History of Ashmore, Queensland, Australia
In 1865, the first township in south-east Queensland was surveyed and named Nerang. In the late 1800s, two pioneering families, the Muirs and Smiths, owned most of the land that would become the suburb of Ashmore. According to Athol Hicks, grandson of the last owner of a 300-acre sheep and cattle farm in the area, the suburb of Ashmore was named after a family estate in England.
Ashmore in the 1800’s and the early 1900’s
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, a local shortcut for residents travelling from Benowa to Nerang Road became the thoroughfare we know today as Ashmore Road. In 1972, Sydney property investor Jim Donellon saw the area’s potential and purchased land for development. In 1976, a housing estate with sewerage and underground electricity was built, officially called Ashmore Village Estate.
The Ashmore Name
The name Ashmore comes from several minor localities in England, primarily the counties of Dorset and Wiltshire. Generally, the name is derived from Old English æsc ‘ash’ meaning ‘large flexible spear made from Ashwood, that had a wide leaf-shaped blade’ and ‘mor’, meaning ‘moor’, ‘marsh’, ‘mere’ or ‘fen’.
Ashmore in Early Dorset, England
With Ashmore in early Dorset, various iterations show that the second part of the name is Old English ‘mere’, with the meaning of ‘lake’; in effect, Ashmore means Large Spear Lake, Lake of Large Spears, or it could easily represent a forest of Ashwood trees surrounding a Lake, a place from where they would obtain Ashwood in order to make large flexible spears.
First Mention of Ashmore
The first mention of Ashmore in England is noted as a parish in the union of Shaftesbury, hundred of Cranborne, Shaston division of Dorset, where the Church erected a plain structure of stone and flint in 1433. Ash is an ancient Saxon word for a spear and was subsequently used as the name of someone very proficient at handling a spear.
Ashmore Spelling Variations
Spelling variations were common in Anglo-Saxon names, and as the English language became standardised over the last few centuries, Ashmore has been recorded in many forms, including Aschmore, Aschmoor, and Ashmoor, amongst others.
Ashmore Village Estate
Ashmore’s history is a fascinating journey from open grazing land to one of the Gold Coast’s earliest planned residential communities. Originally part of the traditional lands of the Yugambeh people, the area was settled in the late 1800s by farming families such as the Muirs and Smiths.
The real transformation began in the 1970s, when developer Jim Donellon reimagined the area as the Ashmore Village estate. Designed as a forward-thinking “garden suburb,” Ashmore became a model for family living, even introducing features such as roadside bike paths and roundabouts that were ahead of their time on the Gold Coast.
Ashmore Named Official Suburb
Ashmore became an official suburb when it was bounded by the Governor in Gold Coast City Council on 1 December 1982. As a suburb, it led the way on the Gold Coast, being the first to have roadside bike pathways and a roundabout; this was an innovative approach to maintaining traffic flow.
Ashmore Plaza Shopping Centre
Ashmore Plaza Shopping Centre was built in 1979 by John Jenkins; one of the first tenants was Jack Butler’s, ‘Jack the Slashers,’ a discount food barn chain. It was acquired by Woolworths in 1990 and became ‘Food for Less,’ part of a low-cost discount supermarket chain owned by Woolworths. Today, the same store remains, now a fully branded Woolworths supermarket.
Hicks Family Farm at Ashmore
The original Hicks family farm was released for sale over time, until the remaining portion on the corner of Ashmore Road and Ross Street was sold; this would make way for the gated community Royal Pines Riverside, Benowa, and lastly the development of Benowa Village Shopping Centre, along with the adjoining Vantage Gold Coast apartments, 21 Ross Street, Benowa.
I hope you’ve found this journey through Ashmore’s past as interesting to read about as it was for me to research and write, and that you’ve enjoyed exploring this Gold Coast suburb’s rich history.
It’s a story of growth, vision, and community that continues to influence Ashmore’s appeal to this day.
Author: Craig Douglas
3/16 Central Park Avenue, Ashmore
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