That lively competition between the major regional centres on the sporting field acted as a counterfoil to the hunt for projects that would provide long term employment prospects rather than seasonal work associated with sugar farming, cane-cutting and export meat works.
Rugby League was the working man’s sport, in a working class environment where knock-off time saw hordes of workers hitting the road on the trusty push bike rather than four wheels.
If you were travelling along Charters Towers Road in the late afternoon, you’d more than likely spot Townsville South MLA Tom Aikens riding his trusty bone rattler home. Aikens was the sole parliamentary representative of the North Queensland Labour Party (formerly the Hermit Park branch of the ALP, see Ian Moles A majority of one : Tom Aikens and independent politics in Townsville for the gory details).
On most of the occasions I sighted the pushbike pedalling politician I would have been outward bound on one of of the Hermit Park Bus Service’s fleet.
It was the era before a car came to be seen as an essential element in your day to day life. Public transport was, for most of the population, a matter of necessity rather than choice. Townsville was served by three independent bus services, with the South Townsville Bus Service (green and white, moderately recent models) serving that part of town and extending their routes into Railway Estate and Oonoonba. It wasn’t a service I recall patronising, largely because I rarely had occasion to venture into that part of town.
By contrast, over the twenty-one years I was based in Townsville, I had plenty of experience riding on the West End Bus Service, whose ancient and decrepit fleet was verging on geriatric when I arrived and seemed largely unchanged throughout the duration of my stay.
Unchanged, in that context, might not be the right word. Increasingly dubious in the mechanical department might be closer to the mark.
The city had started the westward sprawl, which meant the significantly more up to date fleet operated by the Hermit Park Bus Service had room to expand. Services from the city crossed The Causeway and passed through Hermit Park, Mysterton, Rosslea, Pimlico, Gulliver and Mundingburra on the way to the wilds of Currajong, Aitkenvale, Wulguru and Stuart.