Brisbane City Sketchers at Newstead Park

What a wonderful morning with friends sketching the Historic Newstead House.

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Brisbane's oldest surviving residence, Newstead House, is based in Newstead. It was built by Patrick Leslie who had settled on the Darling Downs in 1840, and bought the land at Newstead (35 acres) in 1846 for 51 pounds. He named the original cottage 'Newstead' after Newstead Abbey in England. The house has evolved from the original cottage into the grand residence we are now familiar with.

The Leslie family only lived in the house for a year before it was sold to Captain John Wickham, the first police magistrate and government resident for the Moreton Bay District. He was also Patrick Leslie's brother-in-law. Wickham was the commander of the Beagle upon which Charles Darwin also sailed.

In 1939, the Queensland Government enacted the Newstead House Trust, which was the first legislation in Queensland to preserve an historic structure.

 A4 Holcroft Sketchbook Mechanical pencil - Unipin pen and watercolour.

Urban Sketching at it's best!

I had the pleasure to sketch 2 beautiful historic buildings yesterday.  Leckhampton House with the Brisbane City Sketchers, and Shafston House with my friend Lisa, from Singapore.

 Leckhampton House; It is leased by College of Surgeons.
Leckhampton House was designed by Alexander Brown Wilson and built from 1889 to 1890 for Charles William Snow. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992

Shafston House.

It is also known as Anzac Hostel, Ravenscott, and Shafston International College. (which is what it is today)
Shafston House comprises a group of buildings constructed between 1851 and the 1930s, set in substantial grounds with frontage to the Brisbane River. The main house was constructed in several stages between 1851 and 1904  Charles and Mary Foster bought the property in 1883, and are reputed to have demolished the original structure and commissioned FDG Stanley to design a new house on the land. This was the basis for the Gothic structure that stands there now.
The house has a varied history with multiple uses.
After WWI, the property was acquired by the Commonwealth who renamed it Anzac House, using it as a repatriation hospital until around 1969.
After 1969, the property was used by the RAAF as offices and a mess, and a lot of internal restructure occurred at that time.

 

 

Sketching a facade in Queen Street Brisbane

Sitting in Queen Street with the Brisbane City Sketchers on a glorious Saturday. It was MacArther Day in the city and we were serenaded by big bands.  There are some beautiful facades in Queen Street, and they are getting harder to see with all the infrastructure being placed in the middle of the street,  Queen Street on the west side is a pedestrian Mall full of designer shops.  

I drew one of the facades.

A4 Holcroft Sketchbook Lam pen and Watercolour.

 

Brisbane City Sketchers in Roma Street Parkland

Local Indigenous people used the area for thousands of years conducting meetings and ceremonies. They even had camps in the area.
In 1825 the Roma Street Parkland area was part of the original Brisbane settlement. In 1875 a terminal station in Roma Street was constructed as part of the main western railway to Brisbane linking Ipswich and Toowoomba.
The terminal grew to become a major goods yard for Brisbane and, between 1911 and 1934, the area was extensively redeveloped to support its increase in services. In 1920 extensive excavation, removing 554,300 cubic meters of earth, permanently altered the steep terrain creating the current day artificial escarpment and the boundary of the former Albert Park. During World War II, the terminal was vital for transporting war materials and military personnel north.

Continuing to grow, the Roma Street Station was redeveloped to service a metropolitan and long-distance train network. Because of limitations of the site revealed through the increasing mechanization of freight handling and the use of containers, the facility was eventually relocated to Acacia Ridge in 1991. Construction began of the current Parkland in 2000 and the parkland opened to the public in 2001. The project won its first award before it had opened: a commendation in the Cement and Concrete Association of Australia Streetsmart awards for the innovative concrete finishes created by the use of coloured concrete and an apparently random pattern of rough cast concrete generated by the formworkers which makes the finish appear to change through the day depending on the angle of the sun and the length of shadows cast by the detailing on the walls. The technique was created through a design and construction collaboration between project designers PARC managing contractor Abigroup and the Queensland Department of Public Works.

 

 

 Saunders Waterford paper 11"x15" 

Graphite - Watercolour - Pastel

BRISBANE CITY SKETCHERS

 

 

 

Dutton Park Cemetery also known as South Brisbane Cemetery

South Brisbane Cemetery is a heritage-listed cemetery, built from 1870 to 1990s -
The was reserved as a supplement to the overflowing Paddington Cemetery in 1864 although the first official burial, of a woman by the name of Jane Hocking, didn’t occur until 1870. The stately entrance gates were added in 1888 to a design by high profile architect AB Wilson and the graves in its early days represented a cross section of the good the bad and the ugly.
The last of Australia’s bushrangers Patrick Kenniff, who was incarcerated and hung on the gallows across the road at Boggo Road Gaol, is buried here as are some 41 of his fellow prisoners including the child-killer and last man executed in Queensland, Ernest Austin.
Many of the early Russian migrants, who arrived in the area after the Communist take over, are interred hereand there are 52 Commonwealth service personnel buried in this cemetery whose graves are registered by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, 13 from World War I and 39 from World War II
 
In contrast to the pauper’s graves, many of the monuments in this cemetery are fine examples of craftsmanship throughout the century of operation.

 A4 Holcroft Sketchbook and Lamy pen.

Concentration

 A very good morning with the Brisbane City Sketchers

Urban Sketching with the Brisbane City Sketchers

Queensland scientist Dr William Hobbs  (1822-1890) house, known as Adelaide House because it was built on Adelaide street, was built in 1855.  It sits in the grounds of St Johns Cathedral, and is heritage listed. Dr Hobbs  arrived at Moreton Bay on 1 May 1849 as surgeon of the Chaseley, the second of John Dunmore Lang's migrant ships.

In 1889 the house was leased by the government for the Governor General, because Government House at George street was not yet finished.  This made Dr Hobbs house the First Government House in Brisbane.

On December 10th 1859, Governor George Bowen read the proclamation of the new colony of Queensland - separate from New South Wales - from the verandah of Adelaide House to the people of Brisbane.

When the construction of Government House at the river end of George St was completed in 1862, Governor Bowen moved there; this allowed Dr Hobbs to return to his house. He decided to rename it Bowen House in honour of the governor. Dr Hobbs sold the property in 1883 to the then wealthy dentist-entrepreneur Moses Ward, who decided to call it Adelaide House once again. Ward never lived there.

In 1899, the property was acquired by the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane for the new cathedral. Originally to be demolished, the house ended up being used as the residence for the deans and their families. Robin Dods was engaged to renovate the house for this purpose, and that was completed in 1910.   The house is now known as "The Deanery" 

 In his day, Dr Hobbs would walk up towards Adelaide House, or ride in a buggy, up from Petrie Bight through the site of Grocon's 480 Queen Street tower which sits between Queen and Adelaide streets.

The natural flow of the land in the mid-1850s rolled down from the cathedral grounds, down across what is now Adelaide Street towards the bend in Queen Street and across Petrie Bight before the Story Bridge was built. 

Adelaide House sat on top of the hill by itself until the 12-metre high road road cutting for the Adelaide Street extension towards what became Fortitude Valley was built in the 1870s. At the time Adelaide House was known as "Hobb's Folly" because it was so far from the main Brisbane settlement.  Grocon's chief executive Carolyn Viney said the company had decided to name the park Hobbs Park because the general public could finally see Adelaide House.

 A4 sketchbook and ink.

It was on this balcony that Governor George Bowen read the proclamation of the new colony of Queensland - separate from New South Wales.

 

 

BRISBANE CITY SKETCHERS

Shafston House from The Sydney Street Ferry terminal

Shafston House South Brisbane;

It is also known as Anzac Hostel, Ravenscott, and Shafston International College. (which is what it is today)

Shafston House comprises a group of buildings constructed between 1851 and the 1930s, set in substantial grounds with frontage to the Brisbane River. The main house was constructed in several stages between 1851 and 1904

Charles and Mary Foster bought the property in 1883, and are reputed to have demolished the original structure and commissioned FDG Stanley to design a new house on the land. This was the basis for the Gothic structure that stands there now.

The house has a varied history with multiple uses.

After WWI, the property was acquired by the Commonwealth who renamed it Anzac House, using it as a repatriation hospital until around 1969. Here is a photograph of Shafston that was taken in 1930

After 1969, the property was used by the RAAF as offices and a mess, and a lot of internal restructure occurred at that time.

The two cannons in the foreground are reputedly part of Thursday Island's 19th century defence.

 

Sketched in my A3 Holcroft Sketchbook Lamy Pen and Watercolour.

 

 

 

Derelict building and kangaroos

Wacol today is known for its diverse community, historic 'Wolston House', semi-industrial areas and correctional centres. The origin of the name Wacol is linked to the local weighbridge which was used to 'weigh coal'. In 1851, Dr Stephan Simpson bought the first property in the area then known as Woogaroo.

A friend and I went to the Golf Club to sketch today, there are loads of willing kangaroo subjects there. This building is way up on the hill behind fences.

The former Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum, later named the Goodna Asylum for the Insane, then the Brisbane Mental Hospital, then the Brisbane Special Hospital, and then the Wolston Park ­Hospital Complex - Sketched in my A4 Holcroft Sketchbook Lamy pen and Watercolour

Brisbane City Sketchers at Mowbray Park

Mowbray Park and East Brisbane War Memorial are a heritage-listed park.  The park was named after Rev. Thomas Mowbray, who bought the land in 1851 (Mowbray was instrumental in bringing the Presbyterian Church to Brisbane)

He built his family home, "Riversdale", on this site. Thomas Mowbray died in 1867, but the family retained the property until its sale to the South Brisbane City Council in 1904

The following is what was written when considering the property for a public park; "Mowbray's property is in every way suitable for a public Park or garden having suitable soil, and undulating land reaching to the water's edge, and in addition it will also provide the necessary accommodation for bowling greens, Tennis Courts, and Croquet lawns. The property has a North Easterly aspect, and has an extended view of two reaches of the river, is above flood level, and is situated on the East Brisbane Tramway route. There is no public park or reserve in this locality, and no other piece of land in the neighbourhood so suitable for this purpose."

Mowbray Park is understood to have been the site of a "tent city" for homeless families in the early 1930s, during the Great Depression.

A4 Holcroft 225gsm sketchbook with Lamy Pen and watercolour

Looking towards the mouth of the river.  Our river is tidal right up into the CBD.  Fresh water comes from  Mount Stanley, where the river originates, and the river  is south east Queensland's longest river  flowing 344km through Brisbane city and out into Moreton Bay.

 

Winter Sun Urban Sketching

What an awesome day!  The Brisbane City Sketchers sketched in the gorgeous winters sun at South Bank.  My first sketch was of No 1 Williams Street (Tower of Power) in pen and ink.  Next I headed down to the old Victoria Bridge Abutment.  I love sketching this structure.  The present Victoria bridge is the 5th bridge, and the 3rd permanent bridge across the Brisbane River in this area. The Victoria Bridge Abutment is the remnant of the fourth Victoria Bridge (the second permanent bridge) to cross the Brisbane River at this point.The abutment is all that is left of this bridge, and in my mind the most beautiful of all of them.

There is a plaque on the left side of the abutment in memory of an 11 year old Greek boy Hector Vasyli who was tragically killed when greeting returned soldiers from the First World War.

Both sketches in my 6"x9" sketchbook

There were 6 of us today, one took the photo, and one was walkabout.