Situated 7 km from the CBD by ferry, with easy road access to the city, Ascot is a prestige suburb of Brisbane Queensland. Eagle Farm Racecourse, Doomben Racecourse; Albion Park Raceway and Royal Queensland Golf Course are all close to hand.
 | Ascot - Aboriginal History |
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The original owners of the northern side of the Brisbane River were the indigenous Turrbal people. The Corroboree place of the Turrbal clan was at Breakfast Creek just outside the Ascot boundary and was known to the Turrbal people as Yowoggerra, meaning Corroboree Place, where the Turrbal had camping grounds. In 1824, at the mouth of the creek, explorers Oxley and Cunningham were the first white people to meet members of the Turrbal people; In 1858 Aborigines from Yowoggerra, protested to The Moreton Bay Courier about the treatment meted out by white settlers.
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Settler James Sutherland owned of a large portion of the Toombul parish in 1855, including the thickly afforested area of Ascot. In 1863, horse racing was established in Brisbane; the Brisbane suburb was named after the home of 'the sport of kings', Ascot, in Berkshire, England. The Eagle Farm Racecourse is now the premier racetrack in Brisbane but in early times horses it was not possible to see the whole race due to trees in the way. The railway was extended to Eagle Farm Racecourse, Ascot in 1882 and in 1899 came the introduction of the first non-horse drawn tram service. In 1941 military authorities commandeered the racecourse to house thousands of American troops for World War II, and Ascot was renamed 'Camp Ascot'.
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Eagle Farm Racecourse, Ascot comes alive in a symphony of sounds and colours during both the Winter Racing Carnival and the Spring Racing Carnival and again to the Racecourse Road Festival. Excellent public transport serves Ascot with the train station and buses and the City Cat River Service is less than five minutes away.
