Let’s be realistic. There’s about as much chance of Barnaby Joyce staying away from the Members Bar during the next federal Parliamentary sitting than Brisbane being renamed with its Aboriginal name, Meanjin.
It’s just not going to happen. But would it be the end of the world if it did?
I’m proud to say that not long after The Bug began in 1989, we launched a campaign to change the name of the Sunshine State’s capital to its original aboriginal name.
At the centre of our arguments was the notion of how boring it was that Brisbane was on the Brisbane River. Not one but two nods to Sir Thomas Brisbane who was governor of the colony of New South Wales from 1821 to 1825. In 1823 Brisbane sent Lieutenant John Oxley to find a new site for convicts who were repeat offenders. Oxley discovered a large river flowing into Moreton Bay and the dreadful brownnoser suggested that both the river and the settlement be named after Brisbane.
How fucking boring, we argued. Is London on the London river! Is Paris on the Paris River. One nod to some Pommy administrator was one nod too many, so at least he should be stripped of one them. Leave him the muddy river but let’s be the first Australian capital city to be renamed with its original native name. If we did that first, no other capital would follow suit. What a coup! The only major Australian city honouring the world’s oldest continuing civilisation and its amazing culture.
All these decades later, and with the 2032 Brisbane Olympics organisers desperately looking for a marketing edge, the arguments for a name change to Meanjin have only gotten stronger. Bris-bane. Brisbanal! How fucking boring is that!
The very idea of that name change was sparked late last month by serial accidental plaigiarist Peter “I didn’t do it on purpose” Gleeson who used his newish gig as a 4BC shock jock to spread a bullshit yarn that the Palaszczuk government was in cahoots with The Greens and the dar.. the coo.. the first nations people to bring in the name change!
It was all arrant nonsense, of course, by an LNP apologist and fundraiser out to show Nine Entertainment Co. chairman Peter Costello he’s made of the right stuff capable of spewing risible, rightwing rubbish that may or may not be his own words for a permanent gig. Others joined in on the outrage, including Steve Price at Sky Views Australia while over at The Australian Peta Credlin gained herself The Bug‘s Media Glass House Arselicker for June award by kicking off one of her regular anti-Labor rants with the lie that the name change was Palaszczuk’s idea.
None of the above have ever let the facts get in the way of a good tory … sorry, story! All acted in the unprofessional, non-journalist way they did, safe in the knowledge of what they think Queensland is – a racist hotbed full of Pauline Hanson One Nation supporters.
Hanson herself was left almost speechless by the news of the attempted name change – surely another solid reason for it to happen!
As stated at the beginning, Brisbane is not going to be renamed Meanjin in my lifetime. But then again, I never thought my city of birth would ever be award the Olympics.
Meanjin is both an idea and a place I would have gladly and proudly lived in.
Don Gordon-Brown
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