Property Point

When it comes to enshrining important aspects of our history, you need look no further than Mackay street names to see what matters to us; the names range from revered local war heroes, world-renowned racehorses, significant Queensland political figures, rugby league legends, and Australian cricketing icons, through to … some old tractors.

The names of local war heroes, young men who bravely sacrificed their lives for us, are respectfully remembered with poppies on the street signs in West Mackay; among them Thorning, Field, Mogford and McGinn Sts.

Some of Queensland’s most-significant political figures are recorded in Rural View street names: witness Bjelke Court, named after former Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen. And Rudd St, named after Kevin Rudd, the former prime minister and current ambassador to the US who, rather unhelpfully for the current prime minister, called US President Donald Trump a “village idiot”.

Anyone with an interest in Australian horse racing will give a respectful nod to streets in Ooralea that acknowledge the revered status of Gunsynd, Makybe Diva, Kiwi, Tulloch, Carbine and the most-famous of them all, Phar Lap. It is well known that Phar Lap was killed by a dose of arsenic but a recent book argued strongly that Tulloch was also poisoned because he was too hard to beat.

Brisbane Broncos and Queensland stars Allan Langer and Glenn Lazarus are remembered in Eimeo with Langer Drive and Lazarus Court.

And some of this country’s most highly-regarded cricket legends are recorded in the streets of Glenella; Donald Bradman, Dennis Lillee, Alan Border, Ray Lindwall, Kim Hughes, the wicket keeper from Bundaberg, Don Tallon, are all recorded there. So is a more famous wicket keeper, Wally Grout.

Wally Grout’s name is also recorded in Aussie rhyming slang in a phrase once heard every day in pubs around the country and, sadly, heard less-often these days. For those too young to know, if you are ever in a shout with a group of friends at a pub and someone says: “It’s your Wally”, it means it’s your shout, your Wally Grout … but in a beautiful example of Aussie rhyming slang, you just say “it’s your Wally”.

There are other street names in suburbs and estates around Mackay that celebrate family history: Stuart Hindle Drive, Debbiesue Drive and Lois Street near Norris Road in Mount Pleasant are among the family names recorded and honoured by the Deguara family, significant cane farmers-turned-developers who are still shaping Mackay today.

But if you want to visit truly hallowed ground, the streets where the brand names of farm equipment are recorded and celebrated, you need to drive into Belmore Estate in Mount Pleasant.

Dexter Court, Albion Crescent, Chalmers Court and Bristol Court all take their names from tractors. And for those of you who are scoffing, thinking that is somehow funny or absurd, they are apparently damn good tractors.

Now I don’t know a lot about farm equipment generally or tractors specifically but I’ve done some research and I am willing to share some of the key insights I have uncovered about the tractors named in Belmore Estate.

Most of them have big wheels at the back and smaller ones at the front. Yep, rubber ones.

Although, Bristol produced those tractors that have a “caterpillar” track or rotating chain of interconnected plates instead of wheels, just like an armoured tank.

I imagine they were great in the wet season as they moved steadily through the slushy mud.

Anyway, those tractors are part of our story and take their place in the catalogue of names that say something about who we are, what got us here and what we celebrate.

It’s all very interesting but it’s a dry argument. Whose Wally is it?

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