A suburb with a surprising history and a frustrating shopping centre
Idea
Life in the Burbs is a series that highlights the good, bad and beautiful of the Brisbane suburbs. Every week, writers from across the city write love letters to their (mostly) suburbs.
What is the true spirit of volunteerism? I will tell you.
When Cannon Hill State School first opened in 1915, a series of drowning tragedies shook the community. Children trying to cool off in the local flooded quarry were losing their lives.
Determined to create a safe space to teach their children to swim, parents raised money for the pool by growing potatoes in the school’s oval. The government architect drew up a design, and parents and children dug the pool by hand.
A hundred years and several renovations later, the pool was named after graduate and Commonwealth and Olympic medalist Hayley Lewis. It’s still there.
The spirit of volunteering continues to live on at the school; parents come to serve free school breakfasts and organize tuckshops and disco nights. I became friends with many of them while being picked up from school. We went to each other’s houses on birthdays.
Sometimes I think that if it weren’t for school, I wouldn’t have much of a social life.
Cannon Hill arguably marks the last outpost of the inner city to the south. Beyond that, you’re heading towards the bay edge.
Its center is located between Wynnum Road and Richmond Road; Richmond Road is a long rat run, conveniently devoid of traffic lights or junctions, stretching past Morningside Station to Creek Road.
Attractive Queenslanders, bungalows, schools and nurseries are sandwiched between the two. The Friendly Grocery Store on Molloy Road is packed on Friday afternoons with students buying ice cube trays and serving coffee to their parents throughout the day. There’s a brewery, bike shop, Vinnie’s, banh mi shop.
At the east end is the Cannon Hill Shopping Plaza, where I spend most of every weekend.
Let’s be honest. Cannon Hill Shopping Plaza (est. 1973) is a nightmare for drivers and pedestrians alike. Almost every car trying to get out of here has to cross pedestrian crossings used by almost every pedestrian trying to reach the stores.
Vehicles pull in left and right, and setting out on foot is risky as there are few designated footpaths; You’ll find yourself pushing the shopping cart among aggressive SUV owners. There is little shade because Hurricane Alfred destroyed the tarps.
Short of tearing everything down and starting over, it’s hard to see how it could be improved.
Recently, in a doctor’s waiting room, I found a photo of the place from the year it opened. It doesn’t look like much has changed. The main difference was that there was a drive-in cinema instead of Bunnings. My sister-in-law was taken to see John Carpenter’s house. Thing He swears he was still not healed when he was a little boy in 1982.
These days, the east wing is a “ghost mall” dominated by the empty shells of failed businesses: a former butcher’s shop, a long-dead café. A 24-hour golf simulator also operates here, as does a whimsical tourist attraction featuring hologrammed animals. The building is eerily quiet and dimly lit. It’s like an abandoned mall in a zombie movie.
I love this.
But Cannon Hill’s militaristic name worries me. Was it invented after a frontier war, a massacre, against native owners? Streets such as Grenade Street, Gatling Street and Shrapnel Road near Cannon Hill Anglican College likewise appear to commemorate the horrors of the First World War.
Luckily the answer seems funnier. Accordingly a letter Brisbane Courier dated June 1930In 1864, a boy traveling home to Tingalpa took shelter in a large, hollow log resembling a ball during a storm. A log! The author claims that this is the origin of the name of Cannon Hill House, the stately home of the Weedon family that burned down in 1926; However, it is possible that this name came from here. A park in Birmingham.
Various elevations in the area offer delightful views of the city skyline, but if you want to see a truly steep hill, check out the chart below. Cannon Hill house prices. The suburb has taken its place behind Morningside in Brisbane’s brutal conga line towards unattainable luxury.
Neighbor Murarrie wants to join the party. Park Hill, Murarrie’s new end of Paris, built on the site of former Cannon Hill cattle farms Asked to be renamed Cannon Hill for more than ten years. Residents note the historical connections and the proximity of the Cannon Hill railway station.
Meanwhile, the corner block of Wynnum and Creek roads has sat vacant for years, awaiting a $600 million redevelopment.East Village”, with retail, dining, cinemas, apartments and a hotel.
Developers look forward to “unlocking new height permits and delivering a cohesive, well-planned precinct that will grow progressively over the coming years.” The local Facebook group looks on with impatient skepticism.
But rest assured, Cannon Hill is on the rise in the world. It has a golf course, the newest in Brisbane. Minnippi Parklands has a new luxury condo development and a well-kept new golf club, and grand homes are going up faster than you can imagine.
While I complain loudly about the Cannon Hill Shopping Plaza, I would be left without it. My kids love the sushi trains and God forbid we will have to go all the way to Westfield Carindale.
And I love school. After the last bell, I saw the principal playing handball with the children. At a recent Diwali festival, I watched teachers submit to slimming down while students cheered wildly.
Hayley Lewis’s uncle, NRL legend Wally, is also a proud graduate, having won the regional chairmanship for the school in 1968. visited his alma mater last year Appointing school captains.
If Lang Park does not accept the King’s bones, perhaps they can find a place for him on the school oval, where sporting dreams grow along with potatoes.
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Nick Dent is a Culture Reporter for the Brisbane Times covering the arts and things to do in the city.Connect via email.
