We take a look back at a lost but not forgotten Brisbane landmark — The Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Fountain — however the installation of a fountain in the Brisbane River in front of the Queensland Art Gallery was not part of the original plans for the Queensland Cultural Centre.
When the Queensland Government became aware that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was to visit the state in 1977 as part of her Jubilee celebrations, the Government was keen to have her visit the Cultural Centre site even though only preliminary site works would have been completed.
Queensland Cultural Centre model
It was believed that the Queen would be reluctant to just lay a foundation stone at the site of the future art gallery, so Cultural Centre architect Robin Gibson proposed a large fountain in the river in time for the Queen’s visit. Queen Elizabeth II activated the Jubilee Fountain on 11 March 1977 and laid the Foundation Stone before a crowd of official guests and the public, surrounded by a flotilla of pleasure craft.
The Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Fountain celebrations
Silver Jubilee Fountain
The Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Fountain was designed as a tetrahedron, a pyramid of three triangles of equal dimensions, that sat above the water line with 30 large hidden pipes that shot water high into the air, and at night it lit up the city skyline with more than 90 lights.
The Jubilee Fountain became a Brisbane landmark and marked the position of the future permanent home of the Queensland Art Gallery until its opening some five years later. The relationship of the Brisbane River to the Gallery was reinforced with water elements within its interior, providing both a physical connection and serving as a parallel reflection of the river. When the Gallery opened at South Bank on 21 June 1982, the most prominent and striking feature of the interior was its central Watermall, a perfect companion to the exterior river fountain.
The Watermall also extended beyond the Gallery’s interior from five cast bronze Pelicans by Queensland sculptors Leonard and Kathleen Shillam from the eastern-side to the Dandelion Fountains created by innovative fountain designer Robert Woodward (known for his fountain at Kings Cross in Sydney) through to the Gallery’s Sculpture Courtyard pond and waterfall to the west.
The Fountain malfunctioned constantly, the pumps having to not only contend with the river’s tidal estuary and brackish water, but the sand and mud silt flowing through the river. Unfortunately Brisbane’s unique landmark in front of the Queensland Art Gallery was only enjoyed for another three years after the Gallery’s opening before it was decommissioned in 1985.
QAGOMA Research Library
The QAGOMA Research Library is located on Level 3 of the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA). Open to the public Tuesday to Friday 10.00am to 5.00pm. visit us in person or explore the online catalogue. Access to special collections is available by appointment.
Additional research and supplementary material by Elliott Murray, Senior Digital Marketing Officer, QAGOMA, sourced from the QAGOMA Research Library Special Collections.
Featured image: Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II during the Silver Jubilee visit which marked the completion of the preliminary development of the site, 11 March 1977 / Image courtesy: Sunday Mail, Brisbane #QAGOMA
It’s National Wattle Day on the first day of September, and we’ve been celebrating the Wattle for different reasons for over a century. QAGOMA has a sculpture in its Collection by artist Daphne Mayo that has a special connection to the Queensland Wattle League dating back to 1914.
Daphne Mayo (1895–1982) is one of Queensland’s most significant twentieth century artists. Mayo was an outstanding sculptor and creator of some of Brisbane’s grandest monuments, notably the Brisbane City Hall tympanum (opened 8 April 1930) (illustrated) and the Queensland Women’s War Memorial at Anzac Square (unveiled 24 March 1932) (illustrated), as well as a passionate advocate for the arts, including the establishment of the Queensland Art Fund, the John Darnell Bequest, and the Godfrey Rivers Trust, which transformed the Queensland Art Gallery Collection through the purchase of works.
Daphne Mayo working on the Brisbane City Hall tympanum, 1930
Daphne Mayo working on the Queensland Women’s War Memorial, 1932
Educated in Brisbane, Mayo received a Diploma in Art Craftsmanship from the Brisbane Central Technical College in 1913, and during her time at the College, Mayo was taught by Godfrey Rivers, however she was also influenced by LJ Harvey who initiated her interest in modelling.
At College Mayo created a copy of the masterpiece of Greek sculpture from the Hellenistic era — Winged Victory of Samothrace — (illustrated) which was awarded the Wattle Day Travelling Art Fellowship in 1914, provided by the Queensland Wattle League.
The Wattle Day League formed in 1909 and sold sprigs of wattle to raise funds for charitable causes, such as art training in Europe. After the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 the League shifted its efforts to the home front and focussed on raising funds for the troops overseas and commemorating the war.
Daphne Mayo with her sculpture ‘Winged Victory of Samothrace’, 1914
Daphne Mayo participating in Wattle Day celebrations, 1914
Raising funds on Wattle Day, 1914
‘Wattle Day’ badges
Mayo can be seen at Brisbane’s old Town Hall (illustrated) on Brisbane’s second Wattle Day in July 1914. Mayo is dressed as a wattle maid in the centre foreground. The Mayoress of Brisbane and the Central Committee of the Queensland Wattle Day League accompany her.
Mayo further developed her skills with this opportunity to go to London in 1919 — her departure from Brisbane delayed by the First World War — where she was accepted into the Royal Academy of Arts Sculpture School. Before she left, the Queenslander profiled her award and work ‘Miss Mayo is the first art student to be despatched by the Brisbane Wattle Day League under its scholarship scheme to study abroad. She has chosen sculpture as her specialty’ (illustrated).
Daphne Mayo’s ‘Queenslander’ profile, 1919
Daphne Mayo, 1919
Mayo modelled Sketch (of a boy) (illustrated) soon after entering the Royal Academy in December 1920. In her words, it symbolises ‘the awakening from childhood into youth’ and was ‘only a month’s study at 1 3/4 hours a night, so it is not carried nearly as far as it could be’, hence its title Sketch. Under the terms of her travelling scholarship awarded by the Queensland Wattle Day League, the figure was forwarded to the League which, in turn, presented it to the Queensland Art Gallery in 1923. Mayo would return to Brisbane in June 1925.
Edited curatorial extracts, research and supplementary material sourced and compiled by Elliott Murray, Senior Digital Marketing Officer, QAGOMA
There is little furniture from the Arts and Crafts period in Queensland that can match the fluid carving of the art nouveau foliate motifs in this hallstand from the 1920s, the scale and workmanship bears the mark of two of Queensland’s finest craftsmen — John Merten and Lewis Jarvis (LJ) Harvey.
John Merten (1861-1932) was born in Germany and records show that he was one of the most talented apprentices of his year. Merten arrived in Brisbane with his family in 1887 and commenced business as a cabinetmaker in Stanley Street, South Brisbane, and by 1888 was awarded a First Order of Merit for a walnut box and a black bean and pine writing desk at his first exhibition.
The most consistent exhibition venue for cabinetmakers in Brisbane from the late nineteenth century was the annual exhibition of the Queensland National Agricultural and Industrial Association and when Merten exhibited in the ‘artisan’ section his furniture was always highly praised. Between 1888 and 1931 Merten exhibited workboxes, bookcases, sideboards, writing desks, and several suites of dining and bedroom furniture.
National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland
Bowen Park (now known as the Brisbane Showgrounds) was the site for the first Queensland Intercolonial Exhibition in 1876, the exhibition was organised to promote the state’s agricultural, pastoral, and industrial resources, including showcasing local arts and crafts, and manufactured goods. The park was bordered by Bowen Bridge Road, O’Connell Terrace, Brookes Street and Gregory Terrace and the month of August was chosen as ideal due to its generally fine weather, it avoided any clashes with local shows, stock feed was available, and it was before the spring shearing season.
Queensland resources and produce on display
With the success in attracting 17,000 visitors on opening day when Brisbane’s population at the time was just 22,000, the exhibition became a permanent fixture in Brisbane’s social calendar. Brisbane’s first Exhibition Building at Bowen Hills (illustrated) used by the Queensland National Agricultural and Industrial Association was destroyed by fire on 13 June 1888 and was replaced by the current Exhibition Building and Concert Hall (Old Museum Building) (illustrated). The current building was built in 1891, however the Queensland Government took control of the building and grounds when the National Association was forced into liquidation by the economic depression in 1897.
Fine Arts on display in the original Exhibition Building, 1886-87
Exhibition Building (Old Museum Building), built 1891
Main arena, 1896
The expanded main arena & ring events by 1906
John Merten’s connection to St John’s Cathedral
During the visit to Brisbane in May 1901 by the Duke and Duchess of York, the then Prince George, and Mary (the future King George V and Queen Mary) where they laid the foundation stone of St John’s Cathedral (illustrated), Merten was entrusted with making a carved casket (illustrated) from native woods including Black bean, with a drop front, into which is slotted a watercolour illuminated manuscript address which was presented by the Government of Queensland (now in the Royal Collection Trust, UK).
Merten was also commissioned to design liturgical furniture for the Victorian Gothic style Cathedral. The first stage of construction began in 1906 and took four years to complete, constructed from ‘Brisbane Tuff’ and Helidon sandstone from the Lockyer Valley Region of southeast Queensland, east of Toowoomba. Helidon sandstone was used extensively in public buildings at the time, including the Brisbane Treasury Building (construction started 1886), Brisbane City Hall (construction started 1920), and the University of Queensland (construction started 1938).
Laying of the foundation stone, 1901
Construction of St John’s Cathedral,1906
John Merten ‘Address casket’, 1901
Prince George at Government House, 1901
John Merten & LJ Harvey ‘Hallstand’ 1920
Of particular interest here is Merten’s collaboration with Queensland’s principal Arts and Crafts practitioner, Lewis Jarvis (LJ) Harvey (1871-1949) as, at that time, carving and cabinetmaking were distinct trades. Harvey, an accomplished carver, lived on Gray Road, Hill End (now Brisbane’s West End), less than 100 metres from Merten, who resided in Hoogley Street. Harvey collaborated with Merten on two major sideboards: a neo-Renaissance style for Harvey’s wife in 1909; the other in art nouveau c.1925 (Collection: Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences, Sydney) (illustrated). It is known that Harvey also carved motifs on other examples of Merten’s cabinetwork.
‘Queenslander’ furniture
The furniture that decorated the typical ‘Queenslander’ home in Brisbane during the first half of the twentieth century was essentially a simplified Arts and Crafts style. The preferred timber was silky oak and, although Black bean (Moreton Bay chestnut) is native to the Brisbane area, it was used from the 1890s in small quantities.
From the nineteenth century the native forests of south east Queensland provided a resource for building and cabinet timber. The silky oak’s primary significance locally was as a cabinet timber — it achieved recognition at the Queensland National Agricultural and Industrial Association exhibition in 1901 when manufacturer, John Hicks and cabinet-maker, John Merten were awarded First Orders of Merit for bedroom suites. John Hicks established his furniture business in the 1860s in Albert Street, Brisbane and led to a series of relocations and expansions over the decades that followed. For the next forty years silky-oak became the dominant timber used to furnish ‘Queenslander’ homes for the bedroom, lounge and dining rooms.
Black bean was also considered a valuable source of timber, its dark-brown to almost black timber somewhat resembles walnut. Black bean derives its name from its large bean-like seeds from flushes of yellow and red flowers during summer, however these seeds are the poisonous part of the plant, and the timber’s sawdust is also toxic.
John Merten, who had the reputation of being one of the finest cabinet makers in Australia, continued to make furniture for some 50 years, while LJ Harvey is appreciated locally for his woodcarving — he was a prominent figure within Queensland’s Arts and Crafts Movement in the first half of the 20th century — he also inspired the largest school of art pottery in Australia during the 1920s and 30s.
Edited curatorial extracts, research and supplementary material compiled by Elliott Murray, Senior Digital Marketing Officer, from Glenn R Cooke, former Curator (Queensland Heritage), QAGOMA.
Margaret Olley moved to Brisbane when she was 12 and was a boarder at Somerville House school for girls in South Brisbane from 1937 to 1940 where they were quick to recognise Olley’s talents and recommended to her mother that she attend art school. Her friend and fellow artist Margaret Cilento also began formal art studies at the same school.
Olley’s journey to becoming an artist began at the Brisbane Central Technical College in 1941 (now Queensland University of Technology). She moved to Sydney in 1943 to enrol in a diploma of art at East Sydney Technical College (later the National Art School), graduating with first-class honours in 1947. In Sydney Olley connected with many Australian art luminaries — such as Russell and Bon Drysdale, Donald Friend and Justin O’Brien — and experimented with a wide range of subject matter for her works, including landscapes, figures and still lifes.
Frequent trips back home to Brisbane also served as inspiration, and she captured many of the city’s buildings in paint. Olley’s well-received first solo exhibition was opened on 30 June 1948 by Russell Drysdale at the Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, and four months later she held another successful exhibition at Moreton Galleries, Brisbane. Olley’s growing popularity made her an attractive subject for artists, and William Dobell’s portrait of Olley won the Archibald Prize in 1948 (illustrated).
William Dobell ‘Margaret Olley’
Olley set sail for Europe with friend Mitty Lee-Brown in January 1949. Fellow artist Anne Wienholt had generously provided funds for Olley to travel abroad and study at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris. Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris 1950 (illustrated) resulted from her in time in the French capital, as the academy was situated close to the Luxembourg Gardens. Olley honed her drawing skills by producing a considerable volume of richly detailed pen, ink and wash sketches of buildings observed on her extensive travels.
Margaret Olley ‘Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris’
Margaret Olley returns to Brisbane
In 1953 Olley returned from travelling abroad to her family home in Morry Street, Hill End (now West End) after the sudden death of her father. In the first few years after her return, Olley travelled to Sydney from time to time to meet new artists and renew friendships with Donald Friend, David Strachan and Sidney, Cynthia and Jinx Nolan, and these friends visited her in Brisbane. In Brisbane a lively art circle surrounded Brian and Marjorie Johnstone’s Gallery, where Olley met artists Ray Crooke, Jon Molvig and Charles and Barbara Blackman. A supportive environment for Olley and many other progressive artists of the time was similarly encouraged by the appointment of Robert Haines as Director of the then named Queensland National Art Gallery, and by art historian Dr Gertrude Langer’s writing as art critic for the city’s Courier-Mail newspaper.
Margaret Olley at the Johnstone Gallery
Back at the family home in ‘Farndon’, Brisbane no longer seemed quite as stifling. Towards the end of the 1950s Olley opened an antique shop at Stones Corner, an inner southern suburb of the city, and on the way to and home had to change trams. Olley reminisced…
I had to change trams at South Brisbane, which was very run-down in those days, full of depressed-looking hotels, real bloodhouses.
Trams at South Brisbane
South Brisbane 1966 and Victoria Bridge II 1966 (both illustrated) are the subjects of some of her ink and watercolour studies of the area. Not long after, the area would dramatically change.
The Victoria Bridge illustrated in Olley’s studies was replaced in 1969 with the current sleek design, the third permanent crossing erected at this location, a portion of the southern pedestrian arch that Olley references remains.
Victoria Bridge II is drawn from where the Queensland Art Gallery Melbourne Street Plaza is now situated, and the buildings pictured on the left of Melbourne Street in South Brisbane were demolished toward the end of 1966 to make way for the new and third Victoria Bridge, and those on the right from 1978 for the construction of the Cultural Centre’s Performing Arts Complex.
One can imagine Olley sketching these landmarks in South Brisbane while in transit, knowing of the impending demolition and bridge construction to come just months later. However, what Olley didn’t know was just some years later, the area would be claimed for the future new premises of the Queensland Art Gallery.
Margaret Olley ‘South Brisbane’
Contemporary photography of South Brisbane
Margaret Olley ‘Victoria Bridge II’
Contemporary photography of Victoria Bridge
The Brisbane of Olley’s youth had changed little in her absence since her return in the early 1950s — the city was still the same large country town on the banks of the meandering Brisbane River. The refuge of ‘Farndon’ would play a pivotal role in Olley’s life, tying her to Brisbane for many years, however the city she knew was changing.
The Supreme Court building she recorded in George Street, North Quay in 1966 (illustrated), opposite the current Queensland Art Gallery at South Bank, and once proposed as the future site of the Gallery in 1948, was destroyed by arson in 1968, the remains of the building demolished in 1976 for a new Law Courts Complex.
Margaret Olley ‘Law Courts, Brisbane’
Supreme Court building
View to South Brisbane from the Supreme Court building
Olley left Brisbane two years before the Queensland Art Gallery opened in 1982. Her family home ‘Farndon’ was destroyed by fire in 1980, and Olley moved back to Sydney permanently having already purchased a terrace house in Duxford St, Paddington in 1964 to stay when visiting and an adjacent former hat factory which she renovated to use as a studio. 1982 saw the passing of Olley’s mother Grace, finally breaking the ties to Brisbane.
Margaret Olley at ‘Farndon’
Edited curatorial extracts, research and supplementary material compiled by Elliott Murray, Senior Digital Marketing Officer based on Michael Hawker’s QAGOMA publication Margaret Olley: A Generous Life.
The ‘Glengallan’ sideboard 1868 is one of Queensland’s most significant examples of heritage furniture. While the backboard depicts the national symbols of an emu and a kangaroo, the inclusion of the lorikeet and pineapple give it a more local flavour.
The carving is attributed to Matthew Fern, who was appointed the first instructor of wood carving at Brisbane Technical College in 1895. An 1868 press report from The Brisbane Courier records the first showing of the sideboard:
It is satisfactory to know that our beautiful indigenous timbers are coming into favour for cabinet work. We had the pleasure yesterday of inspecting [at] Mr. Ebenston’s … a drawing and dining-room suite of furniture, of Queensland woods and Brisbane manufacture and made to order for Mr. John Deschar [sic], Glengallan station, Darling Downs …
Glengallan sideboard
Glengallan Run
Glengallan is located in the Southern Downs Region, near Warwick, Queensland. The valley was named by explorer Allan Cunningham (1791-1839) in 1827 in honour of the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Ralph Darling (1775-1858), the name Darling Downs used to identify the surrounding region.
In 1839 Patrick Leslie (1815-1881) was the first pioneer to establish a European presence on the Darling Downs setting out from Sydney in search of new land to settle, the first wave of pastoral activity in Queensland. Leslie followed Cunningham’s trail to the Darling Downs and decided on an area of land for his first station. Hi brother Walter followed with the flocks, and in 1840 the Leslie brothers (Patrick, Walter and George) became the first settlers on the Darling Downs.
The Leslies originally selected a parcel of land which became Toolburra, South Toolburra, Glengallan, Gladfield, Maryvale, Warwick and Canning Downs, and had taken up a far greater area than which they were entitled under a New South Wales licence. The area known as Glengallan was a pastoral run they sold off in 1841-42.
In late 1851 the Sydney-based painter Conrad Martens (1801–78) arrived in Brisbane from Sydney via sea, and for the next few months travelled on horseback across the Great Dividing Range to the Darling Downs, moving south through New England to Sydney. En route he stayed with squatters and pastoralists, filling his sketchbooks with drawings of their houses and properties, his aim being to obtain commissions for watercolours that he would complete upon his return to Sydney. These drawings are some of the few illustrations of Queensland during this time, and his sketches of Glengallan show the station as two timber buildings surrounded by verandahs and situated close together.
The bark hut on the plain, Darling Downs, Qld., Mount Sturt from Glengallan
By 1855 John Deuchar (1820-1872) went into partnership with Charles Henry Marshall (1818-1874) on Glengallan Run and during their partnership established the famous Glengallan Merino flock and Shorthorn stud. By 1864 the Glengallan Station complex expanded to two houses, stables and a kitchen, and by 1867 Glengallan Run occupied 66% of the total run area available in the Downs.
Glengallan Homestead was built between 1867-68 with a gala opening party held on 16 September 1868. The ‘Glengallan’ sideboard is part of a suite of furniture for the ground floor drawing and dining rooms, made in local materials by a local cabinet maker Ebenstons, who had premises in Brisbane.
In 1969, the announcement of the Queensland Art Gallery’s new premises to be built at South Brisbane, bounded by Melbourne and Grey Streets to Stanley Street and the Brisbane River, and ultimately morphing into the Queensland Cultural Centre, would signal the transformation of the area. The project would be the catalyst for other major developments at South Bank.
Acquisition of land for the Cultural Centre occurred in three stages: the Art Gallery site, which would in due course, include the Museum (1969–77); Performing Arts Complex and Library sites (1975–79); and the Russell Street site for future expansion (1978–80).
As we celebrate 40 years at South Bank, we look at the buildings that occupied the South Brisbane site and surroundings before the Queensland Art Gallery opened, unearthing images of the site preparation, the building still under construction, and fit out of the interior spaces.
The Art Gallery was initially to be located along Grey Street, Melbourne Street intersection on the site of the York House Private Hotel where the Museum is today, and between it and the river edge was parkland, the Gallery’s horizontal buildings were to step down as terraces to the river, however when the Cultural Centre precinct was proposed, the Art Gallery’s placement moved closer to Stanley Street and the river allowing the Museum to share the footprint.
Future site and surroundings
A hallmark of the Queensland Art Gallery and Cultural Centre as a whole is an integrated approach to the design of the architecture’s low-profilemonolithic forms, geometric approach to design, and simple, ‘pure’ construction details, all in parallel with the Brisbane River. Specifically the use of a simple palette of materials throughout; a monolithic, white, lightly sandblasted concrete finish and glass, with bronze, stone and timber detailing. The architects settled on a concrete mix that included: white cement from South Australia; fine white sand from Stradbroke Island, the second largest sand island in the world; and fine and coarse aggregates from the Pine River, also in the Moreton Bay Region.
The Queensland Art Gallery was opened by the Premier of Queensland on 21 June 1982, and in the same year, the Gallery won the Sir Zelman Cowan Award for Public Buildings, the Royal Australian Institute of Architects’ highest award for public buildings.
This is an edited extract from the Queensland Cultural Centre Conservation Management Plan (published 2017), prepared by Conrad Gargett in association with Thom Blake, Historian and heritage consultant. Thom Blake researched and wrote the chapters on the history of the Cultural Centre and revised statement of significance. The individual building’s architecture, the site’s setting, landscape and fabric were investigated by Luke Pendergast with principal support by Robert Riddel. Alan Kirkwood and Peter Roy assisted with advice on the design approach and history of the planning and construction of the Cultural Centre.
Additional research and supplementary material by Elliott Murray, Senior Digital Marketing Officer, QAGOMA
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