Having grown up on the north side of Brisbane, I became familiar with the narrow (relatively speaking) roads and often convoluted ways of getting from place to place there. In comparison to the south side, dominated by Brisbane’s only (well, it was in my youth) freeway, driving on the northside actually required some ability to navigate and, well, drive…
Recently I had to locate a store on the north side and, armed with the address and a fifteen-year-old knowledge of street layouts, I set off. I did eventually find the store (more on that in another post, perhaps), but in the process got hit upside the head by a realisation that even in Brisbane the pace of change can overtake the unwary.
All I needed to have done was look at a street directory before leaving, and I would have realised that I was not headed for the Sandgate Road, Albion of my youth. Instead, I blindly trusted my ancient knowledge would guide me safely.
To be fair to myself, it’s not like the whole of the northside has been torn up and rebuilt — the part of Sandgate Road that I was looking for just happened to be the part that got a freeway parked on top of it. That general area of the inner-north of Brisbane got fairly well rearranged by the Inner-City Bypass. In the end, my ancient knowledge did save me from getting completely and hopelessly lost, but the exercise ended up being a lot longer than the quick duck-out-before-work-in-light-school-holiday-traffic trip I was hoping for.
Crossed Wires 