Venues perfect for telling our many stories

WE’VE heard it so many times, “I am, you are, we are Australians”.

Uncle Frank Tapa from the Torres Strait quoted those words to finish his speech on Sunday at our Australia Day ceremony.

I sort of wish all our city could have been there. I know it was wet, and there were many empty seats, but when he said we should be known for our “humanity” more than anything else, it was a speech that was certainly perfect for this all Australians day.

We even had a 21-gun salute, great mossie repellent, lots of smoke and noise, maybe we could loan them to our mates in Ingham for their bat population?

Not to hurt the little blokes, just to ask them to try the free tree accommodation on the Cardwell Range.

We have many magnificent venues like Jezzine, and now we have our stadium, what about a military tattoo, eh?

In fact more than what is done in Edinburgh, we could have actual re-enactments because we are a garrison city, with the air force and army a five-minute bat flight away.

Some may remember the night at our entertainment centre of the last military tattoo, when John Howard was there and Croc and I hosted it, and I said “GST” to the absolute horror of all, then added great spot Townsville.

Imagine mock battles, music from all our pipe bands, led by 1RAR of course, and maybe even a mock air raid on Townsville.

As we all know we were bombed three times by the Japanese. One of the quotes was that the plane looked like a giant cross in the air. Look at the shape of the stadium we could all see the plane coming over the gap, spotlight hits, and the story told — that’s what our stadium should be used for too, for all entertainment.

This would highlight the incredible history and tradition of our marvellous city.

Let’s look at the local names, which could in years to come be seen by the world.

The Olympics maybe, or superstar acts that are seen on TV worldwide, the possibilities are endless.

This is the time to take pride in our unique names, like Central Park, bus hub, and the latest ripper the Reid Park Active Transport Bridge.

True, it’s a state-financed bridge, our money, and as it’s council managed, we could name it what we liked, surely.

Maybe this is just the interim name given for the media, yes of course, they would never leave it at that.

Look at the nearby bridges, Lowths for Thomas Lowth, and Rooneys Bridge for Matthew Rooney, timber merchant lost on the Yongala, and George Roberts Bridge.

We all loved George, he was truly one of our city’s greatest benefactors and supporters.

So many great stories, I hope they have a James Morrill Park planned, now that is the greatest of stories, perfect for our city, perfect for all Australians.

Actually, we could tell the story centre stage of our stadium, the moment shipwrecked sailor Jimmy Morril first met the tribe he was to live with for 17 years here in the Townsville area. Taken to meet the elders, he thought they meant to eat him.

When they saw this in his eyes, all the elders put their hands in the fire to warm them, and all placed them on his chest. Now that’s reconciliation.

Happy days.