Geotourism Brisbane in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia | Non-profit organisation

Geotourism Brisbane

Locality: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

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25.01.2022 SB14: The Sebel Brisbane (95 Albert Street), formerly called "Sebel Suites" is a high rise Hotel in the core of Brisbane CBD. The building was constructed in 1999 and saw a major renovation in 2009. Facing stone cladded on the street level wall plinths comprises an imported light brown marble breccia.

24.01.2022 VB02: Boggo Road Goal, No.2 Division (1883, 1903 1960): The first cell blocks on the government goal reserve (1863) were opened in July 1883 and over the years many other buildings came and went on the site. The first buildings were built by Robert Porter, contained 57 cells and were constructed using materials from the demolished Petrie Terrace Jail. In 1903 a prison was built to hold female prisoners. This later became known as the No.2 Division and is now the only building... still standing. The Boggo Road prison was closed in 1992, and since then the buildings house a museum and refurbished by the Department of Public Works and Leighton Properties to their heritage listed standards. In 2011 the museum was opened as part of the Boggo Road Urban Village development. No.1 Division buildings were constructed using recycled material from the Petrie Terrace Jail in 1883. The dominant materials used are brick and mortar. The outside walls of the No.2 Division structure show a crude concrete foundation and one row of Brisbane Tuff blocks set as a plinth. In places the Brisbane tuff has been painted white. The main walls are constructed with multi-coloured kiln-fired bricks and cement. See more

23.01.2022 GL06: Bunya Phyllite with Brisbane Tuff wall at Treasury Casino car park entry (2 Queens Wharf Road). A natural outcrop of Bunya Phyllite has been incorporated in a retaining wall between Queens Wharf Road and William Street.

23.01.2022 OB08: Construction of St Andrews Anglican Church, 160 Vulture Street, South Brisbane was started in 1878, but ceased due to depleted funds. Between 1882 and 1883 the main church building was completed, but the architect Andrea Stombuco originally designed the church including a tower and a spire which have never been built. In 1884 the J.W. Walker & Sons organ was installed. An extension designed by HWK Martin was added in 1887. Lange Powell was in charge of enlarging the nave in 1931. Currently a major restoration work is carried out by W.J. Simon Pierce since 2010.

23.01.2022 DB22: The Wheat Creek culvert was a historic stormwater drain, constructed in 1861 as part of Brisbanes Citys drainage system and was one of the first civil engineering projects of the newly formed Brisbane Municipal Council. The culvert was designed by architect Christopher Porter and built by H C Love. The culvert was originally on the Albert and Adelaide Street intersection, but had to make way for the Inner Northern Busway (INB) which opened in 2008. Parts of the origin...al Wheat Creek culvert (also known as Big Creek culvert) were then rebuilt and added as a wall feature in the lower level of the King George bus station by contractors Dave McDonald and carpenter Shane Mosen. The Wheat Creek culvert was added to the Qld Heritage Register on 24 January 2003. "The culvert is also rare as stone ovoid drains were only constructed in the early 1860s. By 1870s drains were constructed mainly of cheaper brick" The wall display at the King George bus station wall display shows the stone to be multi-coloured Brisbane Tuff (porphyry). See more

22.01.2022 SB42: 200 Mary Street; Martin Wilson Brothers Building (demolished 1980). This former building was constructed as a warehouse for Martin Wilson in early 1900 but saw various tenants in later years. One of those was Geo Wilcox & Co. Hide Skin and bark merchants. I am presenting this site as an example of how some of the good quality building stone was sold and re-used as building material in more modern houses, commonly away from the CBD. In this case the Brisbane Tuff (porphyry) material was used on a private project - The Shellshear House in Browns Plains, which commenced in 1982 and took several years to complete.

21.01.2022 Public Lecture GeoTourism Brisbane May 28th 2015: Where: Auditorium of the Queensland Museum When: 6pm May 28th 2015... This is a public lecture and everyone is welcome to attend.

20.01.2022 Welcome to the self-guided walking tour through the heart of Brisbane featuring the use of building stones from the early days of European settlement to the modern expansion of Australias third largest city.The Brisbane History in Stone and Brick App is free and can be downloaded from the Google App Store and Apple App Store (search for Geotourism Brisbane). This app was created jointly with Global GBM Enterprise Mobility.The App gives an earth scientists perspective in laymans language on the history and cultural heritage of the sub-tropical capital of Queensland.It presents a GPS linked map with hot-links to a brief history of the each building, its architecture and details of the building stones used, along with both recent and historical photographs.

18.01.2022 SB03: The John Mills Himself building at 40 Charlotte Street is a 3 storey brick building with a face brick and render street elevation and a tall decorative parapet. This building and a rear building connected by an open timber stairway were designed by Brisbane architect John Henry Burley in 1919-1920. John Mills was a printer who had just terminated a partnership (Mills & Green) and set up a new business ascertaining his clients by prominently displaying his new business n...ame "John Mills Himself" on the top parapet. The original use of the Charlotte Street building was as printery and offices whereas the rear building, on a thoroughfare from 55 Elizabeth Street was used as a warehouse. During the WW II part of the front building was used as a gymnasium for the National Fitness Movement. In later years the building occupied a variety of tenants associated with the arts. At Charlotte Street a second-hand bookstore called Archives is the major tenant. At basement level of the rear building a boutique coffee shop has opened offering a great variety of coffees. The Cafe runs under the same name as the main building (John Mills Himself) and can be accessed via a thoroughfare at 55 Elizabeth street. See more

17.01.2022 SB19: Mooneys Building, at 130-132 Mary Street was built in 1883 (fabric) - completed by 1919 for William Mooney, a Brisbane wholesale and tobacconist. The building has a special association with former Queensland colonial architect Francis Drummond Greville Stanley, as an example of his commercial work. The building is two-storeyed with a basement. The side and rear walls of the building are unrendered mostly pink, purple, cream and green ignimbrite (porphyry) Brisbane Tuff. The front facade still displays the original brick archways.

13.01.2022 It is time to post some new additions to the app which will be uploaded with the second version. This might be some way off yet so we intend to use this page to advertise them and possibly get updates from the public

12.01.2022 SB02: The Hilton Hotel Brisbane, at 190 Elizabeth Street, was designed by renown architect Harry Seidler (Harry Seidler & Associates) and completed in 1987. A variety of exotic building stones were used on the outside facade as well as the lobby and interior thoroughfares. The Hotel has seen a major face-lift in 2012.

10.01.2022 These photos were used in the first press release

09.01.2022 VB01: The Ecosciences Precinct, which is bounded by (41) Boggo Road, Joe Baker Street and Peter Doherty Street, was built by the Queensland Government and the CSIRO and was completed in 2010. The design by Hassell Architects earned them the National Architecture Award 2011. Whilst the building itself is built with steel, concrete and glass, the basement floor tiles and front steps at the Boggo Road frontage have been covered with a green microdiorite tile, including edge pie...ces of coarse grained greenish black gabbro (both stone probably imported from China or India). A dark-grey to black marble breccia has been used as a feature stone to clad the security desk (uncertain if this breccia is natural or artificial). A feature garden next to the Boggo Road entrance contains several blocks of cut Helidon sandstone. A path crossing the Boulevard close to Boggo Road features bluish grey and red-brown stained quartz porphyry from the Rogina quarries near Herberton (Australian Porphyry). See more

08.01.2022 GSAQ and AIG (Australian Institute of Geoscientists, Qld Branch) also offered an excursion to its joint members using the precursor 2012 handbook of the 34th IGC. (Self-guided Walking Tour featuring Building Stones through Brisbane CBD). The tour, which we carried out on the 14th of December 2013, included sites around the GPO and Anzac Square, the Petrie Bight wall, Customs House and St John Anglican Cathedral. It was very useful in testing the concept of the Brisbane History in Stone and Brick App format and design.

07.01.2022 KB01: The former Queensland National Bank on 308 Queen Street was constructed in 1881 - 1885. The masonry building is clad with sandstone from Murphys Creek near Toowoomba and features 8 columns of New Zealand limestone.

07.01.2022 DB04: The Albert Street Uniting Church (319 Albert Street) is a Victorian Gothic Revival Style Church designed by architect G.H.M Addison and built in 1888 and 1889. The Church was built of red brick with trimmings in white Oamaru limestone (from New Zealand).

05.01.2022 NB01: South Brisbane train station (133 Grey Street) was built in 1891. The two-storey brick masonry building has a central projecting pedimented entrance from Grey Street. Two columns with Corinthian capitals flank the entrance. The former garden park in front of the entrance has been replaced with a paved area comprising granite tiles.

05.01.2022 OB09: The Park Presbyterian Church, Glenelg Street, South Brisbane had a very controversial history. Early records of a first start to forming a distinct Presbyterian fellowship were taken around 1849. An old wooden church on Grey preceded this building, which made way for the Melbourne Street train station (South Brisbane station) and was moved to the new location in 1850. An additional parcel of land was purchased next to the wooden building at Glenelg St. The Park Presbyte...rian Church was built between 1884 -1885 in a time when Reverent D.F. Mitchell (originally from Scotland) was consolidating his congregation since coming to Brisbane in 1876. The foundation-stone of the new church was laid on the 25th October, 1884, the the church was formally opened on the 11th October 1885. The present building has always been a notable architectural feature for this area. It is built of brick upon stone foundations (probably Brisbane Tuff and/or sandstone, but these are not observable) with cement dressing. The general design is early English. The church is lighted by triplet windows with lanced heads, and placed in bays between buttresses. Above the porch in the eastern gable is a large rose window, filled with Gothic tracery. The roof is open timbered, carried on principals having Gothic, pointed ribs resting upon, small columns, which are supported in turn upon stone pedals. Interior wood was stained and varnished cedar. The building was erected bv Mr. Macfarlane from designs by architect F.D.G. Stanley. In the 1990s and early 2000s the building was occupied by an Antiques store and later was refurbished. Since around 2012 the building is occupied by Baselines new Brisbane showroom (baselinecf.com.au), as well as the new Hfele Design Centre (hafele.com.au). See more

01.01.2022 I thought I might post some photos from a school excursion which a number of members of the GSAQ lead for students from Brisbane State High School in August 2013, at a time when we were heavily gathering data and photos for the Brisbane History in Stone and Brick App. We had outlined a number of sites to visit on a loop from Victoria Bridge, on to Roma Street Parklands, through George Street and back over the Goodwill Bridge to South Bank. In future the App may provide the possibility to self-design tour routes suited to everyones interests.