Shailer Park

Preparing my lecture for tonight, on the background and context of the debate regarding private school funding, as well as being asked recently, "What is Shailer Park like?" have prompted me to remember being educated at Shailer Park. So, here is my description of Shailer Park, with particular reference to the state high school there.

(BTW: I am militantly ignoring the rowdy boys and their gleeful machinations to impose structure on my blogging).

Shailer Park, by Wistwaveral, level 61 and 1/4

Shailer Park is on the 'good' side of the highway just south of Daisy Hill and north of Beenleigh, on the outskirts of Brisbane, QLD. Beenleigh is the 'end' of Brisbane, or was when we lived just north of there at Loganholme in the late 1980's. It's generally considered a dodgy place to live, with rampant crime, drugs and general malaise and boasts the end of the Beenleigh train line to the city. Beenleigh was about 7kms away from where we lived at Loganholme, and a long bike ride with several hills. If you wanted fast food or groceries, or wanted to go to the city (or in my case, later, to university), Beenleigh was where you went.

7 kms north was Shailer Park, a completely different place. It's a suburb in the way that Beenleigh is not. More people live there who are interested in building a life for themselves and their families, and who follow the more ordinary middle class drummer, rather than the knell of the crime-welfare vicious circle which was more prevalent in both Beenleigh and in Loganholme. Loganholme didn't have much crime, and the crime it had was second rate, like the guy who got hit in the head by a crowbar while walking down the street. It was a struggling suburb with very little superstructure apart from a road - drainage was an innovation of the early 1990's, and the corner shop was greeted enthusiastically when it finally opened in about 1989. Buses were an excellent invention that had nothing to do with us.

Crossing the highway to go to school was like entering another world. Shailer Park had buses, shops galore, things like gyms and florists, good roads and other such amenities. As schools go, Shailer Park high wasn't too bad. It was trying to connect with the non-Logan schools (and so distance itself from the less reputable Logan schools), and made every effort to give off the signals that it was respectable. We had musicals, sports, science labs (with functioning equipment), and both a year 8 centre and a year 11-12 centre, the years 9-10's being left to fend for themselves. There was only one major drug bust during all my time there, and that wasn't as bad as the fairly frequent drug busts we heard about, down the road at Beenleigh.

I hated it. High school was an ongoing exercise in boredom, frustration, bullying and teaching myself how to learn. All the things I loved - classical music, poetry, Shakespeare - were all born at school, from reading my way through the library, and so forth. But none of it was really encouraged, which is fair enough given that the resources of the school were well and truly stretched and that sort of thing most naturally happens if your parents have educational priorities.

But I think it was a good school. Better than Miami High, where I first started and which had a shifting population, serious drug issues and students who almost seemed to riot sometimes. Shailer Park was fed from a few surrounding schools, including the primary school next door. It had a reasonably stable population, and most students came from families where education was at least something of a value. So, the more serious social issues, prevalent in places like Beenleigh didn't seem to be as obvious. I suspect the core grouping at Shailer Park was larger than those imported from places like Loganholme, and it wouldn't surprise me if that is still the case today.

Shailer Park changed dramatically when the Hyperdome was built in 1989 I think. This is a bigger shopping centre than has any right to exist, but brought better transport and an economic stability to Shailer Park, which was most able to take advantage of the employment and business opportunities. Most people who live at Shailer Park are likely to stay there. I'm not sure that their children would, unless they chose to go to uni at Griffith's Logan campus, which isn't too far away. Certainly as Brisbane house prices rise, places like Shailer Park are likely to become more attractive to young families, as they provide a cheaper alternative to buying a house in a place that isn't too bad. It isn't that far from Daisy Hill and other 'better' suburbs north of it, so it isn't an isolated pocket of middle class suburbia but can define itself with those suburbs and against places like Loganholme and Beenleigh.

So, there you go. All you ever wanted to know about Shailer Park.