central European migrants who used the original settlement as a staging post before moving on to establish farms in the rich hinterland valleys. Today, Toombul straddles a time zone in which Brisbane's heritage meets the products and services of modern technology. For not only does Toombul represent the past with its distinctive 19th century architecture and superb examples of early Queenslander homes, but the suburb lies just to the west of Brisbane International Airport. For the uninitiated, the distinctive features of the Queenslander, which so dominates urban Brisbane streetscapes, are stilt-like stumps which raise the house clear of ground level, wide verandahs and a passageway to provide maximum through-ventilation. Few have so graphically described the Queenslander as Brisbane-born novelist and playwright David Malouf: 'They have about them the improvised air of tree-houses. Airy, open, often with no doors between the rooms, they are on easy terms with breezes, with the thick foliage they break into at window-level, with the lives of possums and flying foxes…living in them, barefoot for the most part, is like living in a reorganised forest.'