Luisa Garcia oral history interview, 28 September 2016 and 6 December 2016

Luisa Garcia

Luisa Garcia had no intention of buying in Delaneys Creek, no intention of moving on’ when her husband Miguel received an invitation for his band to perform at the Woodford Folk Festival.

They stayed with friends who had already made the country move to Woodford, camping out in their backyard for a couple of days before the festival.

At the time, Brisbane was in the midst of drought, with the major dams only at 17% capacity. There were water restrictions across south-east Queensland, including at Karana Downs where Luisa and her family were living. When they drove along the D’Aguilar Highway between Mt Mee and Wamuran, Luisa recalls:

that whole 10 k’s it was lush and green, and it was the greenest part of Brisbane that we had passed. And we went wow, we want to live somewhere where it rains, where it is always green, even in the middle of a drought. So Miguel went and played at the festival, and while he did that I went and spoke to the real estate agent and had a look around.

They bought the house at Delaney’s Creek in 2007, bringing their three children, aged 8, 6 and 3, to live on the one-acre block. Parts of Delaney’s Creek were under pine forest, including their home.

When we bought the land it had been a part of a 40 acre farm that the previous owners had purchased already cleared. They then subdivided it and we bought 1 acre of that land - the acre that had the house on it.

Luisa’s mother lived with them for 6 years, in a granny flat that was on the block, but has since moved to a retirement home. The children attended the Delaney’s Creek State School, which is less than a kilometre from their home. Her eldest had received support for his language at their former school at Mount Crosby, but she found receiving the same level of support at Delaney’s Creek difficult.

So that’s the only issue I think, with living out in a small country town, that if you need, if your not a straight forward kid and you have issues with education or health or things like that then it is a bit harder to get the support.

But she would give up these small comforts, for the type of life a more rural abode affords. From the large open blocks, to the people and the main street, she sees a wonderful semblance of the history of the town with the changes that people like herself are bringing to the community.

It’s [Woodford] got this really nice continuity, I really like it, I get really sentimental for all those things, the old buildings in town, a lot of the people in town still remember them. So I like that there’s the cattle yards and the show and rodeo, and all those things that make us an old country town are still happening in Woodford.