Sparkling morning after rain

Melaleuca along a Southbank `creek'


The creek on Southbank

We have had several afternoons and nights of torrential thunderstorms. But the morning dawned bright and clear. The Brisbane River is in flood, that is, the water is moving extremely fast downstream and I expect that even the flood tide will have difficulty pushing up river today.

We rowed this morning and finally rowed as an eight. An interesting proposition: the boat rocks and sometimes it's extremely hard to keep your oar clear of the water despite being feathered as you go up to the catch. And when you don't get your oar in square when you push with your legs to pull on the oar, you shoot to the back of your seat long before the rower in front of you who is actually pulling against the water, while you are not. But I managed to be in time most of the time and to pull well on perhaps 2 out of 3 strokes.

The mornings when I row I miss breakfast at the college, and so I breakfast at Poppy's in Little Stanley Street and walk to QUT via Southbank and the Goodwill bridge. Everything was sparkling. Hence the photos.

Coming home, the river had rafts and rafts of vegetation floating down it and they were cancelling the ferries after dark.

Along the river

Mangroves at the QUT ferry pontoon


Southbank. Bougainvillea, weeping figs & palm trees


State Library from the river


Gallery of Modern Art from the river


Poincianas on the building site. (Gallery of Modern Art behind.)


Cranes



Two days earlier. Same site. Pile-driver (yellow) and two cranes.

They tell me Joh was responsible for the Cultural Centre and Southbank. I must think more kindly of him. It is a beautiful place and all Brisbane seems to flock there to barbecue, to picnic, to eat, to swim, to do cultural things and to just enjoy themselves. The people pour off the ferry at the Southbank stop and on again and it doesn't matter what hour of the day or night it is.

The ferry has to slow to a crawl between Regatta and North Quay so as not to disturb the building works on the river. I heard the yellow pile-driver first and then saw it. Amazing that they have built this way since at least the Bronze Age.
See
www.tv.com/time-team/vauxhall-london/episode/450351/summa...

The bridge being built is the Tank Street Bridge
Wikipedia
For the design see
Department of Public Works
I hope it doesn't clutter up the river..

Homeless

Backhousia myrtifolia, at LonePine sanctuary


Gums at UQ Ferry Wharf, on a foggy morning


UQ Ferry Wharf


Ferry Map

Weekends are purgatory. I am without a home.
The river is always beautiful but it is not enough.

Sunset on the Brisbane River IMG_1285

Sunset on the Brisbane River IMG_1285
Originally uploaded by MargaretsFamily

A long time since I posted. I managed to leave my camera in Sydney.

So what's been happening? Well, I've been sorting out (or more to the point, not sorting out) what my PhD's about. I got quite excited, but my supervisor in WA is not enthused, and want's me to do what I think is pretty much a load of shit.. We shall see.

And in the meantime, just before semester one ended, a mob of evangelist students from Missouri took the ferry. And sought to evade paying the fare. I watched them from the time they got on at North Quay and listened to their conversation. "Do you think we don't have to pay, since we haven't got a seat?". (No attempt to find out) I motioned to one lad and told him that you paid your fare by going inside. He ignored me.

I was getting madder and madder. Tourists rich enough to cross half the earth, but not prepared to pay their way when they got there. Eventually, after Guyatt Park, one of the students asked me to take their photo. I said yes, if they paid their fare. They then came up with some very specious excuses: "we're poor students", "we were going to pay when we got off" (Was the ferry going to wait while they finally found out where to pay, and all 10 of them paid?)

I remain outraged. To come to another country and claim that they didn't know they needed to pay. They didn't know because they didn't want to find out.

They were no ornament to their country, their church or their creed.

Heading off for WA

In the Qantas lounge at Brisbane Airport, heading off for WA, to present what we propose to solve their problem.

Not really properly organised, my slides need to be redone tomorrow. Today was spent at a PG orientation course, which was very much the Curate's egg. And I oscillate as usual between negativity and positivity.

I think I need to relax. This is a start, not a conclusion and as a start it is entirely dubious and certainly not the answer.


This looks to me like a lighthouse. West End, Brisbane

And, I would very much like to know the story about this.

The Brisbane Customs House

The Customs House, Brisbane.


The Customs House, Brisbane. Eagle Street and Queen Street corner.


From the river.

The Dome is above the left front only, and the curved circular section is also only on the left (looking from Queen Street).

Looking from the river, the wall hides the bottom floor (warehouse), but right at the river level there is a derelict section, with barred and broken windows, which served as the latrines (so said the girl at the desk). (The latrine was not captured in this photo.)

The coats of arms are pre-federation "Australian" coats of arms. They feature the kangaroo and the emu and the words beneath are "Advance Australia" "1899". One of the 5 pre-federation customs houses in Queensland.(Clearly illustrating the importance of trade/free trade/customs: one of the very few issues dealt with explicitly by our wonderful constitution.)

(Currently owned by the University of Queensland, who use it as a function centre and restaurant. And a very FAQ restaurant it is, sadly.)

This link gives some excellent detail about its history.

Tying up the ferry

Mangroves from the pontoon. QUT, Gardens Point ferry stop

When you catch the ferry, even if you haven't noticed which way the river is flowing, you can always tell by the choice of the end from which to disembark. They only use one rope to tie up to the pontoon(not two as for the Sydney ferries) and arrange it so that the water's flow puts a strain on the rope.

Even with all the rain, the river flows quite strongly upstream when the tide is coming in. You can see the water eddying around the piles.

South Bank, Bridges and more

The Story Bridge, from the citycat.


Rainforest at South Bank.


Rainforest at South Bank.


Streets Beach, South Bank


Yayoi Kusama, Narcissus Garden 1966/2002. Queensland Art Gallery.

Caught the ferry all the way from UQ to Appollo Road. Thought the story would be about the river. And I suppose it is.

For a Melbournian, the striking thing about the bridges across the Brisbane River is that they are all so new. Before I rushed into print about this, I had thought that the oldest bridge across the river was the Story Bridge(opened 1940), and said to be designed by Bradfield (but not really). A lovely bridge. (More elegant than the Sydney Harbour Bridge.) Anyway, from the furthest bridge downstream (The Gateway, 1986) to the last (almost, the Eleanor Schonell, 2006) on the ferry route, the bridges are: the Story (1940), the Goodwill (2001, pedestrians & cyclists only), the Victoria, third of that name (1969), the William Jolly (1932) and the Merivale Rail Bridge (1978). Not a single 19th century bridge. (There are 5 more bridges which I have yet to see.) See Bridges over the Brisbane River in Wikipedia

I needed a coffee and a break, so I got off at South Bank, to go to the Andy Warhol exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art. On my way, though, I just had to take photographs of the rainforest and of the beach. It was a hot Sunday, and the beach was well patronised. There it is: a beach in the heart of Brisbane, complete with sand, surf livesavers, lifesaver tower, surf rescue board and everyone from tiny tots, teenagers, mums and dads and grandparents all enjoying themselves. Brilliant conception and superb in its realisation. (And what about the rainforest?)

Onward to Andy Warhol. But what caught my eye was in the Queensland Art Gallery: this lovely garden of polished steel balls moving gently in a current.

The last photo I have included is for my daughter.


Chris Mackinolty, 1976. Queensland Art Gallery.