St Nicholas Free Serbian Orthodox Church

I did enjoy drawing this wonderful St Nicholas Free Serbian Orthodox Church..The Church designed by T.B.F. Gargett of Brisbane, was opened and dedicated on 9 September 1933. Sketched in my 8.5" x 6" handmade sketchbook graphite/pen/watercolour.

Tingalpa Pioneers Chapel

Tingalpa Pioneers' chapel, Christ Church  was founded by the Anglicans founded in 1868
It was - Demolished by cyclone in 1885 and rebuilt using the original timbers - Decommissioned and stripped for demolition in 1996 but saved when chapel and cemetery were Heritage Listed 

 

Sketched in my 8.5" x 6' sketchbook HB and 2B Faber Castell graphite 

 

Bio-Mechanical Pelicans

Biomechanical Pelicans sculpture created by Christopher Trotter in 1995  They sit on top of an historical wharf pylon in the Brisbane River near the Maritime Museum.

 

South Brisbane Public Library

I love this building, it is so elegant.  It was designed by Francis Drummond Greville Stanley and built from 1881 to 1902 by W Macfarlane. This complex is composed of three structures built at different times in response to different needs: the South Brisbane Post Office (1881); the South Brisbane Municipal Library (1897); and the City Concert Hall (1902)

It is also known as South Brisbane School of Arts, South Brisbane Mechanics Institute, South Brisbane Technical College, and South Brisbane Post & Telegraph Office. It is now the Griffith University Film School.

 

South Brisbane Municipal Chambers

What a glorious winters morning.  I sketched with friends in a historic part of South Brisbane, the "Town Hall".

South Brisbane Municipal Hall is a magnificent building, with working clock tower and gargoyles.  In 1891, work commenced on the construction of the town hall. The building was officially opened on 1 July 1892   Although it was widely known as the "Town Hall", it was officially the South Brisbane Municipal Chambers. 
The builder was Abraham James,
Building commenced in January 1891. Work proceeded for six months, when the contractor developed financial difficulties. he lost his contract and the following tradesmen finished the work.

• Messrs John Stuart & Co won the tender for the stonework, brickwork, carpentry and joining work
• Mr John Campbell for the plasterwork
• Mr James Kay for the plumbing and gasfitting
• Messrs James Lang & Co for painting and glazing, while Messrs Exton and Gough continued as the providers of leadlights

The building was predominantly constructed from red Coorparoo and Waterstown bricks (without any alteration of natural colour). The brown and white sandstone facings are used in the entrance and exterior walls were supplied from Pearson's Quarry at Helidon. The exterior decoration used terracotta panelling (also in its natural colour) supplied by James Campbell & Sons of Albion. Ribbed galvanised iron was used for the roof.
I tell you this because, the building looks as magnificent today, as when it was first built. the building style is Italianate Classic Revival

 

 

St Mary's Catholic Church

The current church at St Mary’s was blessed and opened on 2nd July 1893. It replaced the first St Mary’s – a small wooden church built on the site of the present car park around 1864. Designed by architects George Simkin and John Ibler and built by Woollam and Norman between from 1892 to 1929
The style of the church, which combines Romanesque and Renaissance revival elements, was not common at the time as most nineteenth century churches were designed in the Gothic revival style.

Stanley Street South Brisbane

We sketched Historical Clarence Corner this morning. I sat outside the Clarence Corner Hotel, now known as the Brew House. It was named after the Steam Ship Clarence.
Clarence Corner was Brisbanes first Township, and it was quite a large one. In 1893 a devastating flood forced most of the retailers across river to Queen Street.

The cream building is Maggee Draper Emporium formerly Murray and Magee Coupon Drapers.
The black building is Robert Lenehan’s pharmacy at Clarence Corner in 1915.
Sketched in my handmade 8" x 6.5" 90lb sketchbook. Graphite 0 Lamy pen - Watercolour.

Sketching around the Brisbane Supreme Court

Fun morning with the Brisbane City Sketchers, on a breezy but sunny winters morning.  We sat in the Supreme Court Park, and I wandered around the back of the court building to sketch Fiona Foleys controversial Silent Whispers.  Her work is a memorial to the many massacres of Aboriginal people which had taken place during the colonial settlement and expansion of Queensland in the early 19th Century. There are names engraved in pavers, 94 names, that are the places of the massacres.

My second drawing is of the historic McDonnell Building

Sketching in the Gallery Precinct Kurilpa Point.

Awesome morning with the Brisbane City Sketchers..
I sat on a rock wall on the riverside outside the State library Qld to sketch the Brisbane City Library Buildings. I have drawn them before, always a pleasure..
8" x 7.5" handmade sketchbook graphite watercolour and pen (in that order)

Kurilpa means "place for water rats", in the aboriginal language, Kurilpa Point was once inhabited by the Turrbal peoples to whom water rats were a food source.
The Turrbal are an Australian Aboriginal nation, descendants of the original owners and custodians of the region of present-day Brisbane, Queensland. They have lived in Australia for over 60,000 years. The name primarily referred to the dialect they spoke, the tribe itself being alternatively called Mianjin/Meanjin. The Turrbal are regarded as interchangeable with the Jagera

 
The Turrbal were Jagera people whose traditional lands and hunting grounds, extended over some 1,300 square miles (3,400 km2) and lay around the Brisbane River, stretching from the Cleveland shore area of Moreton Bay, and running inland as far as the Great Dividing Range about Gatton; north to near Esk.

 
The Turrbal horde itself was located specifically in what is now called the Brisbane CBD, the name for which was Mianjin.

 
Neighboring Aboriginal nations include the Kabi and Wakka Wakka to the north, the Dalla to the northwest and the Ngugi of Moreton Island. Despite collective title to a stretch of land, the Turrbal like many tribes permitted private ownership of specific sections of land, down to recognizing personal possession of parts of a river or even of trees and shrubs.

City Botanic Gardens

Sketching the Historic Kangaroo Point Cliffs, from the City Botanic Gardens, with the Brisbane City Sketchers.
It was a lovely morning filled with laughter and fun, and some drama to boot. (A man got stuck on the side of the cliffs across the river from us) I rang the police and he was saved.

These lavas and pyroclastic rocks of the cliffs were deposited in the Triassic Period about 230 million years ago and filled an ancient river valley. These rocks were known as porphyry and later became known as the geological unit called the Brisbane tuff.
Records indicate that it was Captain Patrick Logan who first opened a quarry to supply stone to his building works as early as 1826.  It was the female prisoners who were required to quarry the cliffs.

The Cliffs are heritage listed and  are now a playground for RiverLife..

Regatta Hotel

The Regatta Hotel got it's name from the wonderful boat regattas held on the river in front of the hotel in days gone by..

In 1886, the current and second Regatta Hotel, three-storeyed brick building, was erected for Brisbane publican William Winterford, this is the building you see today.
The Regatta was one of a number of large, masonry, first-class hotels designed by Richard Gailey in the 1880s.
A famous women's liberation protest took place in the public bar in 1965, when two women, Merle Thornton (mother of Australian actress Sigrid Thornton) and Rosalie Bognor, chained themselves to the public bar footrail in protest at Queensland's restriction of public bars to men only. The protest was not successful despite other similar protests; it was years before the laws changed.

Floods were a huge problem being that the hotel sat on the river bank.. The hotel survived several floods.

It was first flooded in 1887, then again in 1893. Lack of wider custom, the financial depression of the early 1890s, and the floods of 1893, nearly ruined Winterford. 1908 - 1974 - 2011 saw more flooding.  It is said the canoes rowed to the second story to get a beer during the 1974 floods..

Sketching in Fortitude Valley

First sketch is of the amazing Police Station. Designed by Raymond Clare Nowland, an architect in the Department of Public Works (DPW), the Fortitude Valley Police Station was constructed during an intensive public works building program undertaken by the Forgan Smith Labor Government in Queensland during the 1930s to counter the effects of the Great Depression.

Second sketch is an archway adjacent to the Holy Trinity Anglican Church. 

Wordsmiths cafe St Lucia UQ

Sketching at Wordies this morning, and I chose to sketch over a "failed" sketch I started last Tuesday.  Failed, because I got the proportions of the building wrong right at the beginning of the sketch, so decided today to incorporate the wonderful sandstone sculptures created by Rhyl Hinwood (1996) into the sketch.  What do you think?  The crow posed for me for his sketch..

Stanley Street Brisbane

Wonderful morning sketching at South bank with the Brisbane City Sketchers.   The sun was shining and with good company, it was a lovely adventure.

I chose to sketch two historic buildings, The Allgas Building, and the Plough Inn.  Both built in the late 1800s both have history.

The ALLGAS BUILDINGwas built in 1885 which was called Caledonian House.  It was built  for the drapery and outfitting firm of Allan & Stark, and named Caledonian House Along with a number of prominent South Brisbane firms, Allan & Stark moved across the river to higher ground after the disastrous floods of 1893

The PLOUGH INN  was built in 1864 by publican Daniel Costigan, an Irish Publican.  The Plough Innis significant historically as a rare surviving remnant of the commercial and shipping heart of South Brisbane in the late 19th century.

Note the Unicycle above the square..  Artist John Underwood, made 175 fibreglass and wire 

"Human factor" sculptures for Expo '88 

There are 3 that I know of left in the city, the others were repurposed or sold to international visitors.

 This building boasts of two ghosts.  One of a publicans wife, who was throttled and thrown over the upper floor balcony for supplementing their income in the red light rooms on the second floor, the other a poor wee girl who was drowned in the basement during the 1893 floods.  You can still hear her voice calling for her mummy..

Both buildings in 1987

Woolstores Teneriffe

I went sketching with the Brisbane City Sketchers this morning in Teneriffe.  We chose o sketch the Winchcombe Carson Woolstore.  Awesome building.  The first Winchcombe Carson building is the oldest extant woolstore in the Teneriffe precinct.