General
12 March, 2026
Inglewood Connection To Brisbane Celebration
Close on 200 people, including the Queensland Health Minister, the Honourable Tim Nicholls MP, and Brisbane City Councillor, Julie Dixon, attended a celebration held on March 7th to mark the official unveiling of the “Charlie Parrella Place” newly installed street sign in the Brisbane suburb of Hendra.
The sign and the celebration paid tribute to the ongoing service to the Hendra community by 85-year-old, Italian born, Charlie Parrella, who has been their “one man” barber for the past 58 years.
Charlie was only 14 years old when he came to live in the southwestern Queensland town of Inglewood. He had already had lessons in barbering back in Italy and this continued when he was apprenticed to an Italian migrant barber who lived in the town.
However, when Charlie was only 16 and a half years old the man returned to Italy and Charlie decided to open his own barber shop in the main street of Inglewood in a small section of what was then the McCorkell Building and is now owned by Pursehouse Rural.
During this time the Inglewood townspeople gave him the nickname of “Charlie the Barber”, a title that has stayed with him ever since and was the title of the Memoir he wrote and published many years later.
In 1968 Charlie moved from Inglewood to Brisbane and bought a small shop in Hendra. He fitted it out with the original chair and equipment he had bought in Inglewood and still uses to this day.
So many of the people at the celebration recalled going there as children for their first haircut and continuing to have Charlie cut their hair as they grew into adulthood.
Asked if he would be retiring soon Charlie said although he has cut back on the hours he works each week, he will continue to cut hair for as long as he can because he enjoys the work and meeting the people. He added that, given the chance, he would not hesitate to do it all again.
Story by Mavis Stower.
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