(written when drunk)
According to the dreaded Wikipedia, experts are divided as to the meaning of the Aboriginal name “Woolloongabba” preferring either ‘whirling waters’ (woolloon and capemm) or ‘fight talk place’ (woolloon and gabba).
I find this strange. Someone could ask a local Aboriginal elder where the word came from? Nevertheless, I like the second meaning “Fight talk place”. Because that describes the place well.
I arrived in 2013. The suburb’s centerpiece was, and still is, the Gabba football stadium. A second landmark of note is Princess Alexandra Hospital. The former injects Woolloongabba with an occasional intensity of people, traffic and noise. The latter provides those same three things, except on a daily basis.
In eight years the place has transformed dramatically, and also, not so much. Yes, I’m being obtuse. Because the essential nature of Woolloongabba is unchanged. It’s a couple of miles from Brisbane’s CBD. But a dirty brown river bisects those miles. It creates a natural border. You are not in the city when you’re in Woolloongabba. But you feel like you’re trying to be.
Stand on the corner of Main and Stanley and you’ll be surrounded. By apartments, a small row of shops and cafes, a major construction of the new “Cross River Rail” subway, an old factory, and a sports stadium. This is a…
