Things to do Toowong

The Brisbane General Cemetery,planned in 1866 and formally opened in 1875, is Queensland’s largest cemetery, placed on 437,300 square metres of land. It replaced Brisbane’s second cemetery the North Brisbane Burial Grounds which were located in Milton where Suncorp Stadium stands today closer to the centre of Brisbane. The remains of most of the 8500 people buried there are still under the stadium. The Brisbane General Cemetery, now called Toowong Cemetery, contains a signposted walk that provides information on various people buried therein.^[6]

Brisbane Boys' College is a day boarding school established in Clayfield in 1901. In the late twenties it was decided that there were insufficient facilities at the Clayfield location, and the school was moved to Toowong on Kensington Terrace.

The Regatta Hotel, viewed from Coronation Drive

Toowong has two historic hotels, the Regatta Hotel and the Royal Exchange Hotel. The three-storey Regatta hotel contained accommodation on the upper two floors and a public bar and lounge area on the ground floor. In 1965 a protest took place in the public bar of the Regatta Hotel when Merle Thornton (mother of Australian actress Sigrid Thornton) and Rosalie Bogner chained themselves to the bar in protest of public bars in Queensland being restricted to men only.^[7]

The Royal Exchange Hotel

Built in 1986, Toowong Village is an office tower and shopping centre situated at the centre of Toowong. The blue glass office tower is a prominent landmark visible from Toowong and surrounding suburbs. The shopping centre situated on the lower levels of the office tower contains the Toowong Railway Station, Toowong Library operated by the Brisbane City Council,^[8] and the standard mix of retail stores.

Located on Sylvan Road, Toowong Memorial Park is a large park with gum trees, football ovals and a commanding view of the suburb. It was officially opened in 1918 in honour of those who enlisted from the Town of Toowong during the World War I. The park contains the Soldiers' Memorial on top of the hill was dedicated in 1922 and an RSL memorial is located near the Memorial gates on Sylvan Road, and also contains the Western Districts Rugby Football Club and a Basketball centre. Anzac Park is located next to the Western Freeway opposite the Toowong Cemetery. Originally the land was part of the cemetery grounds, but was converted to a rifle range in 1877. At the end of World War I the trees were planted in memory of the men from Toowong. The park land was proposed as a site for the Botanic Gardens, but the construction of the Western Freeway forced the move of the proposed site to its current location closer to Mount Coot-tha. The Mount Coot-tha Botanic Gardens and the Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium are located at the base of Mount Coot-tha.

The Toowong pool was a 25-yard (23 metres) pool with timber grandstands and dressing sheds, originally built in the 1920s. The facilities were reconstructed and re-opened in 1959, to commemorate Queensland's centenary. These later works were designed by James Birrell, Brisbane City Chief Architect. The pool was demolished in 2003 to make way for the development of an office tower on the site.

The Toowong Municipal Library Building was built 1961 on Coronation Drive opposite the Toowong pool, and was formerly the district library for the western suburbs.^[9] The library was also designed by Brisbane City Chief Architect James Birrell, and is one of the few remaining examples of his work. The library is now used as commercial premises. The building comprises a two storey library surrounded by trees and landscaped terraces, with cavity brick lower floor, the structure is formed by three intersecting circles. Above this base floor is a ‘floating’ crystalline form with 12 sided polygon (dodecagon) floor plan whose external walls taper outward as they rise and which houses the principal public floor of the library. The external steel wall framing of the upper floor is diagonally braced, and sheeted with plywood panels set within the structural framing and framed with silky oak beading. The library originally had a hemi-spherical skylight above its centre, which has now been replaced by an enclosure for mechanical equipment.

The library was threatened for closure in 1982 following the opening of a new municipal library at Indooroopilly in 1981. The Toowong Library did in fact close but local residents’ action saw it re-opened in 1983. Alterations were made to the building in 1983 when one of the rooms on the lower floor was acquired for use by the local councillor as a ward office, until 2005. Despite a campaign by local residents to prevent the closure of the library and redevelopment of the library and adjoining swimming pool site, the library was moved to Toowong Village shopping centre in March 2001,^[9] and the original building, which is protected by heritage listing, is now business premises.^[10]

The workshops and a bus depot of Brisbane Transport is located at the western end of the suburb.