Temporal setting: 26 November 1942
Location notes:
The Murgo stops near an unnamed dancehall in Brisbane in 1942, where Dee and Mark watch the courtship of an American soldier and his Australian girlfriend, before the scene turns ugly and violent.
This encounter can be safely assumed to represent the Battle of Brisbane, which on the evenings of the 26th and 27th of November involved riots and fighting between Australian and American troops stationed in Brisbane.
While the location of the dancehall is unclear, the characters refer to the PX building, the American Postal Exchange located on Adelaide and Creek streets which was the centre of the violence. Coordinates have been given for nearby this location.
Quotes
He kicks Billy again.
BRADLEY: Well we’ve bloody had it. No more shit from the Yanks. We’re taking the
PX building and we’re gonna teach these bastards a lesson they won’t forget.
Mavis screams.
More sounds of riots off. Bradley sees others off in the distance.
BRADLEY: (calling) Hey, I’ve got one here. I’ve got a Yank. I got one here.
The lights start to dim as more Australian soldiers run onto stage and take
to Billy, kicking him repeatedly, while Mavis screams.
(p. Scene 5, page 22)
Temporal setting: Circa 1865
Location notes:
From the Murgo, Dee, Mark, and the Bowsprit watch a scene unfold at what the Bowsprit calls "Wongarra", Brisbane's first mental asylum. Dr Stephen talks by the river as if to his deceased wife.
Although the Bowsprit calls the asylum "Wongarra", coordinates have been given for the site of what was orignally called Woogaroo Asylum. Woogaroo was established in 1865 by Dr Stephen Simpson, and was the first facility of its kind in Brisbane. The original buildings remain as part of what is now known as the Park Centre for Mental Health.
http://www.wpccc.com.au/index.php/history/6-wolston-park-site-history-overview
Quotes
The doctor continues to study the darkness. He smiles, recognises
something.
SIMPSON: I know you’re out there, my dear. I can almost see you, your outline.
How long has it been since you departed? Hours, days, years? Or are you still
alive? Time can get so confusing, so jumbled, so …
BOWSPRIT: He speaks of his wife, who is with the angels now.
SIMPSON: I like to walk out here at night, by the river. It’s hot. The insects buzz
like the patients in the asylum. With the mangroves and the mud it’s not at all like
the rivers in England, but still, it flows, and I imagine, no, somehow it’s real, I
sense that you are walking beside me. I feel your hand in my mine. The sound of
your breath.
(p. Scene 4, page 15)
Temporal setting: 30 November 1979
Location notes:
As the Murgo travels through time and space with Dee and Mark onboard, the ship arrives in 1979, to a punk rock gig at Baroona Hall.
Evans and Ferrier's book, Radical Brisbane: an Unruly History discusses a notorious gig at Baroona Hall on the 30th November 1979, when a number of teenagers were assaulted and arrested after attending a gig by local punk band The Sharks.
Baroona Hall, built in 1884, is a heritage listed building on Caxton St. It has been known as the Caxton St Hall, the Velvet Cigar club, and is currently Leftie's Old Time Musica Hall.
Quotes
And then punk music. Lights pulse. Bodies twist and jump to the music.
BOWSPRIT: Such a loud time!
MARK: This rocks. Let’s stay in 1979.
Mark and Dee start to bang their heads to the music. Eventually, even the
Bowsprit starts to headbang.
The music builds and builds, and then the stage is plunged into darkness.
Silence. Then from somewhere, the unmistakable flashing of red and blue
lights. The lights grow in intensity, and then they too fade off.
(p. Scene 9, page 36)
Temporal setting: 1910
Location notes:
Dee and Mark watch as J.C. Marconi demonstrates his Goanna Salve to the public, allowing himself to be bitten by a snake, and applying the salve as a remedy.
According to website, 'Your Brisbane: Past and Present', J.C. Marconi launched his Goanna Salve to the Australian consumer in 1910. Coordinates have been given for an approximation of Marconi's home, on Oxford St near the Bulimba ferry terminal.
Quotes
JOSEPH: I said, ladies and gentlemen, are you ready to see something truly
bloody amazing?
The crowd goes wild.
JOSEPH: Alright then, let me introduce you to …
He pulls out a tin and holds it up for all to see. JOSEPH: … Goanna Salve, The Australian Bush Remedy, made from one
hundred percent purebred Australian goannas from my goannery, and
manufactured in my state of the art facility right here in Brisbane. That’s right
ladies and gentlemen, this is a home grown wonder. Now you’re probably asking
yourself …what’s it do? What do you use it for? Well, ladies and gentlemen, the
answer to that is EVERYTHING. Goanna salve, The Australian Bush Remedy
cures piles, sciatica, lumbago. Warts, rashes and itches, and sunburn. There
ain’t nothing that Goanna Salve can’t cure.
(p. Scene 8, page 30)
Temporal setting: January 1974
Location notes:
Aboard the Murgo, Dee and Mark find themselves in Graceville, floating on the swollen Brisbane river during the 1974 floods. They watch a group of pregnant women from a Home for Unwed Mothers by the river's edge.
Coordinates have been given roughly near the river in Graceville, since no records of the location of the Home for Unwed Mothers were able to be found.
Quotes
On the riverbank are four girls, all pregnant.
BOWSPRITt: This is Graceville. And these girls are staying at the Home for Unwed
Mothers. They’ve been there for months, their bellies growing, their families
unable or unwilling to help. For months now they’ve been lying in their beds at
night, hands on their bellies, listening to the rain drum against the tin roof of the
building. And each day, they make their way down through the rose gardens, and
come to the water’s edge.
The girls are watching the flood waters.
GIRL 1: Don’t get too close. Flood waters are deceptive. You think you’re safe,
then whoosh, you’re gone, you’re fish food.
GIRL 2: I heard someone down at Indooropilly went for a swim and drowned. Went
in only waist deep too.
GIRL 3: The water is higher today.
GIRL 2: It won’t get to the house, will it?
GIRL 3: Maybe. Maybe we’ll have to give birth on a raft.
(p. Scene 7, page 28)
Temporal setting: 29 October 1939
Location notes:
From the deck of the Murgo, Mark and Dee watch the two sides of the Storey Bridge become joined. The Bowsprit foreshadows the death of one of the construction workers, and Dee tries to warn him.
Construction of the Storey Bridge (then known as the Jubilee Bridge) began in 1935 and was completed in 1940. The gap was closed on 29 October 1939.
Quotes
They all look up and a familiar shape emerges out of the darkness. It is the
Storey Bridge, or at least most of it. The two sides have not quite met in the
middle yet.
Many figures can now be seen, men working on the bridge. Their
movements are vigorous, energised. There is excitement in the air.
BOWSPRIT: The year is 1939. The two sides shall finally meet.
MICK: (calling out) How we looking?
TOMMO: Wait for it.
MCWHARTON: It’s not gonna meet up fellas. We got the sums wrong. We have to
start again.
The men laugh.
MICK: She’ll match up McWharton, don’t you worry about that.
(p. Scene 6, page 23)
Temporal setting: Circa 2004
Location notes:
After a night travelling through the history of Brisbane aboard the ghostly convict ship the Murgo, Dee and Mark finally arrive back in 'their time'. Although a year isn't given, it can be assumed that the era in which the play was written, the early 2000's, is likewise the era in which the play is set.
Coordinates have been given for the mangroves near the Goodwill Bridge, based on textual clues.
Quotes
When the lights rise the first thing we see is the dinghy from the first
scene. Mark and Dee are lying – apparently asleep – next to it. Mark is lying
face down and Dee is facing up.
The Murgo is nowhere in sight.
After a few moments, Dee coughs, and wakes up. She sits up.
Dee looks around, sees the dinghy, takes in the fact that they may be back
in their own time.
DEE: The mangroves. The city. The freeway. The Goodwill Bridge. This boat. I
think we’re back. Mark, I think we’re back. We’re back. Mark. We’re back. Mark?
(p. Scene 10, page 41)
Temporal setting: 31 March 1965
Location notes:
As Dee and Mark travel through time along the Brisbane river on the Murgo convict ship, they find themselves at the Regatta Hotel on the 31st of March, 1965. They witness two women, Merle and Ro, chaining themselves to the bar counter and demanding service, as a protest to the then-law that women could not be served in public bars.
The Regatta Hotel, first established in 1874, was the site of a 1965 protest by Merle Thornton and Rosalie Bogner. Their protest, which demanded the right for women to be served in public bars, was the starting point for the womens liberation movement in Brisbane in the late twentieth century.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/people/765073?c=people
Quotes
MERLE: What do we want?!
RO: A drink!
MERLE: Where de we want it?
RO: Here!
MERLE: (To Dee and Mark) It’s about time Brisbane caught up with the rest of the
country. Not serving a women in a public bar because she’s simply a women is
absurd. (Yelling again for all the pub to hear) This is not the dark ages, this is
Brisbane 1965!
DEE: That’s right, this is Brisbane …what? What year did you say it was?
MERLE: 1965. (loudly for all to hear) And we should all know better by now.
(p. Scene 3, page 11)
