Sandwiched between Brisbane City and the colourful inner-city Fortitude Valley precinct, Spring Hill is the personification of all that is great about both neighbouring suburbs, with the added bonus of height, views and cooling breezes. Considering its size, this small pocket certainly packs a punch, ranked #4 for lifestyle amongst the nations suburbs*. With much of the total area located nearby a park, or (desirable) school – residents enjoy relatively discreet living despite its reputation as an “extension of the city”.

Spring Hill’s lofty heights were an original drawcard for the privileged set of the 1880s – the elevated peaks providing sweeping vistas of the Brisbane River and the western ranges. The ridge was also a choice site for service reservoirs, with the original windmill still standing proud as a suburb feature today. Much of Spring Hill’s modern apartment living is now perched on the ridge, peppered by many historic terraced homes. Descending from the elevated heights, charming workers cottages are abundant, often well-refurbished by young professionals, or otherwise replaced by slick new architectural masterpieces.

In between the old and the new face of Spring Hill was decades of inactivity during 1930-70, as the suburb was undervalued due to an association with the working class, immigrants and elderly. A make-over which began in the 1990s, spurred by the proximity to the city and then-cheap property prices, has transformed the sleeping beauty into quite the hipster haven. Today Spring Hillians enjoy the cosmopolitan closeness of the city, the colourful quirkiness of Fortitude Valley and sprawling parklands. Bordering two health precincts – on the north, the Royal Brisbane Hospital and the southern Wickham Terrace private hospitals and specialist centres – encourages baby-boomers with empty-nests to transition into the neighbourhood. Meanwhile, families like the park-littered precinct even moreso for educational abundance with Brisbane Grammar and Girls’ Grammer Schools, Brisbane Central Primary and St Joseph’s College all within. Spring Hill proves inner-city living can suit any type of household.

* 2016 Australian Statistical Geography Standard.