Best places for a selfie in Ipswich

Keen to get some new pics for your feed? Take a pic with dinosaur footprints, feed the birds in a giant mural or why not enlist the help of a furry friend! Here's 8 places to go for some insta worthy shots!
25 Feb 2021
Denise Cullen, Photojournalist

Looking to snap some selfies with a difference? There’s no better spot than Ipswich. Locations range from urban to rural, while backgrounds include everything from colourful street art to aquatic environments. Then there’s the quirky props like camels, dinosaur footprints and disused planes, if you really want to add some oomph to your images.

Summer Land Camels

Selfie with the camels at Summer Land Camel Farm

Summer Land Camels is a biodynamic dairy farm and café which offers a full day out. Join a farm tour, sample camel milk feta, ice cream or fromage blanc, and don’t forget to snap a selfie with one of these “ships of the desert”.

There are 550 camels on this vast Harrisville property and more than a handful of them don’t mind mugging for the camera – particularly when there’s hay involved. Most of the adult camels were captured from the outback, sparing them from the annual feral camel cull.

A breeding program is underway, with one prolific male fathering 99 offspring … in a single season.

Ipswich Street Art

Selfie with street art Photo: Denise Cullen

The Ipswich CBD is one big open-air art gallery. From decorated signal boxes at street level to murals stretching storeys high, there’s fresh splashes of colour around every corner.

The Brisbane Street Art Festival came to Ipswich for the first time in August 2020, seeing new works rub shoulders with existing ones. Their big, bold, brash beauty demands engagement.

So don’t be surprised if you end up recording yourself feeding David Houghton’s fairy wrens near the Central Mission Church, or loping alongside Gus Eagleton’s St Jonnie, the singer from local band FeelsClub, in Icon Alley.

See the street art for yourself with this trail.

Queens Park

Selfie at Queens Park

Queens Park is one of the state’s oldest and is a whole-day destination in itself.

Enjoy breakfast at Queens Park Café then browse the Environmental Education Centre next door to learn how to cut household waste or reduce your carbon footprint.

Mosey on down to the serene surrounds of the Japanese-inspired Nerima Gardens before exploring the Ipswich Nature Centre* to get up close and personal with Australian wildlife. Then take some time to rest, relax and capture the moment under the shade of a tree – figs, bunya and hoop pines, and more can be found here.

Willowbank plane

Selfie with plane at Willowbank

As far as landmarks go, it’s hard to miss. One minute you’re driving down the Cunningham Highway at Willowbank, the next minute you’re gawping at a Vietnam-era Canberra Bomber which seems to be seconds away from nosediving into the roadside paddock.

Mounted on poles, this A84-238 warbird could use a lick of paint and some tender loving care, but that hasn’t stopped it getting plenty of attention from folks who love a picture for posterity. This slice of history is located a mere three kilometres down the road from its original home at the RAAF Base Amberley.

Ungermann Brothers

Selfie with Ungermann Brothers Ice cream

Even if you don’t love ice cream (and who doesn’t love ice cream?) Ungermann Brothers is the perfect place to get snap-happy.

With its powder blue and white booths, fuschia neon signs and oodles of vintage memorabilia, Ungermann Brothers was made for pretty pictures. The menu offers  a whirlwind of fanciful flavours, including lavender and honeycomb; blue cheese and fig; fairy bread; and coffee, cardamom and liquor.

Ungermann Brothers is located at 88 Limestone Street, the site of Ipswich’s former technical college, where trade skills were taught to those seeking work in the early city’s railway workshops, woollen mills and coal mines.

Denmark Hill Conservation Reserve

What’s most remarkable about this park is how under-the-radar it remains. Denmark Hill Conservation Reserve offers gentle bushwalking trails, picnic facilities and a children’s playground.

There’s also a geological site from which thousands of Triassic-age fossils were unearthed in 1920. But the significant discoveries didn’t stop there. In 1964, three-toed footprints made by a predatory dinosaur were identified at Dinmore. 

Lounging at Orion Lagoon

Orion-Springfield

Keen to make a splash? Just across from Robelle Domain at Springfield is the Orion Lagoon, offering a sprawling network of interconnected pools and water features like squirting spouts. There are shallow areas for the sipper cup set, deeper waters for the grown ups and plenty of Insta-worthy spots in which to strike a pose.

Stretch out under one of the colourful umbrella shades, spread out a picnic on the lawn, paddle in the shallows or chart a course across the stepping-stones. There’s a café onsite too, so you can refuel between captures.

Tulmur Place

Tulmur Place

Tulmur Place in the Nicholas Street Precinct has a serious side, for sure. Officially opened in November 2020, with Ipswich’s new library and council premises based here, it represents the city’s civic heart.

But Tulmur Place also has a playful side too – namely, the state-of-the-art interactive water play zone, featuring a water curtain and jets of water shooting into the air. There’s plenty of other things here to explore too, with bronze fish trap and native animal sculptures set among the native vegetation and sandstone boulders. Let your inner child loose!

Denise Cullen Photojournalist
Denise Cullen is a Brisbane-based freelance photojournalist who has lived and worked in Athens, London and Kuala Lumpur. She writes about travel, food, agriculture, business and true crime – any subject really, except for golf. Visit her at www.denisecullen.com.au

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