For a long time I’ve grappled with the feeling that Brisbane was the city I needed to get out of. I was born here, mostly grew up here and am raising my family here but also had one eye over the back fence wondering if life would be better living somewhere else.
It started when I was a teenager studying overseas and trying to explain to new friends where in Australia I was from, they would only ever have one or two reference points: Sydney or Surfers Paradise.
How could I explain to them that Brisbane was neither? Like a boring job title it was an instant conversation stopper, something that made me uninteresting.
When I started my career I was determined to launch myself to Sydney, Melbourne, Paris – anywhere but the town I feared the rest of Australia considered ‘full of hicks’. Instead, I paid my regional journalist dues in Mackay, Townsville and Maroochydore and fell more in love with fellow Queensland folk who held tough exteriors but gentle hearts.
As the years have gone by small things have started to shake loose this self-conscious shame, from the celebration of Brisbane stories and locations in Trent Dalton’s Boy Swallows Universe to the lifting our town’s livability through new cultural and structural developments, and of course Brisbane being chosen for the 2032 Olympics.
But what completely eviscerated it was Bluey. More specifically Ludo Studio’s new 28 minute-long episode called The Sign, I have watched it twice with our six year old and bawled each time.
The story starts with news the Heeler family are selling their house and leaving Brisbane. We don’t know where they’re headed but learn it’s so dad Bandit can take a higher paying job.
As with every episode of the cartoon, this one flaunts our city’s landmarks and showcases its bucolic suburban norms. Bandit tells others they’re moving, “To give the kids a better life.”
Until, at the end ***spoiler*** through a turnaround of events he has an epiphany they are living their best life right here in their quiet Paddington cul-de-sac.
It was a like a therapy breakthrough for me, silencing my worry of whether the grass could be greener elsewhere and giving me gratitude for where I am. As well as a 10/10 answer the next time I need to explain where I’m from, “Well, have you seen Bluey?”
As printed in Village Voice May 2024
Love this Annie - can totally relate :)