Today I will share with you my second day at Brisbane Open House 2015. I wrote about the event in my previous post here. On Saturday I was volunteering at the Museum of Brisbane and didn’t have much time to explore heritage treasures, so my Sunday list was quite busy.
I started my day at the oldest occupied building in Brisbane – the Commissariat Store at William Street. Currently it is a home of Royal Historical Society of Queensland since 1981 and they also run a museum that showcases Queensland history. It is fantastic that such old buildings like that are still in Brisbane, they are linking us with the very beginnings of the city.
“Completed in 1829, the former Commissariat Store demonstrates the evolution of European settlement in Queensland, being one of only two buildings surviving from the Moreton Bay penal colony, having become a government store when free settlement was established. Until the 1960s it was accommodating a range of other government uses, for example serving as an overflow point for immigrants from the 1850s until 1887 when the Yungaba depot opened.” (Queensland Heritage Register #600176)
Next I walked to Queensland’s first purpose-built parliamentary building – The Parliament House on George Street. There are guided tours every week but during the work week it’s hard to find time so this was a great opportunity for me to visit this place. It was crowded, one of the most popular buildings I think, I went for a self-guided tour and explored rooms where Queensland’s law is created.
The main wing of Parliament House (facing George Street) was erected between 1865 and 1867 as the seat of Queensland government after separation in 1859. It was designed by Colonial Architect Charles Tiffin and is the most substantial building erected in this period. By 1867, the work was complete, although due to financial constraints, only the George Street range had been constructed. (Queensland Heritage Register #60069)
The foundation stone of the Parliament House was laid on 14 July 1865 by Governor George Ferguson Bowen. And this fact connects us with the Old Government House which is just few steps away. In 1859 Sir George Ferguson Bowen was appointed the first Governor of Queensland, a colony that had just been separated from New South Wales. It was a residence of Governors of Queensland until 1910 when they moved to Fernberg at Paddington which was supposed to be a temporary residence, yet they stay there since then.
Old Government House was constructed from 1860 to 1862 to the design of Colonial Architect, Charles Tiffin at a cost of £17,000. It served as the home of the various Governors of Queensland from its completion in 1862 until 1910 when it became the inaugural of the University of Queensland. (Queensland Heritage Register #600118)
The building is located at the Gardens Point overlooking Brisbane Botanic Gardens that I walked through along the river. The Botanic Gardens have been flooded many times and the Brisbane City Council established new botanic gardens at Mount Coot-tha in 1970s. Did you know that The Gardens were also the home for ‘Harriet’, a tortoise collected by Charles Darwin during his visit to the Galápagos Islands in 1835. Harriet was donated to the Gardens in 1860 and lived there for almost 100 years? She had an estimated age of 175 years at the time of her death in Australia Zoo in 2006.
Much of the present-day Botanic Gardens was surveyed and selected as the site for a Public Garden in 1828 by the NSW Colonial Botanist Charles Fraser. During the convict period, part of the land was used for growing crops. In 1855 a portion of several acres was declared a Botanic Reserve. (Queensland Heritage Register #600067)
Following the river I passed Customs House (completed and opened 1889) that I visited in last year and got to Howard Smith Wharves under the Story Bridge. We had a walk arranged by the architecture company that presented plans for the area. Plans look impressive and if everything goes as planned it will be another great place for social meetings with heritage buildings incorporated in site. Besides the wharves, there are also air raid shelters constructed by Brisbane City Council during World War 2.
The Howard Smith Wharves were constructed 1934-early 1940s by the Queensland government to provide relief work during the depression years of the 1930s. Initially known as the Brisbane Central Wharves, the project was undertaken in conjunction with the construction of the Story Bridge, one of the Forgan-Smith government’s principal employment-generating projects. In 1941-42 the Brisbane City Council constructed five air-raid shelters near the Howard Smith Wharves below the cliff face, for the Bureau of Industry. The threat of invasion by Japan appeared very real at the time. (Queensland Heritage Register #601781)
On my way back to the City I visited the former Castelmine Perkins building at 418 Adelaide St that used to be a head office of Castelmine Brewery before they moved to Milton. The building was originally a 2 storey and extended to 3 storey in 1918 when the brewery took ownership. The date from the plaque on the façade is misleading – 1871 refers to the history of Castelmine Brewery who had majority ownership throughout the 20th Century.
Then I walked by Masonic Temple constructed between 1928 and 1930 that was first open to public during Brisbane Open House in 2010. It’s a worth visiting building which was built solely from Queensland materials.
The Masonic Temple was constructed between 1928 and 1930. In April 1921 the United Grand Lodge of Queensland was formed by the union of the 281 Freemasons’ lodges in Queensland. To commemorate the union the Grand Lodge agreed to construct a centrally located temple. (Queensland Heritage Register#600074)
I started day at the second oldest building in Brisbane and finished at the oldest one – the Old Windmill built in 1828 by convicts. During the years it changed its purpose, started as a windmill, then converted to telegraph signal station. Tower was also used by fire brigade for observation, radio research station by Queensland Institute of Radio Engineers and it was a place of Queensland’s first television broadcast.
The oldest convict-built structure surviving in Queensland, the windmill tower has accommodated a range of uses. Constructed in 1828 to process the wheat and corn crops of the Moreton Bay penal settlement, it had a treadmill attached for times when there was no wind but also as a tool for punishing convicts. (Queensland Heritage Register #600173)
And how did you spend Brisbane Open House weekend? Did you visit all buildings you planned? Let me know in the comments below.
