Two weeks ago I was at the Brisbane’s Living Heritage Network‘s members’ seminar at the City Hall and participated in Curatorial Tour of Museum of Brisbane. We were split into groups and my group went for a tour with Phil Manning – curator of “The View from Here” exhibition. I have visited this exhibition before but this time I heard some fascinating stories directly from curator.
“The View From Here” – exhibition at Museum of Brisbane
When few months ago I saw a poster about new (then) exhibition at Museum of Brisbane I knew I must see it. The exhibition that brought me back to the Museum was “The view from here” – it was a great opportunity to see how Brisbane looked like over one hundred years ago – photographs on the exhibition were taken from late 19th to mid 20th Century.
“As an amateur photographer, (Alfred) Elliott captured our city at the beginning of an exciting era – a time of population growth, advances in technology and significant global events and social change. Coupled with glimpses of his family life, this exhibition explores one man’s fascinating views of a forgotten Brisbane. The historic collection of glass plate and film negatives was discovered in the early 1980s, stored in cigar boxes under a house in inner city Red Hill. This incredible find provides a rare and intimate look at both Elliott’s life and the evolution of our city.” – www.museumofbrisbane.com.au
The photographs in collection cover years from 1890 to 1940. They were found in 1983 under one of the houses in Red Hill. What’s interesting, museum staff thought the collection consists of 285 glass-plate negatives only but last year Phil Manning, when sorting photos, found another box with over 400 negatives of more recent images.
Alfred Elliot
Photographs were taken by Alfred Elliot who lived in Brisbane from 1876 when he arrived as a 7 year old boy with his parents from England. He documented everyday life of growing city. There are images of city structures like bridges or important events like King’s visits. He also took his camera for excursions to Redcliffe, Wynnum, Mt Coot-Tha or longer road trips e.g. to Maryborough. He loved Glass House Mountains and called his house “Tibrogargan” after one of the mountains.
In 1895 Elliot took series of photos from the Windmill on Wickham Terrace (which is now the oldest convict-built structure surviving in Queensland). The experts from Museum of Brisbane put them together and we can now enjoy the panoramic view of Brisbane. It makes a spectacular effect and interactive notes help us to identify some of the buildings that don’t exist any more or have changed much.
Panoramic view of Brisbane at 1895
The exhibition is open until 30th August so you still have a month to go and feel like in a time machine. Below is a video clip with behind-the-scenes look at Museum of Brisbane’s exhibition “The view from here”.
