Are there any guys here who grew up around Tingalpa rinding dirt bikes?

[Ray Kricker]

That's Tingalpa Brisbane....in the '70's when it was full of fibro and housing commission homes , quarries and horse paddocks.

[wato]

Hello Rayk, I grew up at Cannon Hill . There was heaps of riding round in mid seventy's .Gate Way,Cannon Hill bush,Mud Flats Lytton' Carindale &Mt Petie, Birkdale  .All with in 20 minutes of home .Never knew good i had it .   There was a little quary off Belmont RD went there once or twice. cheers mark.       

[DR]

 I can echo the same a Wato said in the fact we didn't realize how good we had it I grew up in Banyo/Nudgee and we'd only have to push or bikes to the corner of the street and from there we could ride to Pinkenba in one direction or to Shorncliffe in the other. We rode and camped at Nudgee many many times not long after it was closed as a refuse tip and before the council decided to make it a minibike area reserved for minibikes of 90cc or less. On the way to Pinkenba it was always a bit of a thrill to stop at the end of the main runway of BNE airport where the landing lights started and watch the jets come and go so close you could count the rivets on the wings. The burned eyes from the jet fuel during take off's and the rattling of ribs from the reverse thrusts were a huge rush for us kids.

 We also rode Nudgee Quarry (both sides of the road opposite Nudgee Golf Course), Banyo quarry, the cattle bridge, dinah's island and Nudgee beach area. We ventured to Lytton and under the Gateway a few times but that was in the early 80's when area's were starting to get closed off due to the then new Gateway Motorway and Schultz's Canal construction. We also rode Highvale Park at Ormeau and on the odd occassion we'd venture to Tivoli if we could talk someones old man into driving us. Great times and at Nudgee Quarry there would sometimes be 40 bikes using the same track. Only ever 1 nasty accident that I know of and this involved me (RM400) and another guy (YZ100) who inadvertently rode the track in the wrong direction. We'd be gone from friday arv to Sunday evening and commonsense went such a long way back then and even the police were only too happy to see us riding there rather than on public roads. I can still see everything so vividly and I now count myself as being one very lucky young dude to have such options, especially now when near all areas are closed to bikes. Kind of feel sorry for the younger generation of social/trail riders these days as they simply don't and won't ever experience the same kind of freedom we had unless they live in the sticks  

[Ray Kricker]

Good stuff.  From Tingalpa we could ride all the way to Cannon Hill through Porter's property or in the other direction via Gumdale down Mt Petrie Road all the way to Leslie Harrison dam.  I remember when they actually hired bikes out at Mt Petrie for a while (XR75's).  The quarry on Belmont Road was on McCorkels land.

[wato]

I remember Johnny Wonder, Ithink he had a shop at Beenleigh, do a record car jump at Tingalpa cricket field. xr 500 I think

[Ray Kricker]

We lived next to the park and watched him practice for weeks.  We thought whar's this bloke up to riding in our park?  Got talking to him and even had to fetch him some spanners one day to make adjustments.  Was his real name John Fogwell?

[David Lahey]

I'm another Brissy kid who rode those Southside areas in the 1970s during high school years. My favourite was where the gateway bridge is now because it was good for trials.
I lived at Balmoral and also used to ride at a piece of vacant industrial lane we called Theiss at Hawthorne on the river, at Colmslie on reclaimed land near the dry dock, at Mt Petrie and in a small section of bush near the Balmoral Bowls Club (every day after school).
There are a few other people I ride trials with nowadays who rode in those areas too. They lived at Seven Hills and at Coorparoo.
I think that same bloke Johnny whatever also did show jumps on a TT500 at the Ekka on speedway nights and he used the stage name Alberto Bonsarelli (name chosen to sound like like Fonsy the biker from Happy Days who was called Alberto Fonsarelli)

[Ray Kricker]

I had to drop my son off the other day to pick his car up at Tingalpa and guess what, the road we turned left up off Belmont Rd was the same road I used to ride trail bikes up when I was young that led to McCorkels quarry.  Big estate now, but there is a McCorkel road. Shit I miss them days.

[Ray Kricker]

We a;so had a "local philosipher" named Dave that I thought was great when I was 15 who when we were sitting on the rear car seat at the top the burm used to tell the younger kids tall stories and all about life.  I realised much later that although Dave could wheelstand an XT500 better than most people he just found drugs easier to deal with than life.

[Mike52]

Got caught sliding down the dam wall.
Used to ride in the bush at Burbank.
Opposite the dam

[Fabulous]

Yep, Used to ride the Thurston Street Quarry (Mc Corkalls). There was also the Eversholt street Tracks directly across Belmont road when it was a dead end. At Mccorkalls there was the quarry (mx track) and "the dump" which was up the top of the (one and only)high berm on the track.That took you through to the end of Dairy swamp road and some gloopy swamp tracks in the wet. Great fun on little mini bikes. Local legend was "vince " on a new cr125. (73 I'm guessing). I remember the hire bikes at Burbank too. They had xr75s and one xl250. Hired the "hot "xr with the straight thru exhaust. Smile like a split watermelon.

[Redhot]

That's Tingalpa Brisbane....in the '70's when it was full of fibro and housing commission homes , quarries and horse paddocks.

Hi Mate, someone advised me of this post...

I grew up in Tingalpa and lived on Belmont Rd, (born 1957)

I'd like to think that my mates and myself mapped out and first rode in the track at Mccorkell's quarry....

Used to ride from there to brickworks at 8 mile plains....bush all the way...

Those were the days............

[Ray Kricker]

Yep, just talkin' about those days again on Friday night with a guy called Brent C who used to ride the same tracks. He's 50 now and still riding. You would have known Jeff McCorkel then?

[IT400C]

hahaha - I live in that area off Belmont road now!  Good to know I'm living in such a historic area!!  Anyone got any photos from back then?  Or more history of Thurston Road/McCorkell Street?   

I lived in Hendra/Doomben in the 60's/early 70's (rode the Nudgee and Banyo quarries too), and then moved to Rochedale in 77 - rode in the Daisy Hill State Forest..   

[Slakewell]

I grew up in Redcliff for a while and I could ride from my shed to everywhere I needed to go.
We had the old dump track and mud flats etc plus what is now cannal estates which now backs onto my old house.