Redcliffe Reflection - Australia Day 2007

[manfredvijars]

Redcliffe Reflection - Australia Day 2007
(c)2007 Manfred Vijars

[Maureen K Clifford]

I always loved the re en-action that they used???? to do at Redcliffe on Australia Day, to commemorate Redcliffe being one of the penal settlements of Moreton Bay because Redcliffe is known as the first settlement city. That was when the Redcliffe CBD committee encouraged us all dress up in period costume and decorate our shop premises for a week prior to the festival on the weekend and it was great fun. My work premises were decorated with dingo and rabbit skins, old rabbit traps, camp ovens, blackened billys, saddles and bridles and an old shotgun and all of my staff used to get into the swing of it with the costumes as well.

So needless to say your poem resonated very much with me Mannie - but Redcliffe is not the Redcliffe I grew up in as a kid. Time has moved on, people and expectations change, and so it is in most places. Such a shame that the old Hornibrook Highway has been pulled down, but as you tell us the pelicans still perch on the metal shrouds of the light fittings over the Houghton and Ted Smout Highway, the bay is still beautiful , and if you disregard the high rises and homes along the foreshore no doubt is much the same as when those first convicts landed there amidst mosquito ridden swamps that numerous Councils have managed to tame over the years, although spraying each year is still a necessity.

Did you also become an Australian at Redcliffe Mannie???? I think we were the lucky generation Mate

I enjoyed reading your poem Mannie - thank you for the reminder of my old stamping ground.

Cheers

Maureen

[manfredvijars]

Thanks for that Mausie ... No, the family were naturalised in Victoria. My Dad had the 'dates for illegibility' marked on the calender. Back then you had to be here for a certain time before you could apply for citizenship. Then it was a specific wait before your naturalisation day (IF you qualified). And in between there were classes and tests all about Australia and it's history.

On the day, my sister wasn't allowed to join us on stage (she was born here) so she kicked up a bit of a fuss.

Redcliffe has changed even in the short time I've been here Mausie.
Sadly the pelicans don't preside on the bridge poles anymore. The mongrels in council put spikey thingies up there so they can't roost - I miss them.
Council's excuse is that they poop on the cars. I hope they now poop on the council instead ...

The old Hornibrook is now gone, but the Bay is still beaut! ...