Branching into trees is good luck for Adrian Schrinner

BRISBANE’S new mayor is using a tried and true method of winning hearts, and votes, by sticking to his tree-lined plan for success.

New mayor Adrian Schrinner in the park. Picture: Annette Dew

SPARE a thought for new Brisbane City Council Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner.

Young Schrinner, 41, takes the throne of Australia’s largest council, and it is a throne that has had, over the decades, some very substantial posteriors – metaphorically of course – warming it.

The first lord mayor was, of course, William Alfred Jolly, forever remembered as the father of modern Brisbane. They don’t name a bridge after you for nothing.

There have been several forgettables, but the mighty Clem Jones, lord mayor from 1961 to 1975, was not one of those. Think of Jones and you think of the man who erased the city’s backyard dunnies and septic tanks, and installed an overdue sewage system.

Campbell Newman? The human mole of lord mayoral history in Brisbane, and the visionary behind our network of underground traffic tunnels. The future has yet to catch up with them.

Former Queensland Premier Campbell Newman in 2018. Picture: AAP Image/Lukas Coch

Graham Quirk? He might best be recalled as a thoroughly nice bloke, and there are worse foundations for a reputation.

Now the youthful Schrinner, sworn in as lord mayor this week and already quick to lay the slab on which his future may be built upon. He will be the “green” mayor, the parks and trees mayor, the surgeon who intends to install additional botanical lungs into the magnificent city of Brisbane.

Former Lord Mayor Graham Quirk (R) with then Deputy Mayor Adrian Schrinner. Picture: Mark Cranitch.

He wishes to “future-proof” our metropolis by funnelling all dividends generated from the City of Brisbane Investment Corporation towards his five-year plan.

“This investment will allow us to build the critical parks our city needs and protect our unique lifestyle and green space,” he told The Courier-Mail this week.

“Brisbane residents have told us they want more green space with new places to relax, and this five-year program will deliver more land for community sport and recreation.

“Keeping Brisbane clean and green is all about making our city liveable and sustainable for our children and future generations.”

Hear, hear.

But history has a curious way of repeating itself, and you need to go no further back than Depression-era Brisbane, and the city’s fourth lord mayor – Alfred James Jones (aka Alf) – who took office in 1934, for proof that what’s old is new again.

Alf Jones was a colourful figure. Before being elevated to the lord mayoralty, he had been a drover in country Queensland and became fascinated with all aspects of mining. (He would later become Queensland’s minister for mines.)

He was elected to State Parliament as the member for Maryborough region, and just as Cr Schrinner is Brisbane’s youngest lord mayor, Jones was the youngest elected member to the House at the time. He ultimately served three terms.

Not long after he was elected lord mayor, Jones, albeit a representative of the Labor Party, also had an early and profound vision for Brisbane City. Trees, trees and more trees.

Within months of taking office he proclaimed that the council, at his direction, would spend in excess of £100,000 in “providing new parks, improving existing parks and gardens, tree planting and making footpaths”.

Alfred Alf James Jones, former mayor of Brisbane.

Indeed, Jones was something of a prophet, and many years before anyone thought of backyard dunnies and underground tunnels, he was adamant that the Brisbane River and its shoreline be used for public recreation, and not be surrendered to industry or residential property development.

But it was parks and trees which captured his heart and mind.

“In years to come…(parks)… can be improved and developed almost out of recognition as sylvan retreats, where momentary respite may be obtained from the hurly burley of the bustling city traffic,” he wrote in The Courier-Mail in 1935.

His 50-year vision for the future of Brisbane was remarkably prescient. If the word had been invented in his day, he may well have been considered Brisbane’s first “green” lord mayor.

Is Adrian the new Alf?

Time, as they say, will tell.

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