ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
Far from the rampant carjackings and random stabbings of the South Ponds district, a Betoota Grove Municipal Council motion has seen fairy lights installed in the trees of the suburb’s boutique shopping street.
Councillor Gwendolyn-Jane Mathieson-Smith, who still enjoys a level of wealth which was built by the byproducts of colonisation, introduced the motion after seeing similar things done in other nice parts of other towns.
The marginally-employed-mother-of-a-Reds-player spoke exclusively to The Advocate about having her dream to bring a little bit of Brisbane’s leafy Paddington district to the central South-West come to life.
“It’s fantastic,” Mrs Mathiseon-Smith said to our reporter as she walked him up and down Adelaide Avenue.
“You should come back at night time to really take it all in. This has been about a year in the making, we’ve had to order the lights in from Europe via China. The council also had a lighting engineer fly up from Brisbane to make sure it all looked the part,”
“The feedback we’ve had from the people here in Betoota Grove has been fantastic. I love living here.”
Her husband Martin, who made news in 2016 after being carjacked and stabbed through the belly button with a screwdriver while he tried to purchase Class-A narcotics in Betoota Ponds, said he is also pleased with how the project has turned out.
“I think it looks OK,” he said.
“Yep.”
The Advocate reached out to the rest of the Municipal Council’s board but have yet to receive a response.
More to come.
