In assigning place names, the City of Moreton Bay council considers First Nations Peoples, pioneers, long-term residents, respected community members, land ownership or donations and significant landmarks. The names of Rothwell’s many parks reveal clues about the people who once lived there, preserving names that might otherwise become lost to history.
Rothwell’s Pioneers and Parks
Rothwell’s earliest pioneers, William and Margaret McKillop, settled in the area in 1889. In August 1923, the Brisbane Courier stated McKillop was growing cotton of an “excellent quality” at the Saltwater Creek farm. Later, the family donated one and a half acres of land along Morris Road, which was named McKillop Park in 1973.
Their sons, William and Arthur McKillop, purchased 400 acres between Gynther and Nathan roads in 1919, establishing a dairy and slaughter yard. Arthur married Margaret McGahey in 1924, and together, they operated the Bonnie Doon dairy, delivering milk via horse and buggy to Redcliffe in the late 1930s.
Tacoma Park refers to the poultry farm from 1958, which sold Christmas turkeys and chickens. Re-developed for housing in the 1970s, it was owned by the Stuarts. The farm’s slogan was Takoma turkey [take home a turkey], hence the park’s name.
Jim McGahey (named for the park at the end of Gynther Road) had parents who settled on the Redcliffe Peninsula in 1919, while Bertie Dow (Bertie Dow Park) was a local bus driver turned entrepreneurial businessman who established garages, a butcher shop, a tyre company and a taxi service in Woody Point and the Peninsula. Michael and Judy Langtree donated land, facilitating the Peninsula Park Development. Langtree Park, opposite Mueller College, acknowledges their gift.
Morris Road, Morris Park and Peter Morris Park all commemorate the Morris family, who farmed in Rothwell for five generations. Welsh immigrant George Morris was the first to grow vegetables at Rothwell’s Saltwater Creek in 1938, producing potatoes, tomatoes and award-winning Queensland blue pumpkins for the Melbourne Markets. Named in 1987, the George Morris Fields honour George’s long association with the area’s pony club.
When George joined the RAAF in 1942, his wife and twin sons, Paul and Peter, operated the produce farm. In the wet season, George’s son Paul said, “We’d have water up to the chairs because the creek would flood in the wet season when there was rain and a king tide.” Peter passed away in 1989, and the council named Peter Morris Park after him in 1992.
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