As the name suggests, there are seven hills and the suburb and the hills themselves take their names from the Seven Hills of Rome.[3] The seven hills are:
The name of the area first appeared in local maps in 1891 and 1895, when it was in the possession of landowners David Ham, John James Kingsbury (Ham's son-in-law) and Acheson Overend. The name was taken from the "Seven Hills Estate Co", a mining company whose own name reflected the terrain of the Creswick area north of Ballarat and of which Ham was a prominent shareholder.[15] The 1925 sub-division plan submitted by new owner and land developer Robert George Oates, incorporated Roman street names.[citation needed]
Seven Hills Presbyterian Church, at the time of opening, 1951
Between 1912 and 1926, the southern edge of the suburb was serviced by the Belmont Tramway which connected with the Queensland Government Railway at Norman Park. Initially the service was operated by the Belmont Shire Council until it was suspended in 1924.[citation needed] The service was reinstated by the Brisbane City Council in 1925 following the amalgamation of the local government authorities, but was again suspended in 1926.[citation needed] The tracks, which followed the present Oateson Skyline Drive and Ferguson Road and continued to Belmont along Old Cleveland Road, remained in place until 1934.[citation needed]
In 1953, the Brisbane City Council commenced a trolley-bus service, which connected the suburb with Fortitude Valley via Stanley Street, terminating just off Oateson Skyline Drive. The trolley-bus service ceased operation on 13 March 1969, when diesel buses took over the service.[citation needed]
Seven Hills State School, 1960
Seven Hills State School opened on 25 January 1960 with an initial enrolment of 84 students rising to 141 students by the end of the first year.[18][19][20]
On 1 June 2001, Seven Hills was gazetted as a suburb by the Queensland Government, following a push by local residents to have it recognised independently of Norman Park.[21]
A Southbank Institute of Technology campus was operational in the suburb until 2010. The site has since become the Clearview Urban Village.
Demographics
At the 2011 census, Seven Hills had a population of 2,028 people, of whom 50% were female and 50% were male.[22] The median age of the population was 35; 2 years below the Australian median. 80.6% of people living in Seven Hills were born in Australia, with the next most common countries of birth being England (3.6%), New Zealand (3.6%), South Africa (0.8%), India (0.6%), and the United States (0.6%). 90.3% of people spoke English as their first language, while the other most common responses were Japanese (0.6%), Mandarin (0.6%), Spanish (0.5%), Tagalog (0.4%), and German (0.4%).[22]
In the 2016 census, Seven Hills had a population of 2,211 people.[23]
In the 2021 census, Seven Hills had a population of 2,732 people.[4]
There are no secondary schools in Seven Hills. The nearest government secondary schools are Balmoral State High School in Balmoral to the north, Whites Hill State College in neighbouring Camp Hill to the south-east, and Coorparoo Secondary College in Coorparoo to the south-west.[27]
Public transport
There has been no railway station in Seven Hills since the closure of the Belmont Tramway in 1926, but Norman Park and Morningside stations are within walking distance of the western side of the suburb. Three radial bus corridors serve the suburb. Two express bus routes alternate to provide a connection between the Brisbane central business district and Cannon Hill Shopping Centre bus station along a corridor that passes through Seven Hills. One all-stops bus route passes centrally through Seven Hills on a route connecting Fortitude Valley and Carindale Shopping Centre. A peak route and an all-stops route connect Fortitude Valley and Cannon Hill Shopping Centre, passing along the southern border of Seven Hills.[citation needed]
Cycling and walking
The main thoroughfare of Oateson Skyline Drive includes bicycle lanes, which continue southward along Wiles Street, Camp Hill and provide connectivity with the citywide bicycle network.[citation needed]
There is a network of narrow, and generally steep heritage walking paths located within public easements between residential properties. The smaller local streets and the major roads mostly have paved footpaths on one or both sides. Oateson Skyline Drive is median-divided and contains kerb extensions that promote safe pedestrian crossing. Aside from a small number of local parks, the major recreational walking attraction is the 52 Hectare Seven Hills Bushland Reserve located on the north east side of the suburb. The reserve contains a signed network of tracks for walking and fire access.[citation needed]
^Jolly, Eris (2016). Seven Hills of Brisbane (2 ed.). Queensland: N.E. & E.M. Jolly. p. 75. ISBN978-0958114301.
^"New church hall". The Courier-mail. No. 4552. Queensland, Australia. 30 June 1951. p. 7. Archived from the original on 15 November 2023. Retrieved 15 November 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
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