My suburb is a bird-filled paradise next to a mighty river. There’s nothing dull about life here

My father, John Arthur McKelvey Shera, was a revered doctor in the city of Ipswich and a survivor of the Kokoda Trail. He also served in Tarakan, Balikpapan and Morotai.

In the 1980s, John became the accidental subject of an Archibald Prize winning portrait. His daughter-in law, Davida Allen, came upon him shirtless and watering his garden, and she abandoned her plans to submit a painting of Sam Neill for a far more attractive subject (no offence Sam).

I lived with John in Ipswich in his declining years in his big old Queenslander within a jungle of trees. After he died, in 1998, it was time to settle down and raise my own family, and we chose leafy Jindalee. Dad remains with us on the wall here as a nod to the ancestor worship that many in Vietnamese culture practise.

I had youthful memories of Jindalee. I recalled the 1967-68 Scout Jamboree, when two of my brothers made a pretty good fist of putting up a tent Versailles – only to burn one of the tents down while basting a leg of mutton above an open fire.

Across the bridge and around the corner from Jindalee was the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and Fauna Reserve, another highlight from my childhood. I remember taking the boat upriver from Brisbane to this fabled place in the 1950s. I recall being thrilled there were public baths, a golf course, an athletics track, a butcher, a pharmacy, a Chinese restaurant and a fish and chip shop.

Jindalee’s location was another factor in us moving here. Vietnamese markets in Darra were five minutes away, and the highway was a stone’s throw from our house. I could blast off anywhere to the east, west, south or north to see my many friends and family. Be on the Gold Coast in less than an hour. Be at Lang Park in 15 minutes!

Jindalee afforded the convenience of schools my children could walk to. It also afforded easy access to the University of Queensland in whose libraries I had worked, like Hercules in the Augean Stables, for a number of years. I met the girl of my dreams there: a scholar from Nha Trang, Vietnam’s Gold Coast. Number one son studied at UQ, and it is now an easy commute for him to train and coach elite athletes on dedicated athletic tracks and local parks.

The sweet and raucous sound of a hundred birds in the suburb’s numerous trees became backing tracks to number two son’s musical endeavours. Erik Satie, Sam Cooke, Bowie, Queen, Down by the Salley Gardens; all aided and abetted by the local Centenary High, which has a wonderful music program.

Jindalee was the first “Centenary” suburb – conceived in 1959, Queensland’s 100th year. That’s why the sc