A public artwork under the rail bridge that crosses Melbourne Street – on approach to the Cultural Centre – celebrates the memory of a long-lost landmark from Brisbane’s early encounters with modernity. The artwork (above and below) features archival images… Read More ›
Brisbane
St James Theatre, Brisbane: A lost Art Deco cinema
This article is the fourth in a series of posts exploring the lost Art Deco cinemas of Queensland. See also: Brisbane’s Metro Theatre, Earl’s Court Rockhampton and Mackay Civic Theatre The St James Theatre in Brisbane wore many faces over… Read More ›
Queensland Art Deco furniture makers: Hixco
Most people in Queensland did not live in Art Deco houses during the interwar years. However a taste for the modern could still be satisfied in more modest ways, through interior furnishings that reflected the international style. Queensland furniture manufacturers,… Read More ›
Was the Depression good for Queensland Art Deco?
The question posed in the title of this article is deliberately provocative. It goes against the grain of common sense to imagine that the material hardship experienced in Depression-era Queensland could have led to anything other than stagnation and decline…. Read More ›
Brisbane’s Metro Theatre: A lost Art Deco cinema
This article is the first in a series of posts exploring the lost Art Deco cinemas of Queensland. See also: Earl’s Court Rockhampton and Mackay Civic Theatre From the end of the Depression to the early years of World War Two, cinema building… Read More ›
Hornibrook Highway: bayside Art Deco
Brighton, Brisbane and Clontarf, Redcliffe Peninsula. This is the full version of an article originally published in the book ‘Brisbane Art Deco: Stories of our Built Heritage’, reproduced here to mark the 80th anniversary of the opening of the Hornibrook… Read More ›
Miegunyah House Museum: Art Deco fashion collection
It is one thing to read about the Art Deco fashions that graced Queensland streets in the 1920s, but it’s quite another to see the original garments up close. Miegunyah House Museum has brought us this rare chance with its… Read More ›
Art Deco on show: The Brisbane Ekka
Since the inaugural event in 1876, the Brisbane Exhibition (or “Ekka” as it has been affectionately known since 1921) has embraced the dual values of tradition and progress, combining a celebration of the Queensland pastoral story with a curiosity for… Read More ›
Bulolo Flats: made for business girls
9 McLachlan Street, Fortitude Valley T.C. Beirne features prominently in local history, as a business leader who brought the modern department store to Queensland, and as a politician in the senate when the state still had an upper house. One of… Read More ›
Art Deco on the field: 1930s racing fashion
A day at the races was popular entertainment in the Art Deco period, part of the spectacle of seeing and being seen that was a hallmark of modernity. Then as now, women’s fashion was central to this spectacle. Each of… Read More ›