The Challinor Centre saw many name changes after opening in 1878 as the Ipswich branch of the Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum with one chief warder, four attendants, one cook/laundress and 50 patients.

Life in the early days was tough. The quality and variety of food was poor, and medical knowledge was basic with castor oil, bran poultices, arrowroot and brandy being used as standard remedies. Inmates capable of working spent their days helping with the cooking, sewing, laundry, farming or gardening.

In 1910 the Ipswich branch of the Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum became the Ipswich Hospital for the Insane. In 1938 it was renamed the Ipswich Mental Hospital and in 1964 it was renamed again as the Ipswich Special Hospital.

It was finally named the Challinor Centre in 1968 in honour of Dr. Henry Challinor, the ships surgeon on the Fortitude. He and his family settled in Ipswich in 1849 where he worked as a medical practitioner until he became Surgeon Superintendent of Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum from 1868 to 1872.

From 1968 to 1997 the Challinor Centre served as a training centre for people with intellectual disabilities. In late 1997 the Challinor Centre began its final stage of evolution as the new UQ Ipswich campus.