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Ascot
Ascot is one of Brisbane’s prestige suburbs only 7km from the CBD and is likely to maintain its love affair with the public through its easy access to the city, local amenities, and infrastructure.A feature of the area is the Eagle Farm Racecourse which comes alive in a rainbow of colours during the Winter and Spring Racing Carnivals. Ascot is also home to the Racecourse Road Festival earlier in the year.
Local street stores and cafes supplement Westfield Toombul Shopping Centre that is only 10 minutes away and also offer a cinema complex and games arcade for residents looking for even more entertainment.
Public transport is excellent with Ascot train station and regular bus routes to the CBD and surrounding suburbs easily accessible to residents. For those preferring water transport the City Cat River Service is less than five minutes away and picks up passengers at the jetty between Quarry Street and Raceview Terrace in Hamilton.
The History of Ascot
Aboriginal history
The Turrbal clan occupied the northern side of the Brisbane River. White settlers often referred to this clan as the 'Duke of York's clan'.
Breakfast Creek, just outside Ascot's suburb boundary, was known by the Turrbal people as Yowoggerra, meaning Corroboree Place. The Turrbal had camping grounds around the area. The explorers Oxley and Cunningham met clan members at the creek's mouth in 1824.
In 1858 two Aborigines from the Breakfast Creek area, Dalinkua and Dalpie, wrote letters to The Moreton Bay Courier protesting about the treatment their people received at the hands of the white settlers.
Urban development
Pastoralist James Sutherland became the owner of a substantial portion of land in the Toombul parish in 1855. This included land surrounding the Sutherland Avenue area
In 1882 the branch railway line was extended to Eagle Farm Racecourse in Ascot. Public transport developed further in 1899 with the introduction of the first non-horse drawn tram service to Ascot.
In 1925 the Hamilton Town Council was disbanded when Ascot and Hamilton became part of the Greater Brisbane Council. The large subdivisions in the Ascot/Hamilton area were divided at this time to form smaller allotments. Residential growth increased with the development of housing estates and improvements in public transport.
Notable residents
William 'Billy' Booth lived opposite the Eagle Farm Racecourse in Lancaster Road. He entered the horse training and racing industry in 1885 when he became an apprentice to John Stone, a local horse trainer. At one stage Booth was responsible for the training of 21 horses. Many of his horses won important races, making him well known in racing circles.
Edmund William Henry Beckham and Edward Roland Videan formed the Ascot Taxi Service in 1919. The first taxi company in Queensland, it operated from Ascot Garage at Racecourse Road. In 1953 the Ascot Taxi Service became the first taxi company in Queensland to install two-way radios.
Landmarks
Originally, the Ascot area was thickly forested. The initial grant of 320 acres to establish the racetrack meant that racegoers caught only occasional glimpses of the horses.
The Eagle Farm Racecourse, established in 1863, is now the premier racecourse in Brisbane. Horse racing was one of the earliest sports in Brisbane and the name Ascot was given to the suburb as a 'tongue-in cheek' reference to the prestigious racing hub in England.
In 1941 military authorities took over the racecourse, then known as Camp Ascot, to house thousands of American troops
Ascot Railway Station, established in 1882, was the last station in metropolitan Brisbane to retain semaphore signaling and a mechanically interlocked cabin. In 1913, after pressure from Hamilton Town Council, a second railway station was constructed at the Hendra end of the platform.
Reference: L. Jenkins, BRISbites, 2002
Ascot's history has been compiled by Lesley Jenkins as a part of the BRISbites community history project.