Stretton, Queensland

Stretton is 17 kilometres (11 mi) from the Brisbane Central Business District, and borders the suburbs of Calamvale, Sunnybank Hills, Karawatha, Kuraby, and Drewvale.

The northern part of Stretton includes several hills, but the land flattens out towards the south. The southern part has more vegetation, as it joins Karawatha Forest to the south-east and the Calamvale Creek wetlands on the south-west.

In the early 19th century, the area and many of today's suburbs around the Sunnybank area were part of a vast area known as Coopers Plains. In 1861, Governor Bowen declared a wide area that included Eight Mile Plains to Stretton as a Brisbane Agricultural Reserve.[3] This agricultural reserve was originally used as a source of timber, but when it was found to be good farming land, settlers quickly turned it into farms that produced sought-after fruit, vegetables, and poultry.

A military map from 1922 shows only four houses in the area that is now Stretton.

Stretton was gazetted as a suburb of Brisbane in 1972, and was named after George Stretton, a settler, postmaster and hotelier at Browns Plains in the 1870s.[4][5]

More than 65 per cent of households in Stretton are couples with children; 22 per cent are couples without children, and 10 per cent are single-parent households. In 1989 there was controversy regarding the sale of land to Asian investors,[6] and there is a large Asian population in the suburb today. With rare exceptions, the dwellings in Stretton are stand-alone houses — generally modern, brick and tile. Houses in the north-west corner of Stretton include many huge, multi-storey mansions.

In the 2011 census, the population of Stretton was 4,067: 51.5% female and 48.5% male. The median age of the Stretton population was 36 years, 1 year below the Australian median.

41.6% of people living in Stretton were born in Australia, compared to the national average of 69.8%; the next most common countries of birth were China 7.1%, Taiwan 7%, New Zealand 4.1%, Hong Kong 4%, India 3.1%. 41.4% of people spoke only English at home; the next most popular languages were 16.2% Mandarin, 11.3% Cantonese, 3.3% Vietnamese, 2.9% Hindi, 2.4% Korean.

In the 2011 census, the median weekly household income in Stretton was $1,843, compared to the national median of $1,234. This difference is also reflected in real estate, with the median mortgage payment being $2400 per month, compared to the national median of $1,800.

Stretton is home to Hope Christian Assembly, a multicultural Pentecostal Church affiliated with Australian Christian Churches which holds services at Stretton State College.[7] Stretton State College is located at the southern (Drewvale) end of the suburb.

In addition to small local shops, Calamvale Village on Kameruka Street and Sunnybank Hills Shopping Centre on Hellawell Road provide basic shopping. Westfield Garden City at Upper Mount Gravatt is a larger shopping centre nearby.[8]

• University of Queensland: Queensland Places: Stretton
• Critters of Calamvale Creek wildlife of Calamvale and Stretton
• "Stretton". BRISbites. Brisbane City Council. Archived from the original on 19 July 2008.
• "Stretton". Our Brisbane. Brisbane City Council. Archived from the original on 12 February 2008.