Proud Queenslander Kevin Mitchell jnr has been the man behind Australia's best cricket wicket for 33 years.
For 27 years, he has been the Gabba's head curator, the man in charge, taking over from his father and namesake, Kevin Mitchell snr.
Mitchell has set the pace for the summer of cricket each year, producing the Gabba wicket for the first Test of the season.
Australia has won every Test at the Gabba since 1988, when Sir Viv Richards' mighty West Indies were at their peak and won the series 3-1.
"I've got a 100 per cent record; that (the last loss) was the old man," he joked with reporters at his final media conference on Tuesday.
After this week's Ashes Test, Mitchell will retire to a newsagency at Woorim on Bribie Island. Until then, his attention will be squarely on the wicket, which he said would have a "tinge of green" at the start of play on Thursday.
"There'll be a bit of movement early off the seam and then settle down into a pretty good batting deck," he said.
Mitchell laughed when asked how things had changed since 1984, when he became assistant curator at the Gabba, answering to his father.
"When I first started here we had a tractor on the old greyhound track and we had to jumpstart it," he said.
"Those days were pretty tough, but with the new grandstands and the winter tenants we've been able to up our budget and get all the high-tech stuff."
Mitchell said his father passed on some advice.
"I think his main one was ???Don't make the same mistake twice'," he said. "I don't know how I went."
Kevin Mitchell jnr and Kevin Mitchell snr have done well.
The Gabba has moved past the horror years, when fast-bowling great Dennis Lillee would kick at the dirt Gabba strip, shake his head, shrug and bowl from a short run.
The Gabba has grandstands, lights and a new winter tenant, the Brisbane Lions AFL team.
It was developed in time to host 2000 Olympic football tournament matches.
"We had lots of deadlines to meet, but we got there," he said.
"Olympic soccer was a great event. It was real feather in the stadium's cap I think."
Mitchell said it was hard at times juggling the winter demands of the Lions and the need to start the summer with a flourish for the cricket season.
"I am sure that both sports can co-exist here," he said.
"We have a bit of heavy training here from the football in winter time. Last winter was pretty kind and obviously the new high-performance ground at Springfield, so that will also make it a bit easier."
Mitchell said he was still looking at the weather as he prepareed the wicket for his last-ever game of cricket. Retirement could wait a few more days.
"I'm trying not to think about it too much, but it will be a bit of a relief at the end I think," he said.
Mitchell said he hoped to be simply remembered for producing good cricket wickets and for generating good playing surfaces for the AFL, football and cricket at the Gabba.
Mitchell said he was never "instructed" into producing wickets of a particular type and would not listen if he was.
"We're pretty lucky in this country. We don't have those sorts of pressures," he said.
"We can make our own decisions on what sort of wicket we produce for each game."
The Gabba wicket's secret is its mix of couch grass and smectite clay, he says.
"It's the good healthy grass cover that binds the soil together - which give it the bounce and the pace - and the high clay content, which is up around 74 per cent, which gives you that bounce," he said.
"The southern states tend to be a bit less, around 60 (per cent), or 65 (per cent).
"Perth would be the highest, up around 80 per cent, which is why they get that sort of bounce."
Mitchell puts Queensland's first-ever Sheffield Sheld win in 1995 on his top shelf as the Gabba's curator.
"Since 1995 when we broke the drought we had a lot of championships where Queensland have done well and obviously Australia has got a great record here," he said.
"Then the Lions won three premierships and nearly on a fourth, so the place has a great record, but I think, as a Queenslander, that (Shield) win was the best I think for me.
"Funnily enough, we are playing on the same deck for this Test Match."
