 Originally part of the township of Cleveland, early industry included a brickworks established by James Maskell on the eastern bank of Hilliards Creek in 1852 and fellmongery (wool scour) owned by a Thomas Blacket Stephens until the early 1860s.Joseph Clark raised cattle in the district from 1855 until he relinquished the lease in 1858.Land around Ormiston was bought in 1853 by Captain Louis Hope, a Scottish aristocrat and a founder of the Queensland sugar industry.