On the way home through the city from our Christmas lunch we are confronted by many construction sites. Brisbane is the fastest growing city in Australia. Many of the southerners have discovered that it is a nice place to live after years of them teasing us about being behind the times up here. Anyway thousands of people have been flocking here over the last 5 years. Over a thousand a week for many months. Consequently our city is madly trying to keep up with the necessary infrastructure to cope with the invasion. At the moment there are many bridges, tunnels, and road widening works going on all over the city. One of the bridges under construction is the one below, recently named"The Go Between Bridge"
Below is an artists impression of the completed bridge. (from the web)
The bridge is named after a very successful Australian Band called "The Go Betweens". It was started by two university students, Robert Forster and Grant McLellan from Brisbane in 1977.They wrote the songs and the band performed here and internationally until 2006, when Grant died. They had a variety of support musicians play with them over the years.
Since 2000, Adele Pickvance has been playing Bass and singing in the band. We are very proud to have Adele in our extended family. She is our daughter's sister in law. Bill and Alma from our Christmas Eve post are her parents and our SIL's.
Adele is chuffed about the bridge being named after the band. They will be at the opening ceremony.
How excellent to have an extended connecton like that.
ReplyDeleteI knew that Brissie was growing quicklly but did not realise the extent of the growth. I don't think I have been there for over 25 years. Must rectify that in the next year or so. I knew from Cara's blog that there were bundles of new bridges all over the place so of which were not so popular.
How good is it that the Civic Fathers would honour a pop band in this way. Quite unique I should think.
Good one, Brissie.
Nice one Diane. My sister rocks!
ReplyDeleteDavid (Son-in-law.)
They were a great band. Of course their most famous song: "Streets of your town"! Shame that Grant passed away so young. But their name will forever be remembered with the new bridge.
ReplyDeleteHi Diane - what an interesting post and nice that you have the family link to this band. Confess Ididn't know of them but I liked the clip you added. Nice sound and sad the lead passed away. Nice they will be remembered in the bridge. I know nothing about Brisbane but it looks very modern so I can't imagine why it's perceived as being behind the rest of Australia! That's probably my Irish perception - we don't really do high-rise cities and Dublin and Cork look very low-rise.We have two Santiago Calatrava bridges in Dublin which are a source of national pride - particularly the new Samuel Beckett Bridge which is beautiful and harp-shaped. Happy New Year and one of my resolutions is to comment and read blogs more often!
ReplyDeleteCatherine
Neat Diane--to have such a great 'connection' in your extended family. What a pretty gal..."The Go-Betweens" sound like a great group. I know her parents are proud of her...
ReplyDeleteWhen I first saw that bridge and its name, I just figured it was talking about a bridge being built between 'here and there'--to connect parts of the city...
Glad Brisbane is growing so fast. It's a gorgeous city...
Happy New Year.
Hugs,
Betsy
The thought of laid back Brisbane full of traffic like Sydney is a scary thing. That looks like an awful lot of bridges ... the family connection is nice though.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great name for the bridge and a great commemoration. Brilliant.
ReplyDeleteSydney - City and Suburbs