A Short Visit To Ipswich, QLD

While the Ipswich and the Gold Coast might both be located roughly 70km from home I tend to visit one a lot more than the other. The Gold Coast for some reason seems to be a lot more accessible and in the last 10 years, I have probably visited various areas over 100 times. On the other hand, I can literally count on one hand the number of times I have visited Ipswich.

There is nothing that I can think of to put this difference down to. It is just something that has happened without consciously thinking about it. So a short visit to the area on a recent weekend was a good chance to have a little look. There was not a lot of time, but a short walk through part of the CBD helped me decide I want to come back again soon for another visit.

Starting With Coffee

If you follow along here on my blog, you might have spotted that I do visit a few coffee shops. So it would be no surprise that I started my visit to Ipswich with a visit to a coffee shop. The interesting thing was that we found the coffee shop I was targeting, only to find out it had changed names.

Thankfully while the name might have changed, Tighty Whities (not sure about the name, sounds a little strange) still has some good coffee from Toby’s Estate. The outside picture of the building above does not prepare you for the older charm of the exposed brick walls once you step inside.

Old Flour Mill

The Old Flour Mill building is just across the road from the cafe that I visited above. However, the front of the building holds clues to two fo the different uses of the building. Originally built in 1901-2 for use as a flour mill, which the name suggests. However, in 1926 the building was purchased by F. W. Johnson & Sons for use as a garage and motor car showroom. How the building has a much different use with a number of smaller businesses filling the space.

Baptist Church

An even older building is just up the road from the Old Flour Mill, at the site which was once a Baptist Church. The building was originally built in 1877 and had the Art Deco makeover in 1938. After being added to the Queensland Heritage Register in 2006 before being sold and converted to a performance since in 2007. It does look like a rather interesting building from the outside, it would be interesting to see the interior.

St Paul’s Anglican Church

Finally, the last building that caught my eye while I was in the area was St Paul’s Anglican Church. The original portion of the church was built between 1855 and 1859. However, the church had numerous additions over the years through to 1929. Finally, in 1992, there were significant restorative works completed and the building added to the heritage register in the same year. Again this is a building I think would be nice to see inside, but a Sunday is not the day to be sightseeing at a church.

More To See

The area that I visited is a very small section of Ipswich, in fact probably not much more than a few city blocks. In this area, there are these three building that all exceed 100 years since they were first constructed. So it would be very interesting to go a little deeper in exploring Ipswich. But with the way the seasons in Queensland, winter is a much better time to visit than summer. So keep an eye out for some more about Ipswich coming over the next few months.