Not so long ago, I wrote a short story. I don’t often write short stories, but I was asked by the Museum of Brisbane to contribute to an exhibition they were planning called The Storytellers, in which they proposed to feature short pieces of writing by local authors corresponding with various inner-city suburbs of Brisbane. I believe that sense of place is integral to stories and was drawn to the opportunity to dig deeper into a location that I’d known for decades, to see whether I could find a story hidden there.
I grew up on Tamborine Mountain, a rainforest village that sits upon a plateau within the mountainous ridge that snakes down the eastern seaboard of Australia. Tamborine is about a one hour drive south of Brisbane and, back then, was a world unto itself: a place of great beauty and uniqueness. My grandparents all lived in Brisbane, though, and during the long summer holidays we would make the trip down the windy mountain road and up the Pacific Highway to the ‘big smoke’ to visit them. (I wrote about these childhood trips to Nana Connelly’s house in Stafford in my short essay WE WERE FROM THE MOUNTAINS.)
When I went to university in Brisbane, I came to know the city anew. I met my husband there and we lived in the suburb of Paddington, in the very street (and, for a time, the very house) that Nell does in THE FORGOTTEN GARDEN. Paddington is a suburb of wooden worker’s cottages cut into steep hills, of glossy mango trees heavy with fruit and the bright purple shock of jacarandas; it is a place where bush turkeys roam freely in overgrown gardens and neon pink bougainvillea flowers scale walls, where bats come out at dusk to soar from one towering palm tree to another.
AT HOME ON THE RIVER BEND is set a few kilometres away in South Brisbane, one of the oldest suburbs of Brisbane, tucked within a bend of the snaking brown river that cuts the city in two. It is the story of a place told through the life of a woman who has called it home for a century. We meet Nan on the morning of her hundredth birthday: memories surround her and she is helpless to resist their pull towards the past and, in particular, a long-kept secret.
I sent a link to AT HOME ON THE RIVER BEND to my mailing list last month, but am uploading the story here now so that you can read it, too. I hope you enjoy it! And if you’re not already a member and would like to join the list, you’re welcome to do so HERE.
The photo at the top of this post shows a classic Brisbane sunset from a classic Queensland deck. Neon pink bougainvillea on the balcony in the foreground; a thicket of palms behind, awaiting dusk visitation from the bats; a lone, grand red gum on a slope that would once have been covered with them; and, beyond it all, the subtropical sun melting into the horizon.
The building below is Brisbane City Hall, home to the Museum of Brisbane and The Storytellers Exhibition. The exhibition will be on display until the 25th of April and I will be taking part in an ‘in-conversation’ event late that month to talk about stories and writing and the incredible power of place. More details to come via my EVENTS PAGE, MAILING LIST and SOCIAL MEDIA.
