The HIDDEN HISTORY under the BRISBANE RIVERSIDE EXPRESSWAY
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- Опубликовано: 26 янв 2024
- There's a whole lost world under Brisbane's Riverside Expressway, one with many interesting tales to tell. In this video I'll explore some of that hidden history
#brisbane #brisbanecbd #queensland
The shortsightedness of covering the riverside with concrete and cars, rather than cafes and parks.
I found your video absolutely wonderful and very entertaining. I'm 64 years old and now live in Toowoomba. I was born in Brisbane and I can still very clearly remember the river lined on both sides with wharves and many ships loading and unloading goods. I also remember when I was only a boy, the only bridges across the river were, the Storey bridge, the steel Victoria bridge with trams running across it to South Brisbane, and the William Jolly bridge. I can recall the building of the riverside expressway and the opening which was on the evening news. It didn't connect up with the pacific highway though, it only went as far as West End to the South and onto Coronation Drv in the West. The old red brick building that was once the QLD museum - which I spent many hours roaming around the exhibits - was in fact built as the original entrance to the RNA showgrounds and filled with many exhibits and fair attractions. It became the QLD museum in the 70's and eventually replaced with the ridiculously small current museum. Most of its original exhibits are still housed in storage, no doubt, never to be seen again. Amazing things you could find, from ancient Egypt to historical music pieces. Such is progress to ignore history. I love the history of Brisbane and several years ago I went on a private and personal pilgrimage I guess you could say to document almost everything I could remember of my youth. I didn't finish it but I did cover quite a bit. The water you saw coming from the rock face near the John Oxley memorial is in fact the fresh water creek that Oxley stopped at and replenished their water supplies. As it's illegal to cover or block natural water ways and springs, the creek was piped to allow it to run its natural course. I have, when it was accessible, drank the water from that source, it is as cool and refreshing as natural water can be. The last gas lit lamp in Brisbane used to be in George street, I don't know it it's still there. I remember the gas lamps in the city and the man that came around on sunset to light them. As well as the huge hanging baskets of ferns that hung from the street posts around city hall. I remember when Brisbane was a magical, historical place where dancing at Cloudland ballroom was a great night out. Thank you for bring back some other memories that I will always love. Cheers
Thank you for sharing your memories, I can just imagine how wonderful it was.
So glad the sniper from TF2 is showing me around my local city.
These videos reminding me of many things I'd forgotten, one incident, walking through the inside of Victoria Bridge from side to side just before the opening. Seemed like a good idea at the time but now wonder why on earth we did it. Swimming in the river, crossing to the Botanical Gardens etc, it was a teenagers paradise.
I lived in the area down in Lower River Tce on the south side in the days of the trains at Woolloongabba. It was a bit of an adventure growing up there, lots of time and room for mischief to be had.
Thanks for the memories.
As a police officer, I had business at the Morgue where you described in the 1970's and also worked at the South Brisbane Watchouse across the river in the old wineries building prior to the Expo and subsequent Southbank development.
Sometime in the 70's I installed some security stuff in the watchhouse. We had to use a Ramset, that used a 22 calibre charge. Great consternation followed.
I had the pleasure of working on the riverside expressway between 1974and 1976😊 Part my job was bolting the concrete parapets on to the roadway (sides)
That water you spotted is out of a headwall which is one (if not the) oldest man made features in Brisbane
I have never walked along there. It's now on my bucket list. Thanks for sharing this history. Fascinating.
My theory (with zero proof) had always been that the monument for John Oxley being in such an unlikely position was that he stopped at that location due to a natural spring coming out of that rock. I know people have said it is now a drain, but the location of the creek that filled Roma St and Creek st starts at the top of Makerston St, which aligns (I think) with the "spring" and the monument. It seems likely that the drain was put in to follow the natural water course.
Putting a highway on riverfront land was not a good idea in hindsight.
Lots of interesting facts I had no idea about our City, great research , I worked in the Neville Bonner building for a while, cant say I miss it
WEW. 1:02:2024. What a great walk. I have walked all along there BUT never delved into it's character, thank you Rob for sharing. Living now in Ballarat for the last four and a half + years you have brought back some fond memories. Again thank you. I lived in Brisbane from the age of 8 to 64 years. I do miss her but not her humidity!
The morgue used to be incorporated within the QIT, then QUT grounds. Most people didn't know what the building was, it was tucked away. I used to see the chimney working in the early morning before work.
and the wonderful aroma of an Aussie barbecue.
Legend has it, shortly following its completion, a small collective of homeless underbridge dwellers cast a chilling curse upon the expressway. This curse would render all drivers to enter the confines of the bridge mentally handicapped for the duration of travelling the bridge.
Hi Rob, The outlet of water below the John Oxley plaque is an outlet for the enclosed Wheat Creek. The creek became an open sewer running through the city and was buried.
Yes, Wheat Creek is fascinating, though it was never an open sewer. It was instead the main source of water for the settlement. Though of course rubbish and waste did find its way into it.
Creek St in the city was the original natural water course thru the rainforest... wow 250 years..
@@walkaboutwithrob civilised... makes ya wonder.
@@MadMasterNeil It was originally known as Wheat Creek.
I believe this is the stream that gives Spring Hill its name
@16.40 the beautiful viewing of the little iron fencing above the retaining wall. Well, as a little girl, every time we passed that sweet looking metal work in our vehicles I would think just how special our city was, to have such decorative metal work alongside our river. Funny how much I loved that pretty metal as a little girl. Brisbane girl. 🦘🇦🇺
Hi Rob, the cafe and coffee shop inside the ground floor of 1WS is called Short Street Espresso - a small homage to this history!
Thanks for this really fascinating historical tour.
As necessary a piece of infrastructure as it is, the Riverside Expressway is a blight on the river and the City.
I hope one day is might be transformed to an under-river tunnel system and the northern bank of the river restored to use.
Another great video Rob. Watching your content has opened my eyes to how little I know about the city I've lived in all of my life and inspired me to get out for a few walks myself. Thanks 👍
Go for it! Lets us know how it goes...
Very interesting to hear the mangroves are new to Brisbane since the construction of Wivenhoe dam. I would have loved to swim in the fresh water river and beaches.
Fascinating, I returned to QUT as an adult doing a Masters degree. I sometimes enjoy walking around the river bank pondering what was once there. There are areas near QUT that you can see old brick walls and other old building materials in the sand/mud. I had a thought, it might have been better to do that walk at low tide.
Homelessness in Brisbane has gotten so much worse the last few years :/
The Riverside Expressway works and is not ugly, as seen, say, from South Bank . In my opinion. I remember the comment by the late tennis player Ken Fletcher who thought that it was pretty cool that you could travel directly via it to the Gold Coast. That level of connectivity, apparently was not common. But, of course, there is always the ever-increasing traffic density.Now that is universally common.
That's city design in the 1970's for you. Sure, Build a highway through the middle of our city! Funnel 1000's of cars into city centers every workday turning the entire place into a loud, polluted and congested place. Brisbane gutting it's tram network was the worst thing Clem Jones did. But hey at least we have 🥰Buses✨
And right in front of the Commissariat store was the old convict ferry that went straight across to Sth Brisbane where one of the soldiers swore he saw the ghost of captain Logan waving from his horse to come pick him up. The large rock feature jutting out further down where the homeless people is directly under the plaque to the original pioneers and was a small soldiers and their children’s grave site.
Yes, I passed the memorial to the unknown pioneers in this video, and I discussed it and the graves in my video about the founder of Brisbane.
8:40 A fun fact about the Old Queensland Museum, it's the filming location of Jackie Chan's famous ladder fight scene in First Strike (1996).
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Ah times have changed from when 1960s consultants recommended ripping out light rail in favour of monstrous concrete expressways.
Hi Rob, Toombul shopping centre is about to be demolished. This was such an important part of the northside during the 70s and 80s (my childhood). It would be great if you were able to document it's rich history now that it's ... well, history. One of your awesome videos would really do it justice!
Crazy how it's been 2 years since the flood
Thanks Rob. The combination of archival research and looking at the world from street-level is an excellent way to learn about this whole place!
Offtopic slightly, but seeing the Captain Cook bridge reminded me of growing up in Holland Park West in the 70s, and being 12, with racing bikes and having the freshly paved, unopened freeway to use whenever we wanted, from Gaza Rd to the city in ten minutes without a care in the world. Love your work, Rob.
Brisbane’s history is rich and full of interesting info. I’ve been fond of finding historical things here in Brisbane. Thanks for finding so many interesting places and events Rob.
The water coming out at North Quay is indeed directly underneath the Oxley Memorial. The way I understand the early maps there was no outfall there until the BCC let out a contract to build the Sewer contract No 1.using egg shaped drains completely bricked to drain the no longer needed dam for water supply in Roma St and the Horse Pond. Due to the construction iof the Enoggera Reservior and Spring Hill Reserviors and adjioning gravity fed pipework. Along North Quay under the Grey St Bridge was where the pump house was to supply water to flush the Cities streets and the Tramways Power Station located where the Busway station is today in Countess St opposite Victoria Barracks and the old Police Horse stables. They had to remove this pump house when the bridge construction started. The wall along from there also has a brick post and Iron fence above it on North Quay with James Hopwood Mayor 1887 inscribed on stone on 3 posts,. A walk along there also at low tide reveals the older Victoria Bridge pylons and am currently looking at why they have remotely operated surveying equipment attached to Victoria Bridge northern abutment.
Thanks for this Rob. As a Brisbane local for over 50 years I really appreciate your research and detail!
The 70s decision to build a motorway on top of the waterfront and get rid of trams seems utterly mad in 2024. I’m afraid the queens wharf construction is going to be a monument to capitalism/greed and also age badly but hey 🤷♀️ can’t stand in the way of progress right? Loved the vid and the history!
I'm really happy that they were forced to build out the cycling/walking infrastructure at least, but God I hate that it's a casino.
Try to lure rich gambling sharks from Asia
@@imakevideos5377 but they ruined an existing bikeway by making it shared between pedestrians and cyclists!! Everything about it has been frustrating
@@joshuasanderson7359as a pedestrian I would have to disagree
Loved the bicycles speeding in the 10kmh zones. 😂
Another interesting video. ❤
Excellent walk Rob, im afraid ive become one of them circling above from the express way and forgetting whats below. Its been 20 years since i use to frequent that area to get to QUT GP thanks for reminding me we shall see about this revivial most of brisbane like hanging out in the sun at Southbank not under the shadow of a road.
huh , i don't know how many times i walked and drove over that victoria bridge , but its all been amazing about brisbane
Hey Rob, apologies if you've already done it, but any chance you'd be interested in covering the history of why Kedron and upper Kedron and miles apart for no apparent reason? Loving the content, thanks mate!
My guess is Kedron is a much older suburb than Upper Kedron, and was the first suburb named after Kedron Brook, meanwhile Upper Kedron is a lot further up the brook and was named after the upper reaches when it was built later. That's just my 2 cents though
i do love Brisbane but as I'm getting older i just fund it harder to cope with the humidity 🥵🥵
Thankyou for enduring the humidity for another great vid 😊
The shot you showed of the old morgue on the riverside is just the foundation, there was a building on top of that. Oddly, it was reused as a ferry terminal for boat trips to Lone Pine Sanctuary in the 50-60's but I'm sure they didn't tell the passengers the previous use of the building.
Good one Rob, interesting to see what's underneath the Riverside Expressway. So much work going on around there. Loved the old photo of the men doing the original retaining wall at 16.30. Great old photo.
Worked at the old Government Printing office . All the wash out from lead plate making and litho pkate making was simply drained into the river there . Acid lead etc. I wonder how much lead is in the silt there.??
Another great documentary, your videos are fantastic. Keep going ❤
Excellent adventure to share with you, Rob. Thanks for sharing.
I remember the opening of the Riverside Expressway as they had an open day when I was one of thousands of people who actually walked along the Riverside Expressway and accross the Captain Cook Bridge, something you can't do today.
I distinctly remember the Helipad, the Hayles wharves and the fountain in that area. All gone. Great video, Rob. If you do decide to come out our way (Tamborine) well you can add the Christmas Day tornado to the history.
I keep flicking between yours and Trocks' docos - this is another outstanding historic doco - thank you Rob
got a link for Trocks?
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Thanks Bob very informative. I really appreciate historians prepared to dive under the weight of modernity to share their knowledge.
never thought id be interested in a video like this but I sat through all 17 minutes and 52 seconds of it and was engaged and loving it, definitely worth a like and subscribe.
Great video.. I remember talking with a friend before they built the clem7 tunnel.. that they should have built it under the Expressway, then recalmed the river bank back
Great Video Rob, the early reports of the Brisbane river and its environments are so fascinating. Amazing and maybe a bit sad how much can be lost in such a short time.
Thank you for showing the attractions of Brisbane.
Brisbane always has fantastic scenes to show.
Love your work. Would also love it if you could do a video about Petrie if possible . I know there’s lots of history here
Been suggesting petrie for months..
I’ll keep suggesting till he does a video on it 😂
A very informative video as always Rob. Thank you for all your hard work to produce such excellent content and it was fantastic to meet you just after you completed this walk - cheers Steve
I remember when routine maintenance found a "crack" in the Turbot street off ramp and they shut down the riverside expressway.....4-5 hours to get home and into city....LOL
Great vid mate, didn’t realise there was so much history lying underneath that ugly ass terrible highway
Oh WOW! Just looking now. Can't believe you're doing this!
Great video once again on Brisbane!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Another well done video on our cherished Capital, Rob. Spot on with your view that the only remnant of our earliest colonial riverside history, is the Commissariat Store. Our historical areas along the River bank, were literally ruled through by the harsh concrete lines of the South-East Freeway (from The Captain Cook Bridge to the William Jolly Bridge). The character giving trams were ruled out too by the Freeway. Even the QUT Buildings deplete the Botanical Gardens area significantly, when the first Government House should be the only building in the Gardens.
In all, because of the SE Freeway and other concrete constructions, Brisbane lacks the historical charm it could have, compared to other Australian Capitals like Melbourne. Melbourne has a depth of history, including the Trams which help preserve the moving history of the Victorian Capital.
PS If you were to pressure hose the porphyry stone blocks which form the Commissariat Store cobblestone courtyard, you would be delighted by the wide ranging colours across the stones. These were likely quarried from the Kangaroo Point cliffs cobblestone
Thanks heaps Rob, this area fascinated me as well... cheers as always, Rach.
Great video, thoroughly enjoyed. Personally id love to see traffic diverted from the city, the expressway removed and the land returned to parkland, similar to southbank. The expressway really is an eyesore.
Do you think this will ever happen?
There has been some talk about doing that, but if it does happen it'll be many, many years from now. And they'd need very expensive tunnels to take their place which would take billions to afford.
Love Sunday watching Rob. Might go for a walk around afternoon check out some of the places.
Well done Rob. I learned a lot that I didn't know. I've never been along that path under the expressway.
It's definitely worth a walk or cycle along it. Easy to navigate despite the massive works going on.
Another excellent video Rob. Look forward to the next one.
Very interesting Rob, well done!
Such a great video. Thanks for uploading this.
Awesome. I remember the 1974 floods. And I remember the opening of the river side express way.
When I was a kid in the late 60s we used to jump off the old warfs and they were 5 m high and the river water was very clean and clear I lived at west end we had sandy beaches along the south Brisbane side a different place then 😂
Thanks Rob, Another fact filled walk, great content and delivery. Loved the historic photos of Bridges and Brisbane. 😊
Fantastic , drive on that motorway everyday. Thanks Rob !
Another good video Rob. I enjoy your videos and history.
Love your vids and particularly love the volume of your vids, we can actually hear and understand them very clearly. Well done. Brisbane like a lot of towns or cities, did not value their river, it was nothing more than a dumping ground for chemicals and tallings, so the building of the expressway was probably not seen as anything too bad by the majority of Brisbanites, but now particularly after Expo'88 Brisbane finally started to value our river for it's views, the inclusion of public watercraft etc. May I suggest you may like to do a vid on an incident which happened during the 1974 floods, which happened at Evans Deakin Dry Dock when the ship, the oil tanker the Robert Miller, was in for repair, the ship was torn from its moorings in the dock and floated out into the river, it nearly caused a further catastrophe by nearly "damming up" the already fast moving and flooded Brisbane river. There is footage and pictures out there of the event, I am sure you could find it, if interested. It was quite eventful and very brave divers had to go down between the hull of the ship and tugs to secure what was necessary to wrangle the ship back into the dock.
Brilliant story once again, thank you Sir
Absolutely fascinating, Im looking forward to learning more about Brisbane history from your videos
Here's a few additional bits.
That water running out of the rocks is the - filled in and became Tank St - MacDonell & East building on the east side of the street and the Red Comb building on the west side - which was then demolished to build the Police headquarters.
Where the - the most important one was O'Connor Boathouse - the scene of record hops and chicks through the sixties hosted by radio DJs (I think Bill Gates or Holger Brockman (still around somewhere I thnk)). It was the jumping scene in Bris - well maybe TC's too at the top of Elizabeth St).
I always hated that ugly annexe on the State Library.
. When John Oxley rowed up the river in 1824 he made mention of flood rack at least 20 feet high up in the trees along where Coronation Dr is indicating massive flooding in decades past. More info about floods and . Wivenhoe was intended as a water supply only for Bris. When the 74 floods came, the Surveyors Association considered how it could be used to controll any future floods. They obtained the engineering designs and calculated that by adding 20m to the height of the dam it would double tha capacity. This extra 20m could be then used as a buffer to retain the flood waters. They took the idea and plans to Jo who called in Leo Hielscher (comptroller general??). A week later Leo came back and said great idea (that was back in the days when common sense got things done). As we now know that extra 20m has saved bris from extinction in droughts and is no longer used for flood control. The president of the surveyors association told me all that in the early 90's - not sure that he is still around but a simple matter to contact them.
: Started out as one thing and ended up somewhere else. It was supposed to loop out through Brookes Street Bowen Hills (I think through Turbot St not sure) and link across to Gympie Rd Windsor and then back out to Strathpine (which was the main North Coast Highway until the new highway went through in the early 80s. I'm pretty sure that is how it was meant to go.
Great work Rob - I look at quite a few of your vids. Talking about Turbot St - be nice if you could dig up stuff on the old Turbot St/Roma St fruit & veg markets - and especially the close by Roma St Police Station.
Great video love these historic videos
Great video Rob, But missed out on important place to me. The Government Motor Garage in Alice Street. The Garage goes back to the horse and and cart days. It was out the back of Parliament House. I remember watching the freeway being constructed while I did my apprenticeship. I wrote a xy Falcon off once on road test on the south east freeway.Also had a girded tour of the morgue up the road. Not so good.
Thank you Rob for another informative video.
Fantastic. Great video mate.
Great video. I walk the section between Victoria bridge and 1 William street every day. Great to know some of the history of the area.
I really enjoyed this one. I’m a sucker for Victoria Bridge history so this had me rewinding & pausing on your photos. Loved it!
Cool, glad you enjoyed it!
Love these videos Rob!
Thanks, great to learn a a bit about a path I have run along many times. Also loved to see the artworks which where done by the company I work for also an little known part of Brisbane.
Great video. It freaks me out seeing those cars whiz by you and the cyclists weren't much better 😬
What a tragic indictment of the current cost of living crisis to see the homeless camps. Very sad.
Albo bringing in 600,000 PLUS people per year competing for housing rentals that we don't have. Our P.M. has failed Australia.
Very interesting 🧐 fun facts about Brisbane city Wharf!!
big thumbs up for the Pettigrew sawmill. The Pettigrew sawmill was ultimately destroyed by the 1893 floods. My husband's family is descended from this family.
Hi Rob. I love your walks. May I suggest while your talking about things you leave pauses and sit on the images your showing for 2 seconds longer or more. Just to allow for image absorption. It's fascinating what you talk about and gives Brisbane a soul.cheers
Hey Rob....my name is Ric...an ex Beenleigh/Eagleby resident...I totally love your videos and can tell you I lived in the area when perrys was the only shop in town.
All those trees you see in and around the bmx track and the duck pond were planted by me and the crew as a punishment for being a naughty boy...on my community service for drinking and driving..
You are such a breath of fresh air and have a wicked sense of humour...keep up the great work and thanks for the memories....😢
That was so interesting, thanks man, I grew up in brissy, worked at the Neville Bonner building when it opened, I had no idea it’s not there anymore, I’m a Radelaidian now so it’s nice having a walk through my old stomping grounds with you and really interesting knowledge along the way :)
I was on the original construction crew. Crazy to think a building I spent 2 years constructing is gone already.
@@assassinofoz1 William st was the first construction job I worked on Neville bonner gone not long after 2016
@@assassinofoz we loved that place, it was open plan and made everyone feel like one, the outdoor area was brilliant also for lunch breaks, so thank you!
Thank You Rob for another great video. I used to ride my bike or even skateboard to Uni at QUT GP along that path. Might be time to check it out again.
The Riverside Expressway was just a small part of the cancelled Brisbane Ring Freeway system.
The only other parts completed were the SE and Western Freeway.
The ring distributor, the Eastern and Northern freeways couldn't be built after the then Whitlam Fed Gov diverted the fuel tax away from purely road infrastructure into other projects.
Clem7, Go Between and Legacy Way kind of replicate part of the planned ring distributor, with Airport Link taking a small part of the load that the Northern freeway would have.
Fun facts, an easement for the Northern freeway still exists and there is was a weird dead end centre exit on the SE freeway that was for the never completed ring freeway.
nice one robby
The yanks who planned it came back years later and were astounded to find we'd only built half of what they had in mind.
Ripping out a tram system that was as good or better than Melbourne's and bringing more cars into the city - a recipe for traffic congestion resulting in one way streets and a massive eyesore expressway on the river. In the same space of roadway a tram carrying over 100 people replaced by three cars carrying a maximum of 15 people, and usually only carrying 3 people. And the motorists had the audacity to blame the trams for the congestion that the motorists were causing!
They burnt the tram holding yard down.
Walk this route a lot. Thanks for telling me the finer points of things.
Amazing - brought back memories from late 60’s loved it. Even in the 70’s when the area was used as a car park for QIT students and public servants, it was a dark “Cave”.
I really enjoyed this... Thank you very much :-)
Awesome video respect
Your work to create this channel is pretty cool.
Facinating!
Interesting documentary, thanks!
Fantastic!