Calamvale was named after James Calam, an early settler and prominent landowner in the area. The Calam family built their homestead on a hill at the top of Calam Road near Beaudesert Road. The area was known as Calamvale long before it was officially listed as a suburb in 1972. In 1984, the Calams sold the homestead to the McGuire family, who built the Calamvale Hotel on the land. Urbanisation took place in the early 1990s, and development took place in several stages. Calamvale State School opened in 1955. In 2002 a secondary school component was added to the State School to create Calamvale Community College. Calamvale Special School opened in 1985.
Demographics
At the the population of Calamvale was 17,124, 51% female and 49% male.
The median age of the Calamvale population was 32 years of age, 6 years below the Australian median.
39.0% of people were born in Australia. The next most common countries of birth were China 14.9%, India 4.7%, Taiwan 4.4%, New Zealand 3.7% and Hong Kong 3.1%.
38.4% of people spoke only English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Mandarin 21.8%, Cantonese 7.2%, Korean 3.4%, Punjabi 2.3% and Vietnamese 1.9%
The most common responses for religion were No Religion, so described 34.0% and Catholic 14.9%.
The median household income was $1,611, higher than the Queensland and Australian median.The median mortgage repayments is $1,800 per month
The most common occupations included Professionals 24.5%, Clerical and Administrative Workers 14.6%, Technicians and Trades Workers 11.9%, Managers 10.7%, and Sales Workers 10.7%.
Of occupied private dwellings, 24.0% were owned outright, 41.5% were owned with a mortgage and 32.2% were rented.
According to the, Calamvale includes the largest Macedonian Australian community of any suburb in Queensland, numbering 76 individuals and making up 0.5% of the suburb's population.
Education
The schools in Calamvale include Calamvale Community College, Stretton State College, and Calamvale Special School.
No train stations are in Calamvale, although Altandi and Runcorn train stations are only about a five-minute drive away. Travel to the Brisbane CBD is roughly 30 minutes by car, 40–55 minutes by bus, and 30–45 minutes by train from Runcorn and Altandi railway stations. Calamvale is serviced by nine bus routes operated by Brisbane Transport and Park Ridge Transit, as listed below. It is in Zone 2 of the TransLink zoning scheme.
Golden Pond wetlands
An eco-friendly feature of Calamvale is the Golden Pond Wetlands attached to Calamvale Creek. A natural creek and a riparian wetland run through the lower part of Calamvale. In the late 1990s, two constructed wetlands relying on storm water runoff were built upstream of the creek on each side of Golden Avenue. They are known as the Golden Pond wetlands. The wetlands and creek, collectively called the Golden Pond wetland system, provide a small wildfowl habitat and a storm watertreatment train designed to improve the quality of storm water runoff as it progresses down the creek.
Treatment train
The treatment train is made up of several parts, and purifies water as it flows through each part. An upstream storm water drainage channel runs into a sediment basin, which collects the heaviest sediments and allows better-quality water to flow into Wetland 1. Water flows through a gross pollutant trap into Wetland 2, which was originally a small farm dam on the south side of the Golden Avenue road bridge. Overflow water from Wetland 2 runs into a natural riparian wetland fringed with melaleucas, and this runs into a natural creek with small lagoons.
Wildlife
The Calamvale wetlands and creek provide a home and a retreat for ducks, egrets, cormorants, spoonbills, herons, water dragons, turtles, eels, and a large number of other wildfowl and animals.
Water quality
Environmental engineers from Brisbane's Griffith University have conducted numerous studies on water quality at the creek and wetlands, and have presented papers at conferences internationally on the design and effectiveness of the treatment train.
Notable people
Actor Russell Dykstra grew up in the suburb, frequently entertaining commuters on the local 141 bus with his self-styled pantomimes while taking the long commute into St Laurence's College in South Brisbane as a schoolboy from 1979 to 1981.
