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Published: November 6th 2022
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We needed to stop off near Brisbane in order to fulfil a promise made to my Mum to visit old family friends, Hazel and Lyle Morris. Not wanting to stay close to the city and it’s snaking brown river, we found a Church Convention Centre at Dakabin (near Pine Rivers) which could accommodate our caravan on a powered site. On arrival we noticed there was a school attached to the Watson Park Convention Centre, being Northpine Christian College. As it turned out, Melissa Pratt, whom we had known from a young child, was currently teaching at the school, and we caught up for a long chat late one afternoon after school.
We visited the North Lakes Town Park and walked around the man made lake full of turtles, birdlife and countless water dragons, sunning themselves along the pathways around the lake. It was a pleasant walk of around 2 kms.
It was a bit of a nightmare negotiating the inner city roads of Brisbane when we drove to see Hazel and Lyle Morris. Unfortunately the timing of our drive coincided with afternoon school zones and afternoon peak hour. What would normally take around one hour, took over one and
a half hours. It was great however, to visit Hazel and Lyle Morris, who have close family ties from when my Mum grew up in Gilgandra. Hazel was also my Kindergarten teacher in Wellington, and she still remembers this beautiful boy with black curly hair. I may have lost a bit of that black curly hair.
Hazel and Lyle are the most amazing and inspirational people. Lyle was a Church of Christ Minister up in Normanton Qld for many years, with Hazel as his willing assistant. They were very kind and giving of themselves to the local aboriginal community at Normanton, and this continues to this day. Their home in Brisbane is a home away from home for aboriginals that have to fly to Brisbane for medical care. Hazel collects them from the airport, provides a home for them to stay and ferries them to and from their medical appointments. They currently have a young woman living with them who they found drunk on the streets, with no home to go to. The young woman now attends university and has some stability in her life, although her shy and quiet nature is a consequence of the traumas she has
been through. We enjoyed a great chat along with dinner, and were sorry to have to leave this amazing elderly couple, who just live each day of their lives for those less fortunate.
We visited Redcliffe the next day, and enjoyed walking along the Esplanade shops and beaches. They have a great freshwater lagoon, which is available free of charge to the public and is patrolled by life guards. One of the highlights of visiting Redcliffe was to walk down Bee Gees Way, a lane way that has been built to honour Redcliffe’s favourite sons. The lane way outlined the history of the Bee Gees from fishing for Tiger Sharks at night from the Redcliffe jetty as boys, to busking on the streets, being spotted by Col Joye and making their first television appearance, and their subsequent stellar music careers. It was interesting how they re-imaged themselves as musicians as music genres changed significantly ie: from pop singers to disco in the 1980’s. What was surprising was their relatively unheralded talents as songwriters, penning many hits for other artists.
After enjoying coffee and cake from morning tea, we drove along the beachfront tourist drive down to Woody Point,
and then back up to Scarborough Beach, searching for a nice restaurant to celebrate Kim’s birthday. We chose Sea Salt and Vine at Scarborough Beach, and it didn’t disappoint. The restaurant had good food, along with a great view across to the beach and over to the Glass House Mountains.
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