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.

En route

Kigelia pinnata
Walking to the ferry through the UQ campus


Walking to my building on the QUT campus


Leaving QUT via the Goodwill bridge. Low tide in the mangroves


Through South Bank past an artificial creek to catch the 109 bus back to UQ

Going to work, and coming home.

At College

Early morning view across one of the lakes at the University of Queensland


Giant pandanus along the path by the lakes

Finally, the move has been made. I am now in Brisbane.

The colleges are on the western perimeter of the lakes, which are just a part of a more extensive parkland which surrounds the south-west of the university as it bords the river. In the morning I walk amongst immense tropical trees to the ferry, with birds foraging: ibis, geese, moorhens, coots, corellas, a brush turkey and a willy-wagtail. In the evening they are settling down, with much noise, to roost. And as I take my swim in the pool under the darkening sky, the sound of screaming birds from the trees above the pool is remarkably soothing, and not unlike the evening shrill of cicadas on a Sydney summer evening.

So, however stressed I am by making this move, I have a wonderfully calming start and finish to each day. All I have to do is hang in.