Monday, September 29, 2003

Subtropical Twist, Shout and Rainbow
As I keep telling my friends, it was me who first put Sydney on a map of the world in 1980. Well, I am told that Andy Warhola did not know where Sydney really was until I wrote him a fan letter in Slovak and Hungarian... Since (2000 AD) when I dived into the Brisbane River the kangaroos no longer dominate the banks of the river. Indeed, look at Brissie now decorated with lions and tigers even dragon tails...(smile)
For 12 days in 2001, the Good Will Games stopped the world. It was an opportunity for Brisbane to show the world what a young, ambitious and diverse city can achieve.
For many, many, years of my life in exile I believed that Sydney was the center of the Australian Universe.
However, as someone once wrote to truly observe Australia, it helps to be at least a thousand kilometres away from Sydney.
Like Rome and Prague, much of Brisbane's charm is river: the Brisbane river snakes its way through the suburbs and sustains thousands of verandahs every day and night. Indeed, some of the most impressive verandahs are situated around the Story Bridge. However, the majestic colonial building 'Yungaba', an indigenous word meaning land of the sun seems to capture best my impressions of Brisbane.
It takes one look from the lookout on Mt Coot-Tha to commit Brisbane to lifelong memory. The lookout is the roof of the city. On a clear day, you can see the distant line of Moreton and Stradbroke islands, the Glasshouse Mountains to the north, the mountains behind the Gold Coast to the south and Brisbane at your feet with the impressive Story Bridge which shares the same design engineer as the Sydney Harbour Bridge. On a rainy day the view is peppered with rainbows over Boonah, Nundah, The Gap.
At the base of the mountain there sits a garden and a cemetery. To philosopher, each of these symbolise mortal life and mortal death. Apart from the immortal thoughts my other memories are of a winding upward road and an occasional view of the marvellous outlook through rare breaks in the gum trees ...
How many exiles could say honestly that Sydney or Brisbane or Melbourne is their home? A home is not just where you live; it is where you belong. I seem to belong nowhere and everywhere. To single out one city in particular would be a nearly impossible task.
Somehow, my head belongs in Australia, but my heart belongs in Central Europe. My tribal soul belongs in the granite of the High Tatra Mountains as the soul of Australian soil belongs to the hundreds of Aboriginal tribes:
Brisbane (city site) mianjin place shaped like a spike
Doomben dum-ben species of tree fern
Enoggera yawagar or yowoggera corroboree ground
Hamilton (sandbank) mooroo-mooroolbin long nose
Indooroopilly yinduru-pilli or nyindur-pil-ly gully of leeches
Keperra kipper young man
Mt Coottha kuta mountain of dark native honey
Mt Gravatt kaggar-mabul place where echidna lives
Moggill moggill large water lizard
New Farm binkin-ba place of land tortoise
Nudgee murgin-murgin or nar-dha place of black ducks
Nundah nanda or nunda chain of water holes
Pinkenba dumben or doomben or pinken-ba place of tortoises
Sandgate warra or moora open sheet of water or river
Toowong gootcha or
tu-wong a name for honey or
call of koel cuckoo
Woolloongabba woolloon-capemm whirling waters or place of the whiptailed wallaby
Wooloowin kuluwin species of pigeon

Do the native tribes have words for LIONS?
· Brisbane head and shoulders above [Saying goodbye on a High Note]
Dovidenia Phil, Robert, Vanessa, at al. (I will especially treasure the framed views of rainbow and the Story Bridge, thanks Walter and Vanessa)