Geebung RSL has become a regular northside venue for Clique Brisbane, giving young adults with intellectual disabilities and additional support needs a dedicated place to meet, dance and spend time together.
More than 160 registrations were recorded for Clique’s September dance at the club, which sold out. Another dance is scheduled in the Centenary Room on 16 October, with Cliquemas set to return to Geebung on 4 December.
A Night Out With Support Close By
Clique’s events are designed specifically for people aged 18 to 35, with the organisation keeping the age range narrow to create a social setting intended for young adults rather than a general all-ages gathering. Parents and carers are encouraged to leave the function room unless their support is essential, while support workers who need to remain can attend on a separate ticket.
Photo Credit: Clique Brisbane
Geebung RSL gives families and carers somewhere nearby to wait or have a meal while the event is under way. Transport also forms part of the venue’s practical appeal. Geebung railway station is diagonally opposite the club and buses stop nearby, while Clique says participants needing extra transport assistance can contact the organisation ahead of time for information about possible support providers.
Clique’s functions remain alcohol, drug and smoke-free despite being held inside a licensed club. Participant tickets include entry, a soft drink and a light supper, with registration required before the night because walk-ins are not accepted.
Photo Credit: Clique Brisbane
Nearly A Decade of Making Space To Socialise
Clique Brisbane was founded in late 2016 by volunteers who wanted to create regular social opportunities for young adults with intellectual disabilities and additional support needs. The program has since grown beyond dance nights. Restaurant outings, pop-up activities and an annual Riverfire event are also part of Clique’s calendar, while volunteers continue to help with both event-night duties and work behind the scenes.
Photo Credit: Clique Brisbane
The organisation will celebrate its 10th birthday on 20 November with a gala in the Kittyhawk Room at Kedron-Wavell. The anniversary sits between two Geebung dates, with the October dance followed by Cliquemas in December.
Geebung RSL is also listed among Clique Brisbane’s supporters, alongside Kedron-Wavell and other organisations. The regular use of the Centenary Room has given Clique a recurring base on Brisbane’s northside rather than a different venue for every gathering. Clique’s next Geebung event will run from 7pm to 9:30pm on 16 October, with registrations closing ahead of the dance.
Eleven points down. A new coach, a rebuilt roster and a Lithuanian point guard playing his first NBL game. The Brisbane Bullets could hardly have scripted a better test for opening night.
They passed it, overturning that second-half deficit to beat the New Zealand Breakers 88–85 at a sold-out Pat Rafter Arena on Tuesday and give Will Weaver a win in his first regular-season game as coach.
Arnas Velička was at the centre of the turnaround. The 26-year-old finished his NBL debut with 23 points and 14 assists, while his connection with Tyrell Harrison became increasingly difficult for New Zealand to contain as the game tightened.
It wasn’t polished. Brisbane committed 10 first-half turnovers and missed 13 free throws, leaving the Breakers with chances to steal it late. But after a six-win season and 13 consecutive losses to finish NBL26, the manner of the win was difficult to ignore.
New Zealand led 26–19 after the opening quarter and 44–37 at half-time, with Harrison already carrying three fouls. When Parker Jackson-Cartwright’s three pushed the margin back to 11 early in the third, Brisbane finally found its response.
The Bullets scored the next 10 points. Velička supplied five of the first seven before Nate Hinton struck from outside, and by three-quarter-time Mitch Norton’s late three had Brisbane ahead 65–63.
Harrison then opened the fourth with three baskets, all created by Velička, as Brisbane pushed clear. Velička’s fifth three of the night stretched the lead to eight with seven minutes remaining, but New Zealand fought its way back and eventually drew level.
Hinton answered with a three before a Lat Mayen offensive rebound gave Harrison the chance to finish with a crucial dunk. Those extra possessions mattered: Brisbane collected 15 offensive rebounds after managing only two in the first half.
Even then, the game wasn’t safe. Max Mackinnon made two free throws with 16.1 seconds remaining to put Brisbane three ahead, Norton blocked Jackson-Cartwright’s three-point attempt with 12 seconds left, and Velička then missed two free throws that gave the Breakers one last opening. Jackson-Cartwright’s final attempt from deep missed at the buzzer.
Velička played 35 minutes, hit five of nine attempts from three and committed only one turnover while directing Brisbane’s offence. His 14 assists were the most by a player on NBL debut and the most recorded by a Bullet in a 40-minute game.
Seven ended in baskets for Harrison.
Four of them came in the final quarter, with Harrison finishing on 22 points from 9-of-13 shooting alongside seven rebounds and four blocks. The sequence early in the fourth was particularly revealing: three straight Harrison baskets, each assisted by Velička.
It’s easy to see why the combination interests Brisbane. Velička’s shooting means defenders cannot simply wait for the pass, while the 214cm Harrison gives him a formidable target when the defence moves towards the ball.
Former Bullet and NBA champion Aron Baynes was impressed enough to suggest the pair could develop into the NBL’s best pick-and-roll combination. One September game cannot establish that, but New Zealand received the first look at the problem.
Velička may be a new name to many Australian basketball followers, but Brisbane didn’t recruit an untested point guard.
The Lithuanian came to the Bullets after an MVP-winning season with Neptūnas, averaging 14.4 points, seven assists, four rebounds and 1.5 steals while shooting 41 per cent from three. He has twice finished as a leading assist provider in European competition and has extensive international experience with Lithuania.
At EuroBasket 2025, Velička averaged 10.6 points and 5.4 assists. His tournament included 21 points, 11 assists and five rebounds against Latvia in the Round of 16, followed by 12 points, seven assists and five rebounds against Greece in the quarter-finals.
Weaver had already described him during the preseason as the “head of the snake”, a reference to the decisions he makes with the basketball. Opening night showed what that can mean once Brisbane’s offence is moving around him.
The 23 points will attract attention, particularly after five threes, but the 14 assists against one turnover may tell more about the role he has been brought here to play.
There was one obvious flaw. Velička went 4-of-10 at the free-throw line, including the two late misses that kept New Zealand alive, and made no attempt afterwards to hide his frustration with them.
For Brisbane, having its new point guard leave a record-breaking debut thinking about what he could have done better isn’t a bad place to begin.
ARNAS VELIČKA
GAME 1
23 points 14 assists 5 rebounds 5 three-pointers 1 turnover 7 assists to Tyrell Harrison
14 assists — the most by a player on NBL debut.
Six Wins, Then A Rebuild
The contrast with February is stark. Brisbane finished NBL26 at the bottom of the ladder with a 6–27 record, lost its final 13 games and was the lowest-scoring team in the competition at 82.1 points per game.
Weaver subsequently arrived as both head coach and President of Basketball Operations, with much of the roster reshaped around a returning core that included Harrison and captain Mitch Norton.
Forty minutes of a new season cannot tell Brisbane whether that rebuild has worked. It did, however, deliver something the Bullets went more than two months without at the end of the last one: a win.
This time they had to come from 11 down to get it.
Friday night brings the Bullets back to the Brisbane Entertainment Centre in Boondall, where Illawarra awaits at 7:30pm AEST.
The Hawks have already faced the other half of Brisbane’s opening-week equation, losing 95–81 to New Zealand on Sunday. Comparative scores offer little certainty this early in a season, but Illawarra will arrive looking for its first win and with some early roster uncertainty after reports the club is preparing to part ways with championship-winning import Darius Days.
Brisbane has its own work to do. Thirteen missed free throws and 10 first-half turnovers made Tuesday much harder than it needed to be, while Illawarra now has something the Breakers didn’t: a full regular-season game showing exactly what Velička and Harrison can do together.
That makes Friday a different examination of the partnership. New Zealand had to work Velička out while he was playing; the Hawks have had time to prepare for him.
After a 6–27 season, Brisbane won’t find any answers about its future in the opening week of September. What it has found is a point guard who looked immediately at home, a partnership with Harrison that demanded attention from the first game, and a win to start again.
On Tuesday night, Brisbane met its new Bullets. On Friday night, Boondall does.
A Bald Hills family is prepared to accept less for a century-old home rather than sell it to a buyer who plans to demolish it. The timber house at 72 Bald Hills Road was built in 1917 and has remained in the same family for 109 years.
Now owned by two sisters, the property has attracted repeated interest from developers, but the family wants the house retained either on the existing block or relocated elsewhere. Selling agent Bayli Robertson, of Ray White RP Group, said the owners had turned away buyers whose plans involved clearing the site.
One of the owners, Wendy, 74, grew up in the house and has said the family could not bear to see it disappear after so many generations. Her grandfather, William “Billy” Allan, built the home, while her father, Alex, later renovated the interior during the 1970s.
Photo Credit: Ray White RP Group
A House Woven Into Old Bald Hills
The property’s history stretches beyond the family itself. During the 1950s, a tennis court on an adjoining rear block became a regular gathering place, with people from the neighbourhood booking games throughout the day and into the evening.
The surrounding streets have changed considerably since then. Wendy has recalled a time when traditional homes were common around the property, while many have since been demolished and their blocks redeveloped with newer housing.
Photo Credit: Ray White RP Group
The house has largely kept its earlier character. Its hardwood construction, wide weatherboards and mechanical pipe-bell doorbell remain, while the floorplan includes two bedrooms, a traditional sleepout used as a third bedroom, separate living and dining rooms, a sunroom and an enclosed front verandah.
The 1012-square-metre property also includes established gardens and mature trees, some more than 70 years old. Beneath the house are spaces for three vehicles, a laundry, storage and the original workshop area used by generations of the family.
Photo Credit: Ray White RP Group
Buyers Interested In Saving Rather Than Clearing
Not everyone who has inspected the property has wanted to redevelop it. Robertson said one person connected with a historical society had considered buying the home, while another couple explored the possibility of relocating it to their farm.
Moving the house, however, was estimated to cost as much as $350,000 before the purchase price itself was taken into account. The expense meant that option did not proceed, leaving the owners still searching for someone able to preserve the building.
Photo Credit: Ray White RP Group
The home remains on the market through Ray White RP Group and is being offered for sale by negotiation. No price guide is published, while the listing identifies three bedrooms, one bathroom and space for three vehicles.
Bald Hills railway station is about a four-minute walk from the property, placing the home close to one of the suburb’s longstanding transport links. The next scheduled inspection is on Saturday, 26 September, from 11:30am to noon, as the family continues to look for a buyer willing to keep the house standing.
For generations of northside families, Aspley Little Athletics has been part of the local sporting landscape, although its permanent home is in Geebung. The centre operates from Paul O’Brien Oval at Bowden Park, where children train and compete in running, jumping and throwing events under the Aspley Little Athletics name.
Aspley Little Athletics officially opened on 24 January 1981, marking 45 years since its establishment in 2026. Bowden Park became its permanent home on 3 November 1984.
The Geebung site now includes a 400-metre grass running track along with long jump, high jump, discus, shot put and javelin facilities. Equipment is also available for larger carnivals and external bookings.
Photo Credit: Google Maps/Aspley Little Athletics
The name on the oval
Paul O’Brien became involved with Aspley Little Athletics in 1980 with his three children and went on to play a major role in the centre’s development. He served as Centre Manager from 1983 to 2000 and was involved in athletics administration and competition at centre, zone and state levels.
The Bowden Park athletics oval was named Paul O’Brien Oval in 1999 in recognition of his contribution. O’Brien received the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1993 and Little Athletics Queensland life membership in 2002. He died in 2013 and his wife, Rosslyn O’Brien, also remained involved with the centre until she died in 2022.
Parents keep competition running
Forty-five years after its opening, the centre still relies heavily on parents and caregivers to run its athletics program.
For the 2026–27 season, families pay a $120 volunteer bond in addition to athlete registration fees. The bond can be refunded after families complete 10 volunteer events, including at least one competition set-up or scheduled working bee.
Volunteer duties include officiating, managing age groups, recording results and helping with other competition tasks. The centre says an age group cannot begin its program unless enough volunteers are available. The current $120 bond is higher than the $80 amount listed in the centre’s 2024–25 member handbook, which also required families to complete volunteer duties.
Current registrations cover athletes from Under 6 through to Under 17, with training and weekly competition continuing at the Geebung ground.
Bowden Park also supports activities beyond the centre’s own weekly program. Aspley Little Athletics makes its facilities and equipment available for external bookings, including school athletics carnivals, cross-country events and organised training.
The Aspley name can still look unusual beside a Geebung address. Bowden Park has nevertheless been the centre’s permanent Geebung base since 1984, giving Aspley Little Athletics more than four decades of history at the same northside ground.
Bridgeman Downs is a familiar name on Brisbane’s northside, but the story behind it leads back to an Irish migrant, a substantial landholding, and a family whose lives unfolded largely elsewhere.
So, who was Bridgeman Downs named after? Historical research points to Henry St John Bridgeman, a bank manager who migrated from Ireland to Queensland in the 1860s. His documented connection to the area came through land ownership, although the family did not live on the land that would eventually carry his name.
The Landowner Behind the Name
The Golden City (Photo credit: State Library of Queensland, Neg. 63670)
Research by the State Library of Queensland established that Bridgeman arrived in Brisbane aboard the Golden City on 9 March 1863, having left Queenstown, now Cobh, in Ireland, on 10 December 1862.
He arrived with his wife, Frances, their nine children and a servant, Johanna Quinn. Land Order records show the family obtained four land grants in 1863, followed by another in 1865 and a further grant in 1874.
The records provide a clear documented connection to the area now known as Bridgeman Downs. H. S. Bridgeman’s name appeared on 153 hectares of land there, while his holdings also extended across 433 hectares in the present-day Boondall-Sandgate region.
Bridgeman Downs was named after H. S. Bridgeman in 1977. The land was later acquired by the Queensland Immigration Society and used for pig raising and field crops. It remained farmland for about 80 years before being subdivided in 1957.
The district was once quite different from the residential suburb residents know today. Its agricultural history stretched across decades, long before suburban development changed the landscape.
The Family That Lived Somewhere Else
Photo credit: Bracken Ridge History
Despite the family’s connection to the land, their known homes were elsewhere. The Bridgemans first lived in Ipswich, where Henry worked for the Bank of Queensland. A seventh daughter, Isabella, was born there in 1866. The family later lived in Light Street, Fortitude Valley, which remained their home for many years.
Henry died in Light Street in 1878, while Frances died in 1901. Their children went on to pursue different lives. Lucy and Agnes became nuns and teachers with the Sisters of Mercy. Lucy, known as Sister Mary Bega, died in 1877, while Agnes, Sister Mary Theresa, lived until 1931 and taught at convents in Central Queensland.
Other members of the family remained in Brisbane. Constance and Mary lived in Light Street and ran a business. Johanna died in 1881 at the age of 27, while Isabella, the only Queensland-born child, died in 1886 aged 20. Their brother Henry died in 1891, aged 36.
Only two of the ten Bridgeman children are recorded as having married in Queensland. Richard married Johanna Liebs in 1882, while Teresa married P Banks Wilkins in 1899 and later remarried in 1905.
One part of the family’s story remains unresolved. The State Library’s research did not locate records for the youngest son, Orland, although Frances Bridgeman’s obituary in 1901 stated that she was survived by four daughters and one son.
A Name That Stayed on the Map
The history behind Bridgeman Downs is therefore less about a family settling in the suburb and more about the landholding that connected Henry St John Bridgeman to the district.
Today, Bridgeman Downs is a residential suburb, a marked change from the farmland that once occupied the area. The suburb was gazetted in 1977, preserving the Bridgeman name long after Henry’s death.
For a name now attached to streets, homes and a whole suburb, its origins are surprisingly easy to overlook.
To trace the Bridgeman family is to look to Ireland, Ipswich, Fortitude Valley and Central Queensland. Just not, it seems, on the land that eventually became Bridgeman Downs.
Aspley sits surprisingly close to several railway stations, yet the suburb has never had one of its own. The explanation goes back more than a century, when railways were being built through Brisbane’s north and Aspley was growing around a very different transport route.
Zillmere and Carseldine have stations just east of Aspley. Geebung is nearby, while the North Coast railway continues north through Bald Hills towards Strathpine.
Aspley, however, grew up around Gympie Road.
That difference can be traced to the earliest development of Brisbane’s northern suburbs.
The Railway Took an Eastern Route
The first railway into Brisbane’s northern suburbs opened to Sandgate in 1882, providing a much faster connection between the city and the increasingly popular seaside destination.
A northern railway through Zillmere opened in 1888, forming part of the route that developed into the North Coast line.
By then, the basic railway corridor east of Aspley was established.
There is no clear evidence that railway planners specifically considered and rejected an Aspley station. Rather, the railway was serving destinations and following a corridor that did not pass through the district.
Aspley’s own transport history centred on the road running through it.
Known earlier as Little Cabbage Tree Creek, the district was largely agricultural during the 19th century. Gympie Road became an important northern route following the discovery of gold at Gympie in 1867.
The Royal Exchange Hotel, predecessor of today’s Aspley Hotel, opened beside Gympie Road in 1875, serving passing traffic as well as the surrounding farming community.
Even Aspley’s early public transport connections pointed residents towards railway stations elsewhere. Brisbane City Council’s heritage history of Aspley State School records a horse-drawn bus service between the district and Wooloowin railway station from 1886.
Later, Brisbane’s tram network travelled north along Gympie Road, eventually reaching Chermside in 1947.
Aspley’s relatively late suburban boom helps explain why the absence of rail became entrenched.
The district remained largely agricultural long after railway suburbs such as Zillmere had begun developing around their transport connections.
Large-scale residential growth came much later. By then, private cars were transforming Brisbane.
Aspley’s emerging suburban landscape reflected that change. Detached houses spread across former farmland, commercial development clustered around major roads and Gympie Road became an increasingly important arterial route.
Instead of a railway station becoming the suburb’s focal point, road access helped shape modern Aspley.
Why Carseldine Has a Station — and Aspley Doesn’t
Carseldine provides an interesting comparison because its station is much newer than many people might expect.
Carseldine railway station opened in 1986.
The crucial difference was that the railway already passed through Carseldine. Adding a station there did not require construction of an entirely new railway corridor.
No railway line runs through Aspley, so providing conventional heavy rail to the suburb would be a much bigger infrastructure undertaking than simply adding another station.
There is also the long-planned North West Transport Corridor, running through Brisbane’s north-west between the Alderley and Strathpine areas. Transport and Main Roads describes its potential future role as an integrated corridor accommodating rail, road, walking and cycling.
However, it is not a funded railway project or a plan for an Aspley railway station.
For now, the map still reflects development patterns stretching back more than a century.
Zillmere grew beside the railway. Chermside eventually got the tram. Carseldine could later add a station because the tracks were already there.
Jeff King went to Mongolia for six weeks in 2003. He could hardly have known that the trip would lead to more than 20 years of his life there, a Mongolian wife and an extended family of nomadic herders — or that he would become comfortable with winters deep into the minus 40s, meals that begin with the offal, and journeys into country where the truck eventually stops and the camels take over.
He was 29 when he returned in 2005 to work as a Christian missionary, and Mongolia gradually became much more than the place he had gone to work. Jeff learnt the language, married into a herding family and spent years moving between life in Ulaanbaatar and visits to relatives in the countryside.
Those two worlds could hardly look more different. Ulaanbaatar has high-rises, supermarkets, restaurants, smartphones and traffic bad enough that Jeff often preferred to walk; outside the capital, members of his wife’s family continue to raise sheep, goats, cattle and horses, moving with the seasons and the available grazing.
Milking the goats. Photo Credit: Supplied
For Jeff, that Mongolia isn’t something encountered on a tour. The people living it are his in-laws, and over the years he has had to learn everything from milking animals and living in a ger to navigating the considerable expectations of Mongolian hospitality.
Now back in Brisbane, he will tell some of those stories at the free Brisbane Men’s Breakfast at Dale Farm in Fitzgibbon on Saturday, 17 October.
Twenty-three years after that first six-week visit, the more interesting question is no longer why an Australian went to Mongolia.
It’s how Mongolia became home.
A Different Life
Jeff on horseback. Photo Credit: Supplied
A striking image shows the version of life that immediately catches the eye: Jeff riding through the snow with a large bird of prey, offering a glimpse of the equestrian traditions he encountered during his years in Mongolia.
But Mongolia gets more interesting once you move beyond the photograph.
Jeff can walk through Ulaanbaatar past high-rises, supermarkets and traffic jams, then head into countryside where there are hardly any fences. His relatives can move several times in a year, taking their ger and possessions with them as they follow grazing for their animals.
Trucks now do much of the carrying. Eventually, though, the terrain can become too difficult for them.
From there, the family loads what it needs onto camels and keeps moving.
Ger with animals. Photo Credit: Supplied
Jeff’s wife grew up in a traditional herding family, and relatives still live from their animals today. That meant his introduction to rural Mongolia was not a carefully packaged cultural experience. He was entering family life, with all the expectations that came with it.
Food was one of the quicker ways to discover them. When an animal is slaughtered, very little is wasted, and the first meal can involve parts that would rarely make it onto an Australian dinner table.
“The first meal is eating the guts,” Jeff said.
Heart and kidneys were fine by him. For everything else, experience eventually taught him to get in early, take something he liked and make his enthusiasm obvious.
“I don’t mind the heart and I don’t mind the kidneys. You grab the bit you know you don’t mind and say, ‘Oh, this is great.’ Then they’re not trying to feed you.”
Even the dairy could beat him. Aaruul, a traditional dried curd, can be extremely hard, and Jeff remembers keeping a piece in his mouth for about half an hour before discreetly burying it. These days he eats it; his boys love it.
Not every lesson was about food. He once watched his brother-in-law trade a sheep for a sack of potatoes and thought he was witnessing a terrible deal. What Jeff didn’t know was that the sheep had nearly died the previous year and was no good for breeding.
“They’re not dumb,” he said. “He gave his absolute worst sheep for their sack of potatoes.”
Mongolian herdsman milking a cow. Photo Credit: Supplied.
It was one small glimpse of how well herders know their animals. Herds can exceed 1,000 animals, yet Jeff has watched people recognise individual sheep and know which lamb belongs to which ewe.
Learning to live with the cold
Winter required a different education.
Jeff has seen temperatures fall well into the -40s and keeps a screenshot showing -49°C. On one journey his car thermometer could go no lower than -30°C, while another vehicle travelling with him eventually reached the bottom of its gauge at -40°C.
By then, the cold was affecting the vehicles themselves.
Icy Mongolian road. Photo Credit: Supplied
“The brake fluid starts to freeze. Your brakes don’t work really well. Even the steering fluid — the steering gets hard.”
“You never travel alone in winter,” Jeff said. “If you have a breakdown, it’s very dangerous.”
Summer made travelling through the countryside easier, and some of those journeys came through an unusual project Jeff helped operate: a mobile library.
Books were taken to nomadic families, left with them and exchanged when Jeff and his colleagues returned roughly a month later. The runaway favourite was Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days.
Jeff began taking photographs of families as well, having them printed and bringing them back on later visits. The books gave him a reason to return, and repeated visits meant people who had initially been strangers became familiar faces.
That overlapped naturally with the Christian missionary work that had brought him to Mongolia. Jeff travelled through cities and remote communities, sometimes arriving at a ger and asking simply: “Do you want to hear some good news?”
The answer varied. Some weren’t interested; others invited him inside for tea.
Jeff’s wife making milk products. Photo Credit: Supplied
By then, though, Jeff’s connection to Mongolia was becoming increasingly personal. He wasn’t simply working there and returning to Australia with stories about an unusual place.
Jeff’s son and a herdsman. Photo credit: Supplied
He had married into a Mongolian family, learnt their language and watched his children grow up with things he had needed years to learn. Mongolia had stopped being an overseas posting.
Bringing the story to Fitzgibbon
Jeff will be the featured speaker at theBrisbane Men’s Breakfaston Saturday, 17 October, at Dale Farm, 42A Desert Willow Way, Fitzgibbon.
The free community event starts between 6.30am and 7am, with a coffee van on site and lads of all ages welcome.
Free Community Event
Brisbane Men’s Breakfast
Jeff King — Saturday, 17 October
The free community breakfast brings men together at Dale Farm in Fitzgibbon every four to eight weeks, with a guest speaker chosen for the uniqueness of their story.
Where: Dale Farm, 42A Desert Willow Way, Fitzgibbon Start: 6.30am–7am Cost: Free Who: Lads of all ages welcome Also: Coffee van on site
The choir and Roro dancers featured alongside students from St Joseph’s Nudgee College at a Papua New Guinea Independence celebration in Boondall on September 6.
Held at Our Lady Help of Christians Chapel, the event brought together Brisbane’s Papua New Guinea community for an Independence Mass celebrating 51 years of PNG independence. Nudgee College students joined students from Stuartholme College in the opening ceremony, while the choir and Roro dancers also took part in the liturgy.
Photo credit: Facebook/PNG Brisbane & Gold Coast Catholic Community
The choir and Roro dancers participated in the procession and presentation of gifts during the Mass. In his homily, PNG community chaplain Carmelite Father Paul Sireh reflected on how communities can respond when relationships become strained.
Photo credit: Facebook/PNG Brisbane & Gold Coast Catholic Community
Concelebrating the Mass with Passionist Father Tony Simbel, Father Sireh discussed traditional approaches to conflict resolution in Melanesian cultures. He explained that mediation, compensation and other traditional processes have been used to address disputes, with the aim of restoring harmony and social relationships.
Photo credit: Facebook/PNG Brisbane & Gold Coast Catholic Community
Father Sireh said the emphasis was on bringing people and groups back together rather than focusing solely on punishment. He connected those ideas with the Gospel of Matthew 18:15-20, which considers relationships within the Christian community and how people should respond when divisions arise.
Photo credit: Facebook/PNG Brisbane & Gold Coast Catholic Community
He also reflected on the challenges that can arise within Christian communities and the need to maintain relationships when divisions occur. The homily also turned to family life. As it was Father’s Day in Australia, Father Sireh spoke about the role of fathers and the importance of honouring parents.
The Mass was followed by lunch featuring roast pork, a variety of PNG cuisine and cakes. PNG Brisbane and Gold Coast Catholic Community leader Emilia Taatu described the gathering as a joyful celebration of the Eucharist.
Students from Nudgee College and Stuartholme College participated in the opening ceremony as part of the community’s Independence celebration.
The event brought together the chapel service, student participation, the choir and Roro dancers, and a shared meal as the community celebrated 51 years of Papua New Guinea’s independence.
Featured image credit: Facebook/PNG Brisbane & Gold Coast Catholic Community
What began as a small community gathering is now expected to attract thousands of dogs and their owners to Carseldine as Barktoberfest celebrates its 10th anniversary this September.
Ten years. That is how long this local tradition has been expanding. On Saturday, 12 September 2026, the grounds at 133 Dorville Road will host Barktoberfest from 6 a.m. until 12 p.m. What started as a modest gathering now promises more than 150 unique market stalls.
Organisers have curated a massive selection of vendors, specifically targeting the everyday needs of family pets while maintaining free entry and parking for all attendees.
Have you ever seen a dog dance? Locals will get that exact opportunity alongside a dedicated canine fashion parade and live demonstrations. The morning schedule is packed with free entertainment designed to keep the energy high.
Community members wanting to showcase their pets can Get Tickets online for contests like the Pawsome Performer, Strike a Paws, and Pawparazzi events. Meanwhile, live music and dedicated children’s activities ensure the humans stay just as entertained as their furry companions.
Gourmet street food stalls will line the venue to feed hungry families throughout the morning.
To mark the ten-year milestone, event coordinators are heavily encouraging digital RSVPs. Securing a free spot online automatically places attendees in a prize draw for a premium pet hamper valued at over $200. This major giveaway serves as a final reward for a community that has spent a decade turning a simple market day into a massive celebration of local pets.
New sewer infrastructure planned along Beams Road is expected to support hundreds of additional homes in Bridgeman Downs, as residential growth continues immediately north of Aspley.
The $2.5 million project is intended to help unlock 615 homes in the Bridgeman Downs catchment. While the funding was announced earlier this year, longer-term planning for wastewater infrastructure along Beams Road shows sewer capacity has been on the agenda as this part of Brisbane’s north continues to develop.
New Infrastructure Along Beams Road
The Beams Road Sewerage Infrastructure project will include a new sewer pump station, rising main and gravity sewer main. The Queensland Government has committed $2.5 million through its Residential Activation Fund, saying the works will provide infrastructure needed to unlock 615 homes.
For growing parts of Brisbane’s north, getting new housing built is not simply a matter of having land available. Subdivisions and larger residential developments also need the sewerage, water, roads and other infrastructure capable of servicing them, and those requirements can affect when projects are able to move ahead.
Turrisi Properties Development Director Ben Kewley said when the funding was announced that the investment was an important step in supporting residential development in the Bridgeman Downs catchment. He said enabling infrastructure was essential to turning land into homes and bringing forward new communities.
Beams Road Already on the Infrastructure Map
The latest funding does not come out of nowhere. Wastewater infrastructure around Beams Road had already appeared in longer-term network planning for Bridgeman Downs.
A Brisbane City Council submission concerning Urban Utilities’ Water Netserv Plan identified a proposed rising main along Beams Road of about 633 metres, with a diameter of 150mm, together with a wastewater pump station. Those works were listed against a 2031 timeframe.
There is an important distinction, however. The planning document predates the $2.5 million funding announcement, and publicly available information does not establish that the infrastructure identified there is identical to the project now receiving Residential Activation Fund money. What it does show is that additional sewer capacity in this part of Bridgeman Downs had already been identified as part of longer-term network planning.
Housing Spread Across the Catchment
The 615-home figure can give a misleading impression if read as a single development. There has been no announcement of one new 615-home estate on Beams Road; rather, it is the number of homes the Queensland Government says the sewer infrastructure will help unlock across the Bridgeman Downs catchment.
That housing could therefore emerge across different sites and at different stages. For neighbouring Aspley, the significance is less about one large development arriving at once and more about the continuing residential growth taking place immediately to the north.
The Bridgeman Downs allocation is part of the State’s $2 billion Residential Activation Fund, which supports infrastructure such as sewerage, water, stormwater and roads needed to bring forward housing development. Across the first two rounds, the Queensland Government says four Brisbane projects are expected to unlock a combined 2,223 homes.
Construction Timeline Still to Come
What remains unclear is when residents will see work begin. As at 8 September, no publicly confirmed construction start date, completion date or contractor appointment for the $2.5 million Beams Road project could be identified.
Until those details emerge, the confirmed project remains a new pump station, rising main and gravity sewer main intended to support 615 additional homes. For Aspley and the surrounding northern suburbs, it is part of a broader story playing out just beyond the suburb’s boundary: more housing is being planned, and the infrastructure needed to support that growth is increasingly part of the picture.
