Help us name Wakerley Sports Park in honour of this local legend.
Bill on his tractor with McFarlane Field in the background.
Local identity Bill McFarlane played an important role in the development of the McFarlane Field at 388 Wondall Road, which was utilised by the Wynnum Manly Marching Girl’s Association and the Wynnum Manly Women’s Basketball Association for more than twenty years.
Bill is the past president of the now defunct Wynnum and Districts Marching Girls Association. He was known affectionately as “Mr Mac” and kept active by sitting up top on his old Ferguson Tractor, mowing the field’s grass to perfection every week. He and his late wife, Olive, were actively involved with the Marching Girls’ Association for thirty years.
I have launched a petition calling on Brisbane City Council to rename the new Wakerley Sports Park to Bill McFarlane Park in recognition of his service to women’s sport, Meals on Wheels and the Wynnum Manly Community.
Left to right: Bill McFarlane, Olive McFarlane, Brisbane City Council representative attending opening event for the marching field.
This building was known as ‘the music room’ because it is where the music was played from on marching championship days.
McFarlane Field at its original site at 388 Wondall Rd in 2013 before development. Source: Nearmap
Eventually, during the 1990s, this field ceased to be used by the Marching Girls’ Association due to diminishing interest.
Just as the group wound up in 2007, Bill gifted the Association’s site at 388 Wondall Road (see opposite) to the Wynnum & Manly District Meals on Wheels Association (WMDMOW) in order to develop a new facility that would replace their existing ageing kitchen at the Waterloo Bay Leisure Centre on Tingal Road.
After much conversation and unfortunately lacking the funds to develop the site themselves, WMDMOW reluctantly sold the parcel of land to Bunnings, who started construction there in 2013.
With the land sold, WMDMOW had the funds to construct a kitchen but no land to build on. In 2014 they petitioned myself and 880 Manly Road, Wakerley was identified as the preferred site.
House that stood at McFarlane Field before it was developed by Bunnings.
As of June 2020, construction of the state-of-the-art community facility and six netball courts is now nearing completion and ready to be officially opened.
Without the generosity of Bill McFarlane gifting this land to Meals on Wheels and his push for the land transfer, the development of this important community and sports facility would not have been possible. It is fitting that Council name this new sports park in his honour.
I would like to say a special thank you to Nelly Hilder, Bill’s granddaughter and also Ken Edwards from Meals on Wheels for assisting with the information and images in this article.
