When I moved to Christchurch, my sister was most excited by the fact that I’d live in Heavenly Creatures’ city. Our friends threw us a going-away party in the Staff Club, which was one of the shooting locations for the film.
Christchurch isn’t a common shooting location for films that get global release (I proposed a paper on Christchurch’s anonymous rebuild architecture and The Frighteners for a symposium Alfio Leotta at Vic is running in September, so I’ll have a real argument about that at some point) so set jetting was pretty much Heavenly Creatures and Lord of the Rings tours based in Christchurch.
Moving to Brisbane presented something similar – it certainly doesn’t have the profile of Sydney or Melbourne or the outback. But on the walk between our place and the pedestrian and bus bridge to campus, there’s a new development: The Bogga Road Urban Village. I walked past it a couple of times and the name was vaguely familiar. But, intent as I was not to get lost, I didn’t look carefully. On the way home it hit me.
The WWF wrestler Nathan Jones was, during his reboot, The Colossus of Bogga Road. He needed a reboot (before he disappeared completely) because even though had some really great hype videos prepping his debut in WWE, he was utter shit in the ring.
A jail where they made inmates shit in buckets in the 80s and 90s is now a green urban village development, with a bio research precinct next door. That’s gentrification for you.
christianlong.org 