Once a farming area, Thornlands is now a thriving residential community and one of the fastest-growing suburbs in Redlands Coast.
Access to schools, shopping centres, parks, walking and cycling trails and a large number of sporting groups make Thornlands a popular lifestyle choice, particularly with families. The higher areas of Thornlands have great bay views.
William Stewart Park on Vintage Drive has a skate park and Crystal Waters Park with its lakes, off Riesling and Margery streets, is a top spot for the kids to play and explore.
It’s also home to the Pinklands Recreation Reserve and its bush refuge.
Thornlands is just minutes away from the boutique shopping of Cleveland and, to the south, Victoria Point’s shopping precinct. There’s also the handy Crystal Waters Shopping Centre on Cleveland-Redland Bay Road.
The area is serviced by Thornlands and BayView state schools, and is also home to the Redlands District Special School and Carmel College, a co-educational Catholic school. Nearby, Cleveland District State High School, a member of the Council of International Schools, is highly regarded.
Cleveland is the nearest train station. Transdev Queensland operates regular bus services, with a 24-hour weekend bus from Brisbane to Victoria Point.
At the southern end of Cleveland Shire Thornlands was a farming district until the second half of the 20th Century. In 1839 George Thorn was in charge of the penal settlement in Limestone (Ipswich) and in the 1850s he purchased 631 acres (255 hectares) of land between South Street in the north, Cleveland-Redland Bay Road to the west and King Street to the south. He doesn’t appear to have lived in the area, being more interested in the real estate business. The land known as the Thornlands Estate stayed in his family for more than 20 years after his death, and eventually the whole area was named Thornlands.
The southernmost part of Thornlands was owned by James Pink, the Head Gardener Brisbane Botanic Gardens owned land that was known as Pink’s Selection and later Pinklands. Allawah, renamed Lake Sherrin homes for Aged was built in the mid-20th Century by Leona Kyling, granddaughter of Cleveland’s first European settlers, John and Elizabeth Sherrin. Mrs Kyling spoke about the sounds of the Aboriginal people singing and dancing in the surrounding bushland.
Find more about our local history on our library Local History section.
Thornlands is predominantly covered by Division 3 (Cr Paul Gollè), with parts in Division 7 (Cr Rowanne McKenzie) and Division 9 (Cr Adelia Berridge).
Visit the popular parks in Thornlands
View Thornlands's national regional profile (Australian Bureau of Statistics)