Art in the CBD Walk, Brisbane - October 2016

The old and the new, Brisbane.

On our way home from Papua New Guinea earlier this year the ship docked in Brisbane for the day, giving me the chance to go for a bit of a stroll while Sam partook in a little retail therapy. I'd arranged to meet up with my friend Ms Extreme so while we waited for her to turn up Sam and I enjoyed a coffee in the mall, after being in developing countries for the last three weeks it was quite a culture shock for us to sit in the mall and watch Brisbane come alive for another day. The organised chaos that envelops you in some of these developing countries that we had been visiting takes up a fair bit of energy, so its was nice to sit back in a more familiar setting like Brisbane and chill out a bit.

When Ms Extreme arrived we set off on our stroll around the public art installations in the Brisbane CBD. Well we set off once I could work out where I was on my map, yeah I might be fine off track out in the bush but put me in a city and I'm not so good. After turning the map around 360 degrees a few times we eventually worked out where we were, kind of... wandering along Albert Street for a couple of blocks we spied a contorted sculpture on the other side of the road, figuring that this had to be on our walk we crossed over and checked out a work called Pride. This sculpture by Grant Lehmann stands around 3.4 metre tall and is comprised of 598 panels held together by 2562 rivets, you like all that information?... well I hope so because I've got bugger all idea what the sculpture actually represents or means!... but hey it looks nice.

Pride

Moreton Courier

We were on a roll now after finding our first installation, heading south along Charlotte Street we got to what looked like a large Olympic Torch which is actually a piece called the Moreton Courier. The sculpture is a monument to the local newspaper the Moreton Bay Courier which was launched back in 1846, the sculpture features small snippets of stories that the paper has carried over the years which makes for interesting reading. We were heading up onto George Street though, first to Queens Gardens and then to Brisbane Square. Apart from the nice public art the other thing that is interesting in the Brisbane CBD is the juxtaposition of the old and the new, the old blond sandstone buildings next to the steel and glass modern building under the southern Queensland cobalt blue skies, along with the great company what was not to like about today. The highlight of Brisbane Square though was an installation called Steam by Donna Marcus, a selection of large silver balls scattered around the square.

Steam

Me and my balls.

Continuing our journey westwards on George Street Ms Extreme and I next came upon a mob of roos, well maybe that might be embellishing it a little. The roos are actually an installation by Christopher Trotter, made out of scrap metal the roos appear to be relaxing on the side walk. I was lucky enough to get a photo of an unsuspecting local bloke sharing his bench seat with one of the docile roos, little did he probably realise that he'd end up in a feral blog. Negotiating the mob of roos we wandered along a little further, turning north onto Adelaide Street our next piece of public art was a small bronze inlay in the pavement by Elizabeth Shaw which looks like a child holding an adults hand.

City Roos

I'm thinking this bloke didn't realise that he was going to turn up on a dodgy blog.

Meandering our way north along Adelaide Street chatting away we checked out King George Square and then Anzac Square, the later in particular being a very interesting spot. As you would imagine by the name, Anzac Square features a lot of memorials to our war history stretching back over numerous campaigns to the 1800's. To be honest for the rest of the walk we just walked along chatting, my notes were only loosely followed, we did make it up to the top of Eagle Street which runs along the Brisbane River so I was able to get a photo of the Story Bridge in the distance. Heading down Eagle Street we zig zagged our way back towards the Queens Street mall, where once again I said my goodbyes to the intrepid Ms Extreme, well until our next walk anyway. After a relaxing late lunch with my outlaws Sam and I headed back to the mothership, relieved to see that the buffet hadn't run out of food yet, as we only had two days left on the ship to carbo-load. 

King George Square.

Anzac Square is a nice place to escape the hustle and bustle of the city for awhile.

The Dirt.

Ms Extreme and I walked a calf shredding 3 kilometres on this easy stroll, I've got no idea on the metres climbed except to say that it was a meagre amount. If you ever find yourself in Brisbane with a few hours up your sleeve then this is a walk worth considering, it's walk number 8 in the Woodslane book Brisbane's Best Bush, Bay & City Walks by Dianne McLay. Actually we really only vaguely followed the notes, doing the walk in reverse and with me struggling to work out exactly where I was half the time. Just a bit of a foot note, if anyone finds this post is a bit flat then I'll explain a little in my next post.

The Brisbane River with its Story Bridge.

Sailing out of Brisbane along the Brisbane River in the late afternoon, it might be slower than flying but its also a lot more enjoyable.

Gateway Bridge.