Walloon

About Walloon

Walloon is a town and rural residential locality in the City of Ipswich, Queensland, located 12.8 kilometres west of the Ipswich central business district and 52.7 kilometres west-southwest of Brisbane. The name is thought to refer to the French-speaking area of southern Belgium known as Wallonia. A German Lutheran Church opened near the railway station on 9 July 1873 and Walloon State School opened on 9 July 1877. The suburb has a notable literary connection: on 21 April 1891, sisters Bridget Kate aged 9 and Mary Jane Broderick aged 6 drowned in a waterhole near their home, inspiring poet Henry Lawson to write The Babies of Walloon. A sculpture of the sisters was unveiled in Henry Lawson Bicentennial Park in 2006. The Rosewood railway line passes through with Walloon railway station providing services to Ipswich and Brisbane.