When the first German settlers arrived in the area in 18 64, they found that the aboriginal people called the area Kara Kara.
However, the German settlers named the locality Bethanien, which was the German spelling of the Palestinian town of Bethany.

When the railway line came through the area, the Railway Department proposed that the station be called 'Kara Kara'. The German settlers protested and requested that Bethanien be retained. Bethania - the Latin spelling of Bethanien was the compromise.

In 1985 the name Eden's Landing was officially given to a new suburb situated on the southern bank of the Logan River between Waterford and Beenleigh. The new suburb was comprised of parts of the existing suburbs of Holmview and Bethania.

Leighton Properties marketed the new residential development with a name which linked the development back to the 1860s. A pioneer hotelier and ferryman Henry Eden operated a ferry punt at Waterford - at a site somewhat upstream from the future residential development.

In the 1870s, Henry Eden moved to the Tweed River where he built a small cedar home, 'Ostia', at the future site of Coolangatta. Eden also operated a chartering service, transporting cedar between Brisbane and the Northern Rivers District of New South Wales. He also took a land selection the "Garden of Eden" in the Currumbin District. Finally he returned to England to claim a hereditary title of Viscount Eden

In the early 21st century the suburb Eden's Landing is an established suburb with a railway station and state school.

The first building erected on the school property, was opened in October 1977. This was the first teacher accommodation. In May 1978 the first school building was dedicated and opened. The second school building was opened in February 1979 when the pupils numbered 85.

By God's grace a sound Christian Education and good tone has been established in the school. Over the years working bees have been held to establish the grounds and facilities. The environmental trial and oval were established to improve facilities.

The largest building program in the history of the school took place in 1981 when the principal's residence was opened in March, and two weeks later the two buildings of Stage 3. This stage also concluded the driveway, car park and multi purpose court. In 1984 Mr. Chris Wilhelm became the new Principal and the new library/resource centre was built during his time at Bethania. Mr. Les Seiffert accepted the position as Principal in 1989. The Preschool classrooms were opened in 1993. Mr. Seiffert was instrumental in establishing the Preschool class. Mr. Bruce Walkenhorst was appointed to the position in 1994 and he was instrumental in the introduction of the double streaming program.

In 2002 quite a radical change occurred in the structure of our classes. The curriculum is now based on a two year cycle. The school is made up of four stages, Early, Junior, Middle and Senior. Students of two age levels are members of a home group nurtured by their home group teacher for two years before going onto the next level. This gives the older students the opportunity to be leaders in that stage for a year. Children are grouped (Journey Groups) to accommodate their individual capacity for challenge in numeracy and literacy. This enables them to succeed at their particular level and hence enjoy more rapid progress.

At the commencement of 2003 Ms Elaine Nitschke was appointed as principal. May we be ever mindful of the School motto "Christus Constans Est" - (Christ is changeless) Christ the same yesterday, today and forever.

Logan City is now a major centre of residential development, supported by thriving commercial and industrial areas. It links the Gold Coast and Brisbane and the current population is estimated to be over 165,000.

The Shire of Logan was formed in 1978 by incorporating areas from the northern parts of Beaudesert and Albert Shires. Logan City was declared on 1 January 1981.

Early European exploration of the region was undertaken by the Commandant of the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement, Captain Patrick Logan, in 1826. He was impressed with the fertility of the land along the river, which he named the Darling, in honour of the Governor. The Governor renamed the river Logan because of Patrick Logan's enthusiasm and efficiency and it now forms part of the southern border of the city.

Captain Patrick Logan was not a popular man with the convict inhabitants of Moreton Bay due to his authoritarian attitude. He was found murdered en route to Ipswich in 1830. The perpetrator was never discovered.

The Aboriginal clans living in this area were from two major language groups, the Yugembeh and the Jaggera. The Gugingin sub-group of the Yugembeh lived along the banks of the Logan River and were expert makers of nets. They made fine cone shaped nets to trap fish and large wide nets to catch kangaroos.

The first European settlers lived along the river in the Waterford region from 1849. One of the early leaseholders of the area was James Fitzgerald, who built Tygum House at Waterford. His runs extended from Loganlea to Greenbank. Part of his land was eventually incorporated into the Logan Agricultural Reserve in 1862.

In 1863, 700 acres of this land was allocated to the Queensland Co-operative Cotton Growing and Manufacturing Company. The development of a cotton industry was instigated after the onset of the American Civil War in 1861. The cotton mills of England were in need of raw material and the new Queensland Government saw this as an ideal opportunity to promote cotton growing. The Agent-General for Queensland, Henry Jordan, had taken up residence in Tygum House and he recruited unemployed cotton workers from England. Over 1300 adults arrived in Queensland in 1863, to begin this new industry. Unfortunately they were mostly process workers from cotton factories who knew nothing about cotton growing. The land they were allocated was vine covered scrub and not surprisingly they were initially unsuccessful.

Further immigration was encouraged during the 1860s and the instigation of the Crown Lands Act of 1860 provided a land order to the value of £18 to any person who paid their own passage. Alternatively many were sponsored by immigration societies. Irish immigrants escaping the famine in their homeland were funded by the Queensland Immigration Society, founded by Bishop Quinn, and many people from Waterford in Ireland ultimately settled along the Logan River in the area now known as Waterford.

German migrants also settled the Logan district, particularly around Gramzow (Carbrook), and Bethania. Not surprisingly the German people tended to maintain strong community links, with the establishment of Lutheran Churches and their own schools.

Eventually the assimilation process proved successful with a number of German people elected to represent their regions on the Divisional Boards, the forerunners to Shire Councils, which were established in late 1879.

Both German and Irish immigrants were involved in cotton growing and many mills were eventually set up in the region, including one at Pimpama, one on Schneider's Road Waterford, one on Henry Jordan's property Tygum, and Fryar and Strachan operated a gin at Dewar Drive Loganholme. The old Cotton Company Road at Loganholme has now been consumed by the Logan Motorway. Probably the most notorious cotton growing operation was that of Robert Towns, further upstream towards Beaudesert. He is credited with importing the first Kanaka labourers to work on the plantations. The process of procuring South Sea islanders became known as blackbirding and continued into the 1880s.

Sugar was the next cash crop grown in the area and Kanakas continued to be used as cheap labour. Captain Louis Hope of Ormiston, near Cleveland, successfully grew sugar from 1862 and local farmers were keen to pursue this crop which was better suited to the climate than cotton. Cotton mills were converted to sugar mills, including Fryar and Strachans which was converted to a large scale mill in 1875. Strachan had previously worked as a sugar boiler for Hope. Henry Jordan grew sugar at Tygum but he was fiercely opposed to using Kanaka labour, as were others in the district. Charles Kingston was an engineer at Jordan's mill. He purchased land nearby in 1872 and built a slab house in an area that would later bear his name.

One of the most famous (or infamous) sugar mills operated aboard the stern-wheel steamer, the Walrus. This flat bottomed boat commenced operations in the Albert River in 1869 and crushed 2 tons of sugar a day. It worked up and down the rivers from the Gold Coast to Brisbane. It also distilled rum and was easily able to avoid the government distillery inspector, by simply moving on. A black market in spirits sprang up and the Walrus operated successfully from 1869 until 1871 producing 18,621 gallons of official spirits. The unofficial output is unknown.

A number of factors contributed to the decline in the sugar industry in the mid 1880s. Apart from the fact that the north Queensland climate proved to be better suited to sugar growing, southern farmers were faced with the prospect of having to upgrade their sugar boiling equipment when the new vacuum pan system was introduced. Kanaka labour was being phased out and the European market was being flooded with cheap sugar from sugar beet and local prices plummeted. These factors caused many farmers in South East Queensland to try other avenues of industry. Timber getting, followed by dairying, were the next major local endeavours. The Leahey brothers took over the Tygum mill in 1874 and later converted it to a timber mill.

Originally timber was cut and floated downstream to mills in Brisbane. By the 1880s most of it was collected by boat. Some went to Brisbane, some to Gilbert Burnett™s mill in Wellington Point and some was milled locally. The timber was put to various uses including local bridges, railway sleepers, houses, farm buildings fencing and as fuel for the boilers of the sugar mills still in operation. The area now known as Daisy Hill State Forest was gazetted as a timber reserve in 1874.

River transport was very important to the Logan region and road transport was hindered by the number of rivers that needed to be crossed. Flooding was a constant problem during the wet season and many timber bridges were washed away. The engineer for roads listed the road from Brisbane to Logan as a main road in his 1864-5 report.

Five cross river ferries operated by that time. The first one in the district was operated by Samuel Waterman at Waterford from 1862 and by 1865 there were ferries at Beenleigh, Coomera, Logan Village and Yatala as well. Roads were gradually improved and by 1869 coach services began operating along the Main Southern Road. By 1878, Cobb and Co operated a daily service from Beenleigh to Brisbane and daily to Nerang by 1881. Travellers to Southport had to take the remainder of the journey by boat until 1882. The coaching days finished with the opening of the railway to Beenleigh on 25 July 1885.

While the railway was initially built to service the sugar mills in the south coast districts, it was also used to transport locally cut timber in the Kingston and Woodridge areas. Charles Kingston, who had operated the Post Office from his home since 1877, also had a quarry. A short rail siding was constructed in 1890 to allow him to sell his metal and gravel. A further siding was provided in 1913 to allow Woodridge resident Dugald Graham to transport timber.

Kingston was later to develop in importance with the opening of the Butter Factory operated by the South Queensland Co-operative Dairy Company in 1907. Rail was used to transport cream from Dayboro, Cleveland and Brisbane Valley branch lines. World War I had a local impact, not only for the families of the young men who went away to fight, but for the local German population. Even though many people in the German community were born in Australia, they were treated with suspicion and German place names were changed. Gramzow for example, was changed to Carbrook and the Post Office was taken away from August Stern and given to a non German resident.

Times were hard during the depression locally and new industries were established to provide employment. The Kingston piggery opened in 1926 close to the Butter Factory and utilised the excess buttermilk to fatten the pigs. This grew into one of the largest operations in the state. The Butter Factory was enlarged in 1932 and increasing production also provided some work for local timber workers in supplying butter boxes for export. Both of these industries utilised the railway for transport. The Kingston Gold Mine was reopened as an open cut mine in 1932 which operated until 1954.

During World War II there was an influx of Americans to the Camp Cable base on the Tamborine Road. They would travel regularly through Woodridge, by both road and rail. The RAAF also designated numerous emergency landing fields in the area because of its close proximity to Archerfield aerodrome. The most significant of these was at Loganlea near the site of the new Logan Campus of Griffith University. It is interesting to note that some locals were official observers for the RAAF. They were required to report strange aircraft. Mrs Fred Stern of Carbrook was one of the observers.

One relic of World War II which has become a landmark locally is the big gun at Underwood. This 155mm field gun had been in one of the gun placements on Moreton Island. In 1958, the gun was bought by Bernie Smallwood, the owner of the wrecking yard that was originally on the site and in 1972 it was moved to the roof of the fruit stall operated by Bruno Laspina. Another post war development was the acquisition of land at Greenbank for army training purposes in 1949. The area was used for National Service training from 1951 and later for school cadet camps. The Citizens Military Forces (CMF) also used the camp for regular training.

The next major impact on this district was the increasing amount of traffic passing through on the way to the south coast for day trips and holidays. Bumper to bumper traffic was commonplace during the 1960s and the Main Roads Department struggled to duplicate the Pacific Highway. In 1965 a freeway was planned to link Brisbane City with the Pacific Highway. The areas on the outskirts of Brisbane City suddenly became attractive to developers because the Brisbane City Council had introduced strict guidelines for development from the early 1960s. Standards in Albert and Beaudesert Shires were more relaxed. Quick and easy developments coupled with the promise of easy access to the city, meant that this land was very attractive to the first wave of baby boomers who were ready to settle down. The area grew rapidly, particularly along the proposed freeway route and Pacific Highway. The Queensland Housing Commission also targeted areas along the rail line and bought up large tracts of land in the Woodridge and Kingston areas in the 1960s-70s. Development along Beaudesert Road occurred later with the growth of the Browns Plains area. Logan City evolved from these extensive subdivisions. Administratively, the area has been run by the Waterford, Tingalpa and later Albert and Beaudesert Shires.

Logan Shire was formed in 1978 and this became Logan City on 1 January 1981. The city is traversed by major road transport links including Beaudesert Road and the Mt Lindesay Highway, the Logan Motorway and the South East Freeway which links to the Pacific Highway. The Gateway Arterial is accessible from just outside the city boundaries. Rail transport is provided to and from the city and Gold Coast.

Logan is now serviced by 27 pre-schools, 26 state primary schools and 8 private primary schools, 10 state secondary and 4 private secondary schools. There is a TAFE college, Hospital and University at Loganlea. The Council provides libraries at Logan North, Marsden, Hillcrest, Logan Hyperdome and at Logan Central within the Council administration centre. The Logan Art Gallery is adjacent.

Sites of cultural heritage value include the Kingston Butter Factory and Museum, Old Carbrook State School and Mayes Cottage. Logan is well provided with sport and recreational facilities and parks and gardens. Major industrial estates and shopping centres provide both services and employment to local residents. However, the modern vibrant city of today needs to be understood in the context of its past and these brief suburban histories should assist in this process.