Freight trains tear through my suburb at night. I’ve made peace with it

OpinionContributorAugust 24, 2026 — 5:00amMy wife and I looked out beyond the back fence of our new Corinda home.“This will be fine,” we reassured each other. “We’ll barely notice.”The Springfield and Ipswich train lines, which slice through the middle of Corinda, run right past our house. We hear the whirr of the suburban trains throughout the day and clanking freight trains at night, starting their journey from the nearby Rocklea markets to who-knows-where in western Queensland.It had the potential to be a dealbreaker, but it turned out we were right. After two weeks, we barely noticed the sounds, and after seven years, we couldn’t imagine being without it. The sounds are comforting, and the sight of the mighty coal trains building speed slowly past the station and out into the inky black of the night is something else.We’ve set our weekend watches to the arrival of the Westlander coming in from Charleville, and had first-class seats for the testing of Brisbane’s Christmas steam train.The train line, and parallel Oxley Road, defines Corinda in many ways. The suburb enjoys its semi-regular spot in the news when visiting trucks run afoul of the low rail bridge just past the shops on Oxley Road, leading into Sherwood. It always causes traffic chaos, and it’s fodder for the usual calls to widen Oxley Road or divert the train tracks. But then who would know of our little suburb if we did that?Beyond the rails, Corinda is split in two, depending on which side of Oxley Road you live on. There’s the “low side” to the left as you travel inbound, and the “high side” to the right. There may be a certain subtle snobbery to the terms, but in all honesty, houses on either side are beautiful: enormous heritage homes with pristine yards, high hedges, and picket fences.The “high side” is actually named for its gently sloping hill leading towards the high banks of the Brisbane River. The crown on this side of Oxley Road is Francis Lookout – a tiny park with a glorious view of Brisbane’s cityscape on one side and Mount Coot-tha on the other.Corinda’s history is there as well: gravestones marking the burial of members of the Francis family lie at the edge of a crop of trees. The family were among Corinda’s first settlers in the 1860s, and while they were active and passionate members of the early community, the tale of their lives is pretty grim: seven children, only three of whom survived to adulthood, with the eldest son dying of pneumonia after the 1893 flood.Francis family graves at Francis Lookout tell a grim story of early settlement.Morgan RobertsOther graves in the small park include John Dudley Dunlop, and John and Alice Walker. All have streets bearing their names in Corinda or Sherwood.The “low side” runs from Oxley Road to Oxley Creek, beyond which the Oxley Creek Common lies. The flat wetland area and its proximity to Oxley Creek invites flooding, and the 2022 floods hit that part of Corinda hard. I remember the inland sea that formed between Corinda and Rocklea, and the clean-up that followed there and in neighbouring suburbs Oxley, Sherwood, Graceville, and Chelmer. We all pitched in, as so many of us did across Brisbane.Corinda was lucky to have avoided the worst of the damage, but it didn’t stop the best of its people from lending a hand. We’re wary, as a suburb, now. The first question asked at open houses might once have been, “Does this flood?” Nowadays, everyone knows the literal lie of the land.Some houses had water creeping in, others were inundated. Oxley and Sherwood have houses built on enormous stilts to avoid another catastrophe.A short stretch of Oxley Road has neighbourhood drawcards such as bakeries, a second-hand bookshop, and an old-school hardware shop. Sean Watson runs Corinda Hardware and Electrical, has worked there since 1992, and commands a fierce customer loyalty.Sean Watson (and Taco) at Corinda Hardware and Electrical.Morgan Roberts“I know their names, I know their kids’ names, I know their dogs’ names,” he told this masthead’s photographer when they went to snap a pic. “I know where they live, and what renovations they’ve done.”Corinda, like all postcodes around Brisbane, has an active and often entertaining social media presence. For the most part, it is positive: stories about dogs going walkabout and being reunited with grateful owners, lost keys, and lemonade stands. It is an encapsulation of the suburb itself: peaceful, perhaps a little uneventful, but in a way that seems pleasantly contradictory to our often-hectic lives.There’s plenty around the suburb that allows such a peace to manifest. I’ve enjoyed several XXXX Golds with mates at both the Corinda Bowls Club and the Corinda Tavern. They are a short jog from each other and my home, so it feels like you’ve earned the pint. Dunlop Park and pool, the local library, and wallball at Montrose Park are all the sites of favourite pastimes with my sons on the weekend.However, I’m most at peace in my suburb after work about 10.30pm. The city is still loud and busy at that time, but when I step into the night at Corinda, the suburb is quiet and still. The only sound is the whirr of the train that I just exited – exactly how I like it.Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.From our partners