Caption: The famous Gabba greyhound track, which hosted racing from 1972-1993.

Paul Dolan’s FROM THE CALLER’S BOX

ICONIC Brisbane landmarks the Gabba and Albion Park have quite a few similarities, including their longevity as greyhound racing venues.

Racing was conducted at the Gabba from 1972 to 1993, a total of 21 years. Albion Park is now into year 21 of greyhound racing.

The famous “Creek” will close in about a year as a greyhound racing venue with the move to the under-construction Q Complex at Purga in Ipswich. So we can assume that Albion Park’s longevity will be 21 or 22 years.

The Gabba’s first president was Alderman Clem Jones, at the time the Lord Mayor of Brisbane. Here’s part of what he had to say on the Gabba’s opening night.

“In Sydney a survey showed that 70 per cent of the people attending greyhound race meetings were young married couples under 30 years of age. The Gabba will meet the needs of this age group,” Jones said.

He later stated that “nowhere in this country will be found better facilities on a greyhound track”.

I would disagree with Jones on that statement. That’s because I attended a race meeting at Melbourne’s Olympic Park in 1974 and was amazed at the high quality of facilities there.

I went to a race meeting at Wentworth Park in 1973 and would definitely rate the Gabba’s facilities as superior at that time.

I didn’t get to Sydney’s Harold Park or Melbourne’s Sandown Park in that era, so can’t make a comparison with those venues to the Gabba.

When greyhound racing began at Albion Park in February 1993 the chairman was Michael Byrne QC who wrote similar words to Clem Jones.

“Brisbane now has the newest, most state-of-the-art, purpose-built greyhound track in Australia,” Byrne said.

“From the limited number of trials conducted, it appears that the track composition and lighting will make Albion Park a benchmark for tracks throughout the world.”

I think it fair to say that Byrne was correct, as apart from a few hiccups in the first few years, the actual track and its surface have come in for high praise from participants locally and south of the border for most of the 21 years of racing there.

The Q Complex, if not ready by the end of 2024, shouldn’t be much beyond that time.

At this stage we don’t know who the chair will be. The club will be known as the Queensland Greyhound Racing Club, comprising three members each of the current Brisbane and Ipswich clubs.

One thing is for sure. There’s no way that 70 per cent of the crowd anywhere nowadays are young, married couples. A lot has changed since the early ’70s. Whoever the chair is when the Q opens, that person should be able to produce some comments and predictions along similar lines to those by Clem Jones and Michael Byrne. The tracks and the facilities promise to be first class.