I grew up on a property along Nudgee Road at Northgate, near Gills' dairy. Back in those days there were Chinese market gardens at Banyo and people still went to Cribb Island for holidays. Mum and Dad supplemented their incomes by growing small crops on our 3 acres. There's a great photo of me sitting in Dad’s truck surrounded by beetroot.
Like most Mums in the area, mine worked for a time on the pineapple lines at the cannery. My Father worked in the local truck spring-works.
While there have been many changes to the area over my lifetime, what’s stayed the same is a sense of ‘community’, and that it’s a bit like a small country town.
With the natural and man made boundaries of Moreton Bay, Kedron Brook and Downfall/Nundah Creek, the suburbs of Northgate Ward can rightly claim to be a unique part of Brisbane.
As a small boy, I loved going to Nudgee Beach and Cribb Island for a play on the swings and for a swim. I’d ride my bike to the Nudgee Waterholes and the Bora Ring, without having any clue as to the special place this area was to our Indigenous Australians.
Whenever I walk around to the Bora Ring now and look at the indentation in the ground, I get an eerie feeling when I think about how it was created by the pounding of bare feet, over thousands of years.
My early teens were spent roaming the area on my bike, playing Rugby League for Norths Devils, fishing in the local creeks and ice skating at Toombul. I remember when Kedron Brook was full of great aquarium fish such as guppies and red and green swordtails.
The former Railway workshops at Banyo also hold strong memories for me. When I was 15 years old, I started my working career as an apprentice electrician in the Signal and Telegraph depot. The building is still standing, but I’m sure progress will eventually see the whole railway and defence force land redeveloped.
The good things about the area today haven’t changed. In some ways the newer facilities have made it better. It’s close to Moreton Bay, the Boondall Wetlands have been protected from development, we have great educational facilities including a new university and our public transport system is good.
Of course, there are downsides to progress. I’d like to see less truck traffic, I’m concerned about the airport’s plans to build a new runway closer to the suburbs and higher property prices are forcing our kids to move away from the area.
I’ve been extremely proud to represent this area on the Brisbane City Council since 1997. My job is to ensure the area remains a great place to live and that peoples’ lives are just a little bit better.
Kim Flesser
COUNCILLOR FOR NORTHGATE WARD
