The first-ever race meeting of the Sandgate Amateur Turf Club, held at the Sandgate Park Reserve on St Patrick’s Day, 1885, was a very significant event in the history of Deagon. Not that Deagon existed then. What would become the suburb comprised, in the 1880s, scrubland, some cleared agricultural lots, a few farms and a horseracing track.
The “sport of kings” was immensely popular and crowds of turf enthusiasts flocked north from the city. Within two years, the Deagon railway station – named for a prominent Sandgate identity – opened to cater for them. This did more than provide transport for racegoers and the horses they were betting on, it gave a name and an identity to a tract of previously ill-defined farmland.
However, no immediate influx of settlers materialised. Despite the best efforts of real estate agents of the late 1800s to talk it up (Deagon was, according to one, “about as desirable a spot as man could wish to live on”), there was no rush to snap up residential land and the area remained essentially rural. There were a few streets of housing around the station, as well as horse training facilities (a useful source of manure for local gardens), and there was a resident stationmaster, whose job it was to operate the manual rail crossing gate.
After the turf club ran into financial difficulties, the racecourse housed the Deagon speedway. Even with crowds flocking to the motorcycle racing, though, Deagon failed to develop as a locus for householders until the post-World War II building boom finally brought more residents and an actual suburb began to take shape.
From Racing Track to Established Suburb
There was, though, little in the way of commercial activity. In the 1930s, Mr Tom Torpie saw an opportunity and opened a mixed grocery store, which also housed the post office, opposite the station. Several butchers and bakers operated throughout the suburb, but it was not until 1990, when the Deagon Marketplace shopping centre opened, that the area acquired a commercial centre.
Deagon in the middle decades of the 20th century may not have been a pulsing hive of progress, but for some it was a paradise: Owen Hutchison, who grew up then, remembered cricket games in the middle of Bungama Street, and Cabbage Tree Creek and its mangroves, bird and fish life as a source of fun and adventure.
Surprisingly, Deagon was not officially named until 1975, perhaps in keeping with this peaceful suburb’s gradual maturing – from scrubland to farming and racing – into the quietly attractive place it is today.
With thanks to the Sandgate Historical Museum (opening hours: Sunday and Wednesday, 9am to 1.30pm. Adults $5, children $3, membership $20/$30).
Read more stories from the Sandgate Guide print magazine here:
- Bramble Buzz: Updates from the Community
- Organic Gardening in October
- Fish of the Month: Fringefin Trevally
- Brisbane Writers Festival Returns With Big Stories
- 20 Minutes to Make a Difference: Join The Aussie Bird Count
- Bald Hills State School Celebrates 160 Year Milestone
- A Community that Grows Together
- Fifty Years of Kindy Fun
- Bulldogs On a Winning Streak
- Untreated Sewage Released into Local Waterways
- A Thank You 14 Years in the Making
- Indonesian Food, Culture and a Brighter Future for Kids
- Students Find Their Voice
- Mad Mob is Making it Matter
- Mulbeam Park Playground Upgrade
- Celebrating a Century of Seale
- Start Your Day With Qigong By The Bay
- Artists Open Their Doors Along Sandgate’s Creative Trail
- A Poem on Common Complications: My Laptop
