The enjoyment of local parks is a feature of many areas within this Pocket Book district. The Pocket Book maps list some 215 parks just for the local area covered by this book.

Almost every park has a significance in its naming, its position and its reason 'for being'. Explore your local park, find its history and discover its features.

On the front cover is as collection of small parks in northern part of Deception Bay.

Apex Park at Map 481 F4



The Apex clubs throughout Australia have developed the facilities of many parks, especially the older recreation facilities. This park has children's play areas, bar-be-que facilities and public toilets.

Captain Cook Parade Park at Map 481 F4



This is popular with weddings as the raised area overlooks the waters of Deception Bay. At low tide an interesting small sand-bank-island appears. Facilities are available across the street at Apex Park.

Of course, in 1770 James Cook was still a Lieutenant when, on his first Pacific voyage, he discovered the East Coast of this continent, the whole of which he named 'New South Wales'. By his third Pacific voyage looking for a North passage through the Bering Strait, he was promoted to Captain. Previous to his Pacific voyages, he had charted Hudson's Bay in Canada; his charts were the major advantage to the British navy when they defeated the French to take charge of Quebec and other territories in Canada. James is just as much celebrated in Canada as in Australia.


Bancroft Park at Map 481 F3



Of the three parks, this one has local identities for the name. In CashFlow, the income and business-building board game by Robert Kiyosaki, having a park named after you is one of the ultruistic goals for the rich. The father and son Bancroft team, true scientists and medical professionals, were probably not even aware of this money-seekers-goal, but rather have been truly honoured by their local community. The park has a plaque which reads:

"Erected 21st July 1963. In memory of Joseph Bancroft, MD, 1836 - 1894, citizen scientist and great colonial doctor; and of his son, Thomas Lane Bancroft, MB, ChM, 1860 - 1933, who so ably carried on his father's work. These two great men, internationally known for their work on filariasis, lived here at Deception Bay for many years; and much of their research and experimental work was done in the neighbourhood. This memorial was erected by the Queensland branch of the British Medical Association with the co-operation of the Caboolture Historical Society."



Joseph Bancroft was from Stretford, Manchester, England; he studied medicine in Cheshire and at St Andrew's University in Scotland with many prizes of distinction, then practiced in Nottingham. For the better health available in a warmer climate, Joseph with his wife, Ann (nee Oldfield of Manchester), and their two children, including Thomas, moved to Brisbane in 1864. The first home he built, called Kelvin Grove after gardens near Glasgow in Scotland, later gave its name to the suburb.

Joseph investigated many of the colony's diseases affecting humans, their stock and their agricultural crops. These included leprosy, typhoid, hydrocoele & lymphatic abscess; he discovered the worm which caused filariasis. The worm was named Filaria bancrofti in his honour. He experimented with wheats, rice, grapes, sugar cane and bananas, seeking development of suitable varieties to help the advancement of the region. He was president of the Qld Philosophical Society in 1882-3, and wrote 38 scientific papers between 1866 and 1894, and campaigned for a university to be established in Queensland.

At his Deception Bay property, Joseph invented a process of drying and canning beef for export, in a powder he called pemmican. Joseph's son, Thomas, was educated at Brisbane Grammar School and then did his medical studies at the University of Edinburgh from 1878 to 1883 with the bronze medal for botany. (Our own 24 year old son, Gerard, a pschyologist, last year, 2016, completed his masters in Neuro-Psychology at Edinburgh, after also studying at UQ, the university which Joseph campaigned to have built.)

In 1885-6, Thomas, while the doctor at Geraldton (later called Innisfail) found new poisonous plants in the adjacent rainforests. From 1886-94 he tasted over one thousand plants, made 150 extracts and published ten papers. After a year in Christchurch NZ hospital he moved back to Brisbane and worked with his father and uncle in their Ann St clinic and at their experimental farm at Deception Bay. At Deception Bay, Thomas investigated mosquitos, discovering they could live for weeks on bananas!

In 1894 he married Cecilia Mary, daughter of Archdecon Thomas Jones of Brisbane. From their two children, Mabel Josephine (1896-1971) became a noted parasitologist. Thomas, in 1904 became the quarantine officer for the Port of Brisbane, as well as, in 1905-06, investigating cases of dengue fever, beriberi and plague. He later held medical positions at Stannary Hills near Cairns, Eidsvold, Palm Island. He bred lung fish discovering the hatchling became briefly amphibious, and studied Aboriginal food plants. Thomas retired to Wallaville on the Burnett River where he died in 1933; he is buried at Toowong Cemetery. During his career, he published 84 research papers.

Your Park

Local Parks, and seeemly ordinary road bridges, often have great stories within their names. Take time to explain the name significance of your local park to your children.
 
Gerry Clarke, B.PED.