By Evie Drinnan
The new Breakfast Creek/Yowoggera Green Bridge was opened on Saturday 10 February by Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner, dressed in green pants to match the Moreton Bay Fig leaf-inspired bridge.
Cr Schrinner said: “Our Green Bridges Program is all about building a better-connected Brisbane, making it easier for people to get around.”
He thanked the Traditional Custodians of Brisbane for allowing the bridge to be named using the local language.
Language has unfortunately been lost through the process of colonisation, but some Aboriginal people say Yowoggera means “corroboree”.
Traditional Owner Shannon Ruska said the mouth of Breakfast Creek was known as Yowoggera; corroborees were held in the gardens of Newstead House, a town was on the other side of Breakfast Creek, and the women’s birthing place was across the river at Bulimba.
Coincidentally, the Mercedes-Benz shop is still a place linked to transport, as it was once a canoe port.
Transport Committee Chair Cr Ryan Murphy, Cr Julia Dixon and Cr Vicki Howard were in attendance.
Hamilton Ward Councillor Julia Dixon said: “It will make it much safer to cross over Breakfast Creek”.
Mary Doolan of the Brisbane CBD Bicycle Users Group said: “I’m a big fan of user segregation – walkers and cyclists have their own lanes, and they’re completely separate from vehicles.”
Attendees explored the bridge and gathered at the corroboree place for entertainment from the Bluey and Bingo Live Interactive Experience, live music, food trucks and stalls.
