History from 1850 to early 1990sA notable resident of the Wolston township was Stephen Simpson who in the late 1840’s was the Acting Colonial Secretary and Acting Police Magistrate and was involved in the establishment of the Brisbane General Hospital. Dr Simpson remained at Wolston for about seven years and during that time he was Magistrate for Ipswich. His legacy is Wolston House, which is now a National Trust property (pictured at left). The Wolston Park Hospital complex is another well known facility in Brisbane. It was formerly known as Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum and has had a long history since the 1860s. The township of Wolston on Ipswich Road was surveyed and sold in 1864. An early inn on the roadside was called Wolston Inn. The name was changed to Wacol in 1927 because of the confusion with the Brisbane suburb of Wilston. The origins of the name Wacol, pronounced phonetically as "weigh coal", have links with the weighbridge, which weighed all the coal from the West Moreton Coalfield from 1914. The chief railway business at this station was to weigh coal, hence the name Wacol. Acknowledgements: Photo of Wolston House courtesy of Shealagh Walker. |