Above are some of the original students from the West End Dojo and
Sensei Mike as a fifth kyu when he started teaching karate 1968.
Members from the Inala Dojo
Sensei Mike and Sensei Takahashi at West End in 1973
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Sensei Mike started training in 1966 in Ipswich Queensland under two brown belt instructors Dough Lee of Shotokan and Graham Johnson of Kiokushink ran the club. Due to the two styles there was a conflict of ideas, this lead Doug Lee to establish a Shotokan club in West End. Sensei Mike, being a Brisbane resident followed Doug Lee to this club and became the senior grade and assistant instructor to Doug Lee. During this time due to work commitments, Doug was not able to run the club so he offered it to Sensei Mike who was a 5th kyu at the time. Feeling the need for a higher level of instruction Mike wrote to Japan with the desire to affiliate with the Japan Karate Association and secure the services of a qualified instructor. This action turned out to be complicated and complex and Japan directed Sensei Mike to lias and unite with another group in NSW and because of the language barrier there were numerous communication problems but fortunately for Mike his cousins wife Yoriko Connolly was a native born Japanese who spoke and communicated extremely well in her native tongue (Japanese) and she assisted in arranging and finalizing arrangements to bring Sensei Takahashi to Australia and also Yoriko assisted in interpreting for Sensei Mike when Sensei Takahashi resided in Brisbane. This whole process of bringing Sensei to Australia and securing our JKA affiliation took a few years approximately from 1970-1973. In August 1973 Sensei arrived in Brisbane and began teaching in Australia at the West End and Inala dojo. There was another dojo that Sensei Mike established and it was at Marooka. Due to Sensei Takahashis full time dojo, Marooka was forced to close and then as Sensei Mike needed to maintain his own training and to support Sensei Takahashis full time dojo it was advised that West End was to be closed as well. Sensei Mike retained the Inala dojo teaching twice a week but putting most of his efforts in to Sensei Takahashis dojo in Fortitude Valley. When Sensei Takahashi left Australia Sensei Mike increased the training session in Inala to 3 times a week for many years. This club was developed into one of the strongest dojo in Australia having many successes in the tournament circuit. Although Inala was going well Sensei Mike decided to look at the possibility of opening another club outside of the Inala area. An opportunity presented itself at Annerley an inner suburb of Brisbane South at the Annerley Primary School. This was a small club of about 15 members who have been training in the Budokan style, which was similar to Shotokan style, and the instructor had invited Sensei Mike to take over the teaching of this club and affiliate it with JKA. The training facilities at the school were inadequate and Sensei Mike relocated the dojo to the Yeronga School and established the name of Brisbane South Dojo in 1992. Some of those original students continued on to achieve their first dan. The dojo's became known as the Inala/Brisbane South dojo's and in an endeavor to not confine our dojo to a particular suburb the Inala name was dropped and our club is now known as Brisbane South Dojo, which also includes a new location at the Acacia Ridge State School in 2004. To better enhance our training Nga Connolly who is a well known and a successful competitor in JKA and AKF has been appointed as assistant instructor and her expertise and experiences have been utilized to further develop and enhance our junior members who are the life blood of our future. All three locations are developing well and the opportunity is there for all students to train 4 times a week. |
Above are some of the original students from the West End Dojo and
Sensei Mike as a fifth kyu when he started teaching karate 1968.
Members from the Inala Dojo
Sensei Mike and Sensei Takahashi at West End in 1973
