River, Pimpama and Tamborine, within the local government boundaries of the City of Gold Coast, City of Logan, Scenic Rim Regional Council and the Tweed River Valley. The Commandant of the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement, Captain Patrick Logan, was a compulsive explorer and in 1826 on his first expedition he discovered the Logan River. He noted the river was well suited to large-vessel traffic and was a first-class avenue to access the high-quality arable land along its banks. He named the country Darling, in honour of the Governor. The Governor renamed the river after Logan. One of the first large employers was the timber industry. The Logan River served as a rafting ground for logs and the new railways spurred local demand. The penal settlement based in Brisbane was closed in 1841 and the land was quickly taken up by squatters. The first leases of land in the Logan area were issued from 1849 and immigration was encouraged following the separation from NSW in 1859. The declaration of the Logan and Eight Mile Plains Agricultural Reserves in 1862 led to extensive settlement of the area. German immigrants arrived in batches from the 1864 onwards. Generous land orders for immigrants in Queensland created a drawcard in the possibility of owning their own farm. A cotton gin, which was converted to a sugar mill, was built at Loganholme in 1867. Cotton growers faced problems with both the weather and a lack of available labour despite the introduction of Kanaka labour. By the 1870s few working cotton plantations remained along the Logan River. While this crop was marginally successful, between 1866 and 1874, sugar was soon to become the staple industry. Many small sugar mills were started by farmers seeking to avoid processing costs charged by big mills. However these quickly proved to be uneconomic. Many farmers in the area abandoned sugar after a severe frost in 1885 and a catastrophic flood in 1887 which saw crops destroyed and covered with metres of silt. Others continued growing sugar cane to make 1890 one of the best harvests ever. In 1888, the railway opened in Logan. Within a year, Cobb and Co services ended in Logan. The Wild Water Water Slide Park began operations in October 1982. The site was to become the Logan Hyperdome with the first work on the regional shopping centre beginning in October 1988. It was officially opened in July