Oxley

The memory of John Oxley - the man who explored so much of Brisbane and south-east Queensland - is enshrined in the names of many state institutions and geographical features. And it is fitting that this suburb south-west of the city should bear his name because the Oxley region, which borders Archerfield Airport, played an important role in the development of colonial Brisbane.

Convicts felled Oxley gums to make gun carriages, and quarried the Oxley stone from which the Observatory Tower and many other early Brisbane structures were built.

Ironically, Oxley himself gave the name Canoe Creek to the area on one of his forays into the region, but this was later changed as a mark of respect to the explorer.

The Brisbane River and its attendant valley wend their way through this part of the metropolitan region and, just 10km away to the west of the river, the residential landscape begins to give way to open space and the semi-rural settings and pineapple plantations of Bellbowrie.