25 Years Ago Brisbane Hosted the World Expo '88

It's the 25th Anniversary of an event that changed the city of Brisbane forever. What used to be a quiet country town evolved into an international city, capable of staging world events just like any other major city. The event which brought dignitaries from around the world to this city was of course WORLD EXPO '88.

To honour the 25th Anniversary of that event, the newly renovated City Hall is displaying an exhibition of the event in its gallery.

We met up with long time friends Norm and Joan from Esk for a lunch in town and visited the exhibition in the city hall.

The City Brisbane Hall

There are lots of familiar images on display reminding us of a fun six months when we were much younger. A lot of visitors to this event weren't  even born at that time.

Mascot Expo Oz

Uniform of the Expo marching Band

Both our daughters, Carol and Sonya were members of the J.P.C. Marching Band which performed regularly in the daily parade or in the performing area, the Piazza.

Daughter Sonya on trumpet (right)

Daughter Carol-Ann on trumpet

Street Performers

Diane and Joan at the entrance to the Exhibition

A little more about Expo '88

World Expo 88, also known as Expo '88, was a World's Fair held in Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland,Australia, during a six-month period between Saturday, 30 April 1988 and Sunday, 30 October 1988. The theme of the Expo was "Leisure in the Age of Technology", and the mascot for the Expo was an Australian platypus named Expo Oz.[1]

Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, and Prince Phillip, the Duke of Edinburgh, came out to open Expo '88.

The A$625 million fair was the largest event of the 1988 Bicentennial celebrations of the European settlement of Australia.^[2] Expo 88 attracted more than 15,760,000 visitors who bought tickets worth A$175 million.^[3] The event achieved both its economic aims and very good attendances, was successfully used to promote Queensland as a tourist destination and it spurred a major re-development at the South Brisbane site.^[4] The core feature of the site were the international pavilions.^[3] Many of the exposition's sculptures and buildings were retained by various entities around the state and are still in use or on display decades later.

A Cliff Hanger At Kangaroo Point Park

At Kangaroo Point here in Brisbane, there used to be a TAFE college catering from memory for hair dressers. With the dumbing-down of the state, which we currently experience, the college has been pulled down and a park has been created. Surprisingly, the Brisbane City Council did a great job. So, today, we visited the place.

Magnificent view over Brisbane city

The council had commissioned International artist Wolfgang Buttress to design this interesting piece of art called Venus Rising - Out of the Water and into the Light. The sculpture is 23m high and constructed from stainless steel and copper tubing.

Venus Rising - Out of the Water and Into the Light

 You can actually walk inside and look up into the heavens. I must admit, I love it.

Looking up through the Space Needle

For more information on this sculpture -  CLICK HERE

There are other interesting features at the Cliffs

A construction which might be for children to climb on 

A construction which might eventually turn into an arbour way

 There is also a coffee shop with fabulous views over the city where we had morning tea. It's a great place to take interstate and overseas visitors to see the city of Brisbane.

A quick Trip to Tamworth

During our recent trip tp the Hunter Valley, I used the in-car camera to film the road ahead. I've now speeded up the footage from Ipswich to Tamworth, to show the trip in 8 minutes.

The distance is 573 km (356 miles) and takes usually 7 hours.

Photographic Art

Photography can be used as canvas for art. It's raining today and we're cooped up in our unit at Cessnock in the Hunter Valley, So I searched through my photos from the trip and had a go at photo painting.

The Barn

Standing Stones

Equestrian Centre

Chad and Friend

Parting Friends

After Lunch

A Bit More From Tamworth

We're leaving tomorrow morning, but we had a great day looking around Tamworth today. After a rainy night, we awoke to a glorious sunny day. Graham and Diana took us to all the popular places starting with our own Motel.

I mentioned before, that Tamworth is the Australian Country Music capitol of Australia which was evident in the pool here at the Sundance Park Motel's guitar shaped swimming pool.

The Swimming Pool at the Sundance Park Motel

Then they took us to the relatively new equestrian centre for a look around.

The new Equestrian Centre in Tamworth

From here, the group travelled to the famous Golden Guitar, the music centre here in town.

At the Golden Guitar at Tamworth

Then we drove up to the local lookout to enjoy the view over the town.

Overlooking Tamworth

Then a walk through the Botanic Garden.

A miniature waterfall in the Botanic Garden

We finished up with a stroll through the local shopping centres before returning back to the motel.

Tonight, we had our farewell dinner with plans to meet again this time next year, in Brisbane. It was a fabulous reunion with a good bunch of friends. Well done, Graham and Diane for organising it, You excelled yourselves.

So, tomorrow morning, we heading south

Glen Innes - Tamworth

We stayed overnight in Glen Innes last night. Glen Innes is a parish and town on the Northern Tablelands, in the New England region of New South Wales, Australia. It is the centre of the Glenn Innes Severn Shire Council.

The Australian Standing Stones in Glen Innes pays tribute to the Celtic heritage of the early European settlers to the district. The site serves as a cultural gathering place for people from the Celtic communities; the Irish, Welsh, Cornish.

The Glen Innes District is renowned for its unique rock formations, one of the most unusual is Balancing Rock, 12 kilometres south of Glenn Innes on the New England Highway. The gigantic boulder of granite rests precariously on a 300 millimetre point.

The New England Highway, which starts in Toowoomba, Queensland runs all the way to Newcastle in New South Wales. We joined it a little before Warwick and will stay on it into the Hunter Valley near Newcastle.

There are some interesting sights on the way

Thunderbolt's Rock is a time-worn cluster of granite boulders located six kilometres south of Uralla on the New England Highway.

Originally known as Split Rock, the boulders afforded 'gentleman bushranger' Frederick Wordsworth Ward, better known as Captain Thunderbolt, the perfect vantage point for monitoring the approach of unwary mail coaches. He first visited the site in 1863 when, after a daring escape from Sydney's notorious Cockatoo Island prison, he and fellow escapee, Fred Britten, used the rock as a hideout. They were surprised by passing troopers while lying in wait at the rock to bail up an approaching mailman. Thunderbolt was shot in the knee during the fiery exchange of gunshots that ensued.

A dilapidated Barn on the way

The odd windmill used to power bore water pumps.

Then we were on the way to Tamworth where we've caught up with our New Guinea friends. Tonight we had dinner at the Wests Rugby Leagues Club.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Cheers,

On the Road Again

We're off again on a road trip tomorrow morning. We're on the way to the Hunter Valley to meet up with daughter Carol and S-I-L David. But first we'll stop in Tamworth for a reunion of the Blogger's Judo Club back in Papua New Gunea. We get together annually with them somehere on the way, or in New England.

Tamworth is a nice country town in the middle of New South Wales and is the place where the annual Tamworth Country Music Festival is held. Tamworth is also known internationally as the 'First City of Lights', being the first place in Australia to use electric street lights in 1888.

One of the main features is the beautiful Post Office Building.

More posts when we get there.

Cheers.