As the Pebble Creek community takes shape, it not only offers residents quality living but a location rich with history. Positioned within South Maclean, the land has been an important part of the Logan region for more than 100 years; well before North and South Maclean were individual suburbs in their own right.
Maclean was originally known as Logan Bridge due to the low-level crossing that was built in the area in 1860. It did not receive its name until after 1863, when a township was officially surveyed. There is some uncertainty as to where the name ‘Maclean’ originated, but according to Logan City Council it was most likely named after the former Chief Draftsman and Surveyor of New South Wales between 1856 and 1861, Alexander McLean.
Many believed that Maclean was named after Peter Maclean, who was Member of the Legislative Assembly for the Logan Electorate from 1876, however this theory was disproved as he was living in Scotland during its formation and settled on land in Queensland’s Oxley Creek in 1865.
When Maclean was established, it provided one-acre allotments on both sides of Logan River, which allowed early residents to settle the land and erect buildings which would become renowned sites such as the Union Hotel, and the St Aldwyn’s homestead – one of the early rafting grounds for the local timber-getters – that would shape the amenities and landscape of Maclean today.
Maclean helped lay foundations for many of its early settlers, who would go on to leave their own unique mark on Australia’s history.
James Scott and his friend William Stalker, for example, were watchmakers originally from Scotland who were forced to change career paths due to the lack of demand for their trade. Scott’s property was the Receiving Office for the mail from 1901 till 1917, while Stalker worked a variety of jobs including coachman for Queensland Governor George Bowen.
Stalker was also known for ‘Dark and Stalker’s’ ginger beer, which he brewed with a friend and won prizes at the Paris Exhibition and at the Brisbane and Sydney exhibitions between 1879 and 1880. Other significant settlers in the Maclean district included stonemasons W. Clarkson and W. Warbuton, who both worked on the Brisbane Treasury Building and the GPO.
Maclean also lent its hand to world events, providing a strategically important high level bridge that allowed American and Australian servicemen to cross the river en route to Camp Cable and Canungra training areas to prepare for the battlefields of World War II. It opened in April 1940 but was washed away during the flood of 1947.
South Maclean retains a strong tradition of community and development that has continued 1800s, and thanks to plans by the Queensland Government that tradition is guaranteed to carry on in the distant future.
Thanks to its position within the Greater Flagstone Priority Development Area, South Maclean will benefit from new infrastructure, job opportunities and housing, which will provide the same opportunities of prosperity or a population of up to 120,000 people as those early settlers enjoyed.
It is fitting, in many ways, that Pebble Creek has found its place in South Maclean. The community will bring new opportunities for Australians looking for a home and will lay the foundations for growth and development, much like the origins of its suburb.
