Talk of the town

We’re on the hunt for the Local Legends of Townsville to share their stories with NQ

Thousands of Townsville feet have local cobbler Gary Brodie to thank for their walking, running, footy-playing, dancing and working comfort. The Townsville Bulletin is shining a spotlight on Gary as the first in our series of Local Legends that make our city great.

The Town’s Cobbler has been mending North Queensland footwear on Flinders Street since the 1970s, first setting up shop in the old Cat and Fiddle Arcade before relocating to where he is now opposite City Lane.

We’ll be featuring a Local Legend each week, so send in your nomination of an interesting Townsville person so we can highlight them in a story and video to share.

Locals like Gary are what this city and region is all about. People who put a lot of hard work into what they do because they love where they live and work.

Our Local Legends can come from all walks of life and we’re looking forward to seeing a large variety of nominatons to be featured in our pages and on our website with pictures, stories and video interviews, so send them in.

Our first feature on Gary reveals he’s worked on tens of thousands of shoes, ranging from cowboy boots to shoes for ballet or boxing.

The experienced cobbler says his most memorable job was restoring shoes worn by actual Aussie soldiers in World War I forthe movie Beneath Hill 60.

“Some of these boots were actually at Gallipoli; they’re over 100 years old,” he said.

“It was a bit eerie working here on the weekends, working on them by myself and thinking about where they’d been and what the blokes had been through.

“One of them had a bullet hole in the heel and a blood stain on it.

“That’s what made it eerie working on them. I’m thinking, how did he get this?”

Know someone doing awesome things in our community? Scan the QR code to nominate them.