Shock demolition for 1908 Queensland Blind, Deaf and Dumb InstituteShoc

Queensland Health plans to demolish a Woollongabba landmark - two heritage buildings at the Blind, Deaf and Dumb buildings at 37 Kent Street.


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City Council rubber stamps Regent demolition

The spectacular 1929 Regent Theatre on Queen Street has survived almost three quarters of a century despite an effort by the state government to raze it in 1970.

Now it appears that the theatre building's days are numbered. Council has approved the demolition of most of the Regent by developer Brookfield Multiplex to erect an $800 million office tower development in its place. Although the foyer listed on the Queensland Heritage register in 1992 will be retained and incorporated into the new tower, the facades, 1929 plaster ceilings and decorations in the current cinema and bar are scheduled for demolition.

Big Pineapple Heritage Registered - Owners mount legal threat

Very interested to see the first of Australia's Big Things get heritage listed.

Australians, it seems, just love our big things. The roadside attractions, examples of novelty architecture are quite unique to our culture and are major domestic tourist icons.

Nambour's iconic Big Pineapple, just outside of Brisbane which lays claim to being the "World's largest Pineapple" is now protected.

But not everyone's happy. The owners certainly aren't. Now they can't make any changes to the place without EPA approval and they're threatening to sue.

Site of the Bellevue Hotel - 30 years on

It is 30 years since the demolition of the Bellevue Hotel, probably Brisbane's most magnificent design, so I thought it would be a good idea to reflect on what I feel is Brisbane's greatest heritage loss.



The Bellevue was a Victorian filigree style hotel with twin French style mansard towers on its roof built in 1885-86. It sat gracefully in a beautiful precinct opposite the Botanic Gardens, Parliament House, the Queensland Club among rare and elegant Victorian terrace houses including The Mansions and Harris Terrace on Alice Street.

Jo Bjelke Petersen's progressive and pro-modern government bought the site and was keen to remove the old hotel to make way for office buildings. After years of fighting preservationists, the government removed the cast iron verandahs in 1974 in an act of spite before a midnight demolition by the notorious Deen Brothers on the 20th April 1979.

Sadly 30 years on and the site is nothing more than an ugly vacant windswept urban plaza to a horrible brutalist office building which adds nothing to Brisbane.


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This act of heritage vandalism spurred the preservationists to become more active which eventually led to new heritage protection laws.

The lessons of the past should not be forgotten.

Steam Train to celebrates Queensland's 150th anniversary

The University of Queensland is using the journey of a heritage listed steam train from Ipswich across the state to celebrate the 150th anniversary of statehood.

Brisbane Heritage Expo

The second Brisbane Heritage Expo will be held on May 16 at City Hall featuring over 50 stalls showcasing various heritage groups and organisations across Brisbane.

Public Appeal is City Hall's Last Hope

Council has rejected a proposal to save its culturally and architecturally significant Brisbane City Hall building which is crumbling from concrete cancer. That's right, you heard me, the Brisbane City Council wants to demolish the building which is the symbol of its own logo, something which is akin to destroying its own identity.

Instead, they have lauched a public appeal to raise the $215 millions supposedly required to save the building.

While I'm sure that this appeal will raise a signficant amount of money, personally I feel that it is an absolute disgrace that a council can let such an important building go to the dogs like that ....

Regardless, it is a landmark decision which will go down in history.