February 2, 1891 – the Brisbane Exhibition Buildings approved.

Ah, the Exhibition. Originally the Intercolonial Exhibition, it began in 1876, and showed off produce, industry and crafts to a fascinated public. Every August, the Country comes to the City and there is much rejoicing (especially since the advent of Sideshow Alley and the addition of the Stockman’s Bar and Grill).

The original building was charming and roomy, but a newer, bigger and better building was required, and this is the result.

I once saw it described as “exuberant,” a word that hardly begins to capture the explosion of archways, towers and balconies that comprise this eye-catching building. George Henry Male Addison (1857-1922) was the architect responsible for it.

I love it, exhausting as it is to look upon. In my early childhood it was the Museum, and I spent many happy afternoons scurrying about the place, trying to avoid the duller and more scientific exhibits that my family thought would be so improving to see. I couldn’t bear all the glass cases of dead insects, and longed to get to the dioramas and Bert Hinkler’s plane.

My experience of the Exhibition was similar. I yearned to see the baby animals, sideshow alley and the show-bag pavilion. Instead, I was taken to see fruit and veg, potted plants, cattle and budgies. I didn’t mind the fruit and veg, but cattle pavilion with its hulking Brahman bulls and streaming channels of hosed-out dung gave me nightmares.

Then, as now, crowds were the most striking feature of the Exhibition. When it opened in 1876, 17000 of Brisbane’s 22000 residents streamed through the gates, the initial rush to get in required the intervention of troopers. According to the official Website, 400 000 people on average visit the Exhibition annually.

Where once small bags of free produce were handed out to visitors, families now invest their savings in sample bags that range from the cheap to the eye-wateringly expensive. Failure to get the year’s ‘must have’ show-bag meant social isolation at school, as did failure to go on the ‘must do’ sideshow ride.

But back to that building. Here is another view of its sheer – exuberance.