The Pointy End.
A story in two parts.
We came across this mural at Wellington Point, a pretty bayside suburb of Redlands (City) which is to the southeast of Brisbane and makes up what is today the Greater Brisbane area. Being a bayside suburb you just may wish to pack your suitcase for a short stay. Redlands has a number of Points poking out into Moreton Bay, Wellington Point is linked by an isthmus that is covered at high tide to King Island. You can walk out at low tide, the island is very small but you may need tough feet as the beach sand and shells tend to be on the coarse side. And it’s must be nearly a kilometre...in the hot sun depending on tides!
The mural also features a number of the seabirds typical of the area.
And in the bottom, a suitcase. And old suitcase. You can tell an older Queenslander almost anywhere in the world because they will call this suitcase a “port”! When I was younger, every bag nearly was known as a port. In fact, the bag you took your lunch and school books to school in was typically called a school port and in those days at least, most schools had racks outside the classroom in which to place your port. These were known as “port racks”. I guess these days they may have lockers and if they don’t, I am not up with what they call the racks.
With changes over time, we now have back packs and other things, so the use of “school port” has probably dropped off. Perhaps those racks are called back pack racks! Ha, funny!
In addition, the use of the word port, for the same reason is dying out to a degree and a large port would now be called a suitcase or something else. Despite growing up in Queensland where the word port was standard, from the moment I became a posh overseas traveller at about 20, I realised it was very colloquial and parochial and stopped using it lest I be seen as some back country hick from Australia. But wait, there is more!
It’s really not so crass after all, the contraction “port” comes from the word portmanteau which is actually quite a proper international word basically meaning large suitcase (depending on what dictionary you use) and as such very proper indeed although in itself in this use, out of use! So we Queenslanders are not such hicks after all.
Here is one link which outlines the non-Queensland use of the word portmanteau in its various forms. Of course, a port these days is mostly where ships dock! We have one just across the Bay from Wellington Point called naturally enough, the Port of Brisbane!
Oops, I almost forgot to put a plug in for Wellington Point. Apart from the area around the Point itself, a great little village with lots of nice cafes and restaurants etc. has developed along the road in about 2 kilometres back from the beach. A great place to stop for a coffee and some calorific tarts or cakes and in the season from before Christmas on, the whole area is studded with beautiful red flowering poinciana trees.
The Pointy End.
A story in two parts.
We came across this mural at Wellington Point, a pretty bayside suburb of Redlands (City) which is to the southeast of Brisbane and makes up what is today the Greater Brisbane area. Being a bayside suburb you just may wish to pack your suitcase for a short stay. Redlands has a number of Points poking out into Moreton Bay, Wellington Point is linked by an isthmus that is covered at high tide to King Island. You can walk out at low tide, the island is very small but you may need tough feet as the beach sand and shells tend to be on the coarse side. And it’s must be nearly a kilometre...in the hot sun depending on tides!
The mural also features a number of the seabirds typical of the area.
And in the bottom, a suitcase. And old suitcase. You can tell an older Queenslander almost anywhere in the world because they will call this suitcase a “port”! When I was younger, every bag nearly was known as a port. In fact, the bag you took your lunch and school books to school in was typically called a school port and in those days at least, most schools had racks outside the classroom in which to place your port. These were known as “port racks”. I guess these days they may have lockers and if they don’t, I am not up with what they call the racks.
With changes over time, we now have back packs and other things, so the use of “school port” has probably dropped off. Perhaps those racks are called back pack racks! Ha, funny!
In addition, the use of the word port, for the same reason is dying out to a degree and a large port would now be called a suitcase or something else. Despite growing up in Queensland where the word port was standard, from the moment I became a posh overseas traveller at about 20, I realised it was very colloquial and parochial and stopped using it lest I be seen as some back country hick from Australia. But wait, there is more!
It’s really not so crass after all, the contraction “port” comes from the word portmanteau which is actually quite a proper international word basically meaning large suitcase (depending on what dictionary you use) and as such very proper indeed although in itself in this use, out of use! So we Queenslanders are not such hicks after all.
Here is one link which outlines the non-Queensland use of the word portmanteau in its various forms. Of course, a port these days is mostly where ships dock! We have one just across the Bay from Wellington Point called naturally enough, the Port of Brisbane!
Oops, I almost forgot to put a plug in for Wellington Point. Apart from the area around the Point itself, a great little village with lots of nice cafes and restaurants etc. has developed along the road in about 2 kilometres back from the beach. A great place to stop for a coffee and some calorific tarts or cakes and in the season from before Christmas on, the whole area is studded with beautiful red flowering poinciana trees.