Community Profile - Chermside

Chermside is a northern residential, commercial, institutional and recreational area of Brisbane. Chermside is named after Major-General Sir Herbert Chermside, Governor of Queensland from 1902-04. It was originally known as Downfall Creek.

Chermside is an outer regional population centre, and has been declared by the Queensland State Government as a major transport node. This in many ways is due to the large Westfield Chermside shopping centre, the Chermside Library and hospitals and schools. There are many high rise apartments and units that have been built in the past few years. This trend will continue due to the rising population and because of the local authority zoning for high rise accommodation in the area. Although the suburb of Chermside does not have any schools, there are however many schools in a short proximity including Wavell State High School, Craigslea State High and Primary Schools. This is highlighted by the closing of the Chermside State School in 2008 due to lack of primary school aged children living in the suburb. There are also a number of parks and open spaces in Chermside, including Seventh Brigade Park, Marchant Park, Burnie Brae Park, and Dead Mans Gully Park. A review of the Australian Bureau of Statistics data highlights Chermside's demographic profile as being predominantly couples over fifty with no children living at home, possibly due to the Prince Charles Hospital and the Holy Spirit Private Hospital, and also the easy access to buses. However, there is a steady incline in the number of families with young children. This age demographic is prominent in surrounding suburbs including Chermside West and Wavell heights.

Chermside has an overseas impact from a majority of New Zealand and United Kingdom migrants, although their number has dropped since 2001. Migrants from the Philippines are on the rise since 2001 and are expected to keep increasing in number. This is much the same for surrounding areas. The planning for Chermside revolves around the Shopping Centre as it is the destination hub; transport and housing are all designed to work with the shopping centre to make it more accessible and nearby. Also there has been a commercial impact on Chermside with new modern commercial buildings built surrounding the shopping centre. The future of Chermside seems to be vast with an expected population growth for South-East Queensland pushing for suburbs like Chermside to take in much of this growth. High rise buildings and modern commercial buildings will become more common (Figure 2), and the recent update on the transport via the Northern Busway which will impact Chermside directly. Chermside's population seems to be on the ever increasing and therefore residential and commercial development will continue close to existing centre activities and the proposed Northern Busway.

Chermside is a low density area but with the changes and improvements above it can be seen in the near future