Mowbray Park Brisbane Qld

Mowbray park is an historical park in East Brisbane, named after the Reverend Thomas Mowbray, who arrived in 1847. He was one of the earliest settlers and  became known as the father of Presbyterianism. In 1851, he opened Brisbane's first Presbyterian Church in Grey Street, South Brisbane.

Mowbray Park was built from 1904 to 1974. It is also known as East Brisbane War Memorial and Riversdale.  

In the early 1920s, the council constructed a floating swimming enclosure in the river next to the park. It became very popular to swimmers of all ages. The swimming pool led to the formation of a surf life-saving club that still exists, now associated with Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast as the Burleigh Heads Mowbray Park SLSC.

Floating baths were first introduced to Brisbane in 1857 and were to remain a feature of the river for some 70 years. Such enclosed baths were supposedly "shark proof". One of the more prominent and popular of these floating baths was the "Victoria Baths", situated against the river bank on the downstream side of the Victoria Bridge's southern approach (1880s).  Mowbray Park and Dutton Park were the the other floating baths. At the public floating baths, bathing was often segregated, even to the extent of different swimming times for male and female bathers. 

My two sketches for today  were looking each way up and down river.

 This one is looking down river towards New Farm park. I used 140lb Arches wc paper, graphite and whatercolouur.

 

South Brisbane Sketchout

First sketch was the historical Griffith Film School Building.  This beautiful building started life as a Colonial Post Office and Telegraph building in 1881.

It has had a varied life and has had alterations and refurbishments in 897-1902-2005 when it was converted into the present Film school.

 Ink sketch with my Lamy pen and Noodlers Black ink.

 Watercolour wash

I sat on the footpath between the Lady Celinto Childrens Hospital and the Old South Brisbane Municipal Hall (now the admin building for Sommerville House)  and was looking through the trees at the "Tower of Power" This is an imposing building for sure. It is on the other side of the river.

(oops reflected colour from my orange shirt)

Wilsons Outlook, Fortitude Valley Brisbane.

For around 160 years Wilsons Outlook has been a gem of a park overlooking Brisbane City.  The views are stunning.  Bowen Terrace was one filled with gorgeous villas, but sadly they have almost all gone. Behind Bowen Terrace on Brunswick the 1889 Brunswick Hotel still stands.

I sketched the iconic Story Bridge first, with a small portion of the iconic Howard Smith Wharves (1930) underneath.  Second sketch was of a historic house, on the corner of Bowen Terrace and Bowen Street.

All sketches done in my Holcroft A4 sketchbook pen and in and watercolour

 

Sketching on Brisbane River (Qld)

Fun morning sketching on the Brisbane River.  I haven't been out sketching for a few weeks and boy am I glad to be back!

Christopher Trotters Biomechanical Pelicans. 1995 

The "Tower of Power"

The outside of the building is now finished.  The building will open to the Government (Premier of Qld) until 2017, when the interior refurbishment is finished.

Aubigny Place - Mater Hospital Brisbane

Sketching with the Brisbane Urban Sketchers on a lovely winters morning.  

Aubigny Place is a magnificent old building sitting on Mater Hill.  It is named after the first Mater Hospital, a private house at North Quay, that the Sisters leased.   It took 5 years to have the new hospital built and opened, but it happened on 14 August 1910,  when the new hospital was officially blessed by Cardinal Moran and opened by the Governor, Sir William MacGregor. 

National Trust House with the Brisbane USkers

Historical National Trust House, was constructed in 1865-66 as the colony’s first purpose-built accommodation for immigrants, the building has been converted to offices and laboratories for the Department of Agriculture and re-converted into offices for other government organisations.

The first immigrants directly from overseas to what is now Queensland arrived in the Artemesia on 15 December 1848. As more immigrant vessels followed, the capacity of the city to provide an accommodation base for those who had spent months at sea was sorely stretched. A journalist in 1863 commenting on the temporary three-shed depot being used at South Brisbane noted that, by comparison, ‘the most uncomfortable cell in the Brisbane gaol must appear almost an earthly paradise’.

Plans for a new Immigration Depot, consisting of two, multi-level wings at right angles to each other between William Street and the river were prepared by Charles Tiffin, the colonial architect. The building was constructed in sandstone (for the footings) and brick by contractor John Petrie in 1865-66. The three levels in the rear wing accommodated single women in the upper level, married couples below them and single men in what is today the building’s basement. With space at a premium, luggage was stored in a shed adjacent to Queen’s Wharf.

A4 Holcroft Sketchbook

.08 Unipin pen.

Sketching DRAGON BOATS On Brisbane River

What a fabulous morning I had with the Brisbane Urban Sketchers at South Bank.  The International QUT Dragon Races were on, and it gave us much excitement as well as a unique sketching opportunity.

 The dragon boat in the foreground is the Singapore team, and they came first in the first heat, but I didn't find out what happened after that.

Brisbane Wheel, sponsored by Channel 7 TV Station.

My friend Deirdre and I

 Dragon Boat racing

 SINGAPORE TEAM

Brisbane Wheel