Could turn outs on tours be directly related to the tour name? An interesting notion that occurred to me when I saw how many people had arrived for the New Farm Charm tour. Give the tour a warm, fuzzy, cuddly kind of name and hey, lots of people. Call it something less appealing and start a game of spot the skater. Let’s look at the evidence. Bayside Breeze, nice name, big turn out. Black and Blue, sounds like a bruise, no one’s about. If Black and Blue was renamed to something along the lines of Sunshine in the Suburbs, would more people give it a try?

As the majority of the square by the south side of the Goodwill Bridge had been turned into builders’ rubble, an impromptu gathering point near the bottom of the bridge had developed as the new meeting point. With the tour due to set off at the unusual time of 1:30pm the clouds, which had been developing an unappealing grey hue since mid morning, were now looking decidedly angry. Luckily, Lyndal’s Polaroid glasses were treated with a special optimism coating which allowed her to see the thinnest of blue slithers on the horizon and amazingly they seemed to work.

The tour was to be lead by Monte who duly arrived at ten minutes past the starting time clutching a half eaten sandwich. He was to be ably assisted by Lyndal and her magic glasses, Michelle and Vaughan both sporting shiny new skates and Justine. With everyone assembled, introductions were made while simultaneously trying to get everyone not to block the bridge.

We set off along LRT (Lower River Terrace for those not accustomed to TLA’s) and made our way along the bottom of the cliffs at Kangaroo point towards the Story Bridge. A few spots of rain began to fall in defiance of Lyndal’s glasses, but an extra large dose of optimism saw them off and we were soon crossing the bridge.

Work on the Story Bridge began on May 24th, 1935 and it opened to traffic on July 6th 1940. The bridge and its two spans are 1375 meters long with the main river span a not insubstantial (for the day) 281.6 meters in length. There are 11,990 tonnes of steel in the structure with a further 1625 tonnes of steel reinforcement in the 38,230 cubic meters of concrete supports. All that for the bargain price of $3,227,416. The day the bridge opened, more than 600,000 people crossed it on foot with cars crossing at the rate of 40 a minute.

With the bridge behind us, we picked our way down the backstreets towards the river and New Farm Park. The few spots of rain that had fallen made the damp path slippery and care had to be exercised to prevent any slip-ups. We soon arrived at the park to the strains of the James Bond theme played by a brass band. As bad Sean Connery impression reverberated around the group, we did half a lap of the park and headed for the Power House.

New Farm Park was originally the site of a race course (first opened in 1848). It was purchased by Brisbane city council in 1913 and turned into a public park. At one time, it contained 40,000 rose bushes in 300 different verities. The Power House was (amazingly) a power station providing power for Brisbane’s electric tram system as well as supplying power to the suburbs of Ithaca, Toowong and Yeerongpilly. It was shut down in 1971 and has since been converted into an arts and entertainment precinct.

Light refreshments were calling our names and after a quick drink stop, we decamped to a café just down the road from the Power House. The lady in charge seemed delighted to see a large group of hungry, thirsty skaters pour into her establishment and quickly set about doing the obligatory Planet furniture shuffle for us. With the entire front of the business rearranged, we settled in and began ordering large quantities of food and drink. This was quickly dispatched and consumed. Where the menu had said bowl of chips, it did not mention that it was talking about a washing up bowl. The portions were generous and we left feeling suitably full.

While the next section of the skate was an optional run along the river (with anyone not wanting to take part hanging back at the café), there was a 100% take up on the offer. As the whole group began pulling their pads back on, we left the café lady to re-assemble the front of her establishment and made a bee-line for the path by the river. At this point Monte decided a run back through the Valley was in order and we duly began picking our way across James street and over to the Valley. A quick blast through town and we were soon back onto the Coronation Drive bike path. All back to the domain for a group photo and we were done. New Farm, had indeed been charming, the rain held off and we headed home after a slippery but enjoyable afternoons sk8ing.