Eagle Heights

Eagle Heights, a rural/residential area on the Tamborine Plateau, is 50 km south of central Brisbane and 18 km west of Labrador on the Gold Coast. The origin of the name is unrecorded.

A selector, Cornelius Brady, was the first to take up farm land at Eagle Heights (1879), but the nearest place of settlement was North Tamborine, immediately to the west. After 1918 there was considerable land subdivision on the plateau – the railway had opened in 1918 – and the Eagle Heights subdivision began in the early 1920s. Buyers were weekend visitors and a few permanents. A post office receiving point was opened in 1926, and the spacious Eagle Heights Hotel was opened. A two-storey, Tudor design building, the hotel burnt down in 1964.

In 1932 a resident, Jessie McDonald, donated land for conservation purposes. Situated in Wongawallan Road, the McDonald Reserve was later enlarged and is one of the numerous parts of the Tamborine National Park. A botanic garden adjoins it. There are several points around Eagle Heights with views over the Gold Coast or back to the McPherson Range. In between are rainforest walks and waterfalls.

Eagle Heights experienced moderate growth in the postwar years and sudden spurts in the 1980s-90s. The main approach, Long Road, is a strip shopping centre for antiques, galleries and eateries. As the Tamborine Plateau's largest population centre Eagle Heights has the local library and main shopping area. Churches, schools and halls are in or close to the older settlements of North Tamborine and Tamborine Mountain. The old church (c1882), among the oldest buildings on the plateau, is in the galleries strip but constructed there after transfer from Nerang.

In 1997 Eagle Heights was designated a locality within the larger district of Tamborine Mountain which also included North Tamborine and Mount Tamborine.

The Salvation Army rehabilitation and recovery centre Fairhaven (2009) is at Eagle Heights.

Eagle Heights' census populations have been: