Playtime in New Farm Park

By Stevan Bogdanovic

My first introduction to New Farm Park was in 1965 through hockey training at New Farm State School in grade 5. The team would walk down to the park after school and train on the grassed area from Sydney St [where the library is now] to the former kiosk – an area that sat behind the northern cricket site board. There was lots of fun to be had while we waited for our turn on the field with the monkey bars near Sydney St, see saws in the middle, and swings under the big tree. After training we found our own way home. Walking by ourselves, no parent pickups then. Not many owned a car.

Eventually this area became a regular meeting place after school, and it was especially loved following rain as it was low lying and often it would be covered in an inch of water. So a good run up would result in a perfect slide with a big spray on your stomach or backside even though coming home could be an issue.

Our after-school group remained small until the senior years of high school. Catching the bus to high school led to meeting a great number of new friends who had attended the other primary school in New Farm. We invited the Holy Spirit fellows to join us for touch football and by the end of grade 12 we were playing over 20 a side on the main oval. Back then the main oval contained the traditional black cricket pitch in the middle and an old cricket shed at the Sydney St roundabout corner.

I took up athletics in high school and was the 1500 metre runner for State High. For training I would run from Teneriffe Hill to the park, do 10 laps of the roadway, have a game of touch and run back home [oh to be young!]. We would have impromptu training with other schools – Sam [Kelvin Grove SH] and Jimmy [Gregory Terrace] were aspiring sprinters and would challenge each other on the old hockey training area.

During QIT days I took up bicycle riding on a road racer and would do 10 kilometres around the park roadway. On one occasion I was flying around towards the Oval from the Oxlade Drive entrance when I had to hit the brakes as there was a car parked in the middle of the sharp bend at the oval with a fellow on a ladder taking photographs. I probably expressed some profanity as I went around him and on the next lap he pulled me over and asked if I would like to be in a photo with the car, a brand new shining Citroen for an advertisement in the Courier Mail. I said ‘sure!’ and within a week I was in the paper.

Stevan Bogdanovic in the Courier Mail advertisement

The roadway was without speed bumps back then and not much vehicular traffic. It was an ideal place for my dear mother to teach me how to drive. Lots of kangaroo hopping as changing gears in the Holden HD with ‘3 on the tree’ was a bit of a challenge initially!

The carefree afternoons in the park soon disappeared with the advent of full-time work and the distraction of more grown-up activities. However the friendships forged as adolescents on the New Farm Wharf bus and in the park are alive and well today.

Whilst it is well known that today the Park is regularly used to host a number of community events, my earliest memory of such an occasion is of the Warana Festival being in the Park. Imagine my wonder at seeing beach sand dumped on the riverbank so that the Gold Coast water skiers could take off and perform for the crowds. The sand remained for some time providing another play area.

Large gatherings of family and company picnics were commonplace over 30 years ago without the need for council permits and reservations.

Full circle we returned to the Park once our children were born to enjoy the cooling breezes under the trees by the river in summer or sitting in the winter sun near the rose beds. New Farm Park has been with me for the last 60 years and I look forward to days with our grandchildren enjoying its domain and forging many more precious memories.