acres). One of the many benefits of the estate was the availability of "pure milk (no tadpoles)". On 9 November 1885, auctioneer Arthur Martin & Co offered 780 suburban lots (mostly 16 perches) in the Torquay Estate, an area bounded by Torquay Road to the north, Moreton Bay to the east, Oakland Avenue to the south and Serpentine Creek Road to the west. As well as promising a future railway connection, the advertising also speculated "If coal is discovered, of which there is every reasonable probability, Redland is bound to become the Newcastle of Queensland, and one of the most important places in Australia". On 22 September 1888, auctioneer R.J. Cottell offered 610 lots (mostly suburban blocks ranging from 20 to 42 perches) expanding the Redland Bay estate westward to the Moogurrapum Creek and southward to Pitt Street (with some larger farm blocks beyond those boundaries). The auction took place at the Brisbane Opera House in Queen Street. On 18 March 1889, auctioneer A. Martin & Co offered 109 lots, including some still unsold in the original Redland Bay Estate as well as some additional lots in the vicinity of Broadwater Terrace. An extension of the Cleveland railway line to Redland Bay and Mount Cotton was surveyed in 1889. The extension to Redland Bay was recommended by the Royal Commission into Public Works in 1922, but was never built. In 1906, a Baptist church opened in Redland Bay. On Sunday 10 July 1932 it was reopened after extensions and improvements. In 1979, the locality was described as:"arguably the most unchanged and fertile land within the entire Redlands area. The suburban sprawl has managed only scant inroads to a few pockets of land, but the remaining farmers have stubbornly resisted even the juiciest of offers from land developers, preferring a continuation of their inherited lifestyle."In the two decades that followed, the decision was made by the Redland Shire Council to permit suburban development in and around Redland Bay. With land zoning changing from rural to residential, and the corresponding steep rise in rates (local government land tax), Redland Bay's farmers found they could no longer compete with other farming areas not as close to a major metropolitan area. One by one the farms were sold to land development companies, and Redland Bay, by the year 2002 farming had all but ceased. From 2000, Redland Bay has been increasingly populated. Most farms