Stretton, a residential suburb, is 17 km south of central Brisbane. It was named after George Stretton, a settler and hotelier at Browns Plains (now south-west of the suburb) in the 1880s. The suburb's name was gazetted in 1972.
Over half the suburb is taken by the Karawatha State Park. The urban western part began in the late 1970s and the population grew to about 1000 by the late 1980s. Stretton is a dormitory suburb with shopping and primary education facilities outside its boundaries. Stretton State College, in the very south of Stretton, opened in 2006. The Gateway Motorway passes through Stretton (nearly entirely in the State Park), but can be accessed only at or beyond Stretton's borders. Stretton Recreation Reserve is also in the State Park, and is the starting point for several forest walking tracks.
Stretton's census populations have been:
| Census Date | Population |
|---|---|
| 1991 | 2079 |
| 2001 | 3125 |
| 2006 | 3776 |
| 2011 | 4067 |
