Brisbane: Relaxation, Recreation and Rock ‘n’ Roll

Brisbane History Group

This volume comprises fifteen papers dealing with aspects of popular culture in Brisbane from the 1890s to the 1990s. The paper cover a wide range of subjects in three thematic sections.

The first section deals with Brisbane at leisure in the 1890s:
• bathing facilities and other amenities along the Brisbane River
• the establishment and opening of Brisbane Cricket Ground
• the rise in popularity of cycling
• attractions on offer at Sandagate
• trials and tribulations afflicting Southport
• problems and benefits of railway excursions
• growth in art appreciation and the opening of the Queensland National Gallery
• reading, literary circles and the limited availability of libraries
• changes in leisure fashion

The second section focuses on Brisbane at leisure in the twentieth century:
• the visitors, from international heroes, Robert Baden-Powell, Henry Morton Stanley,
Charles Kingsford Smith and Amy Johnson to international performers, Dame Nellie
Melba, Thomas Beecham and Noel Coward
• outdoor entertainment prior to the First World War, especially the open-air cinemas
• the advent of radio and television, and the problems of programming, advertising and
censorship
• the arrival of rock ’n’ roll, fears of public unrest, ‘bodgies and widgies’, the 1957 tour of
Bill Haley and his Comets
The final section considers pubs, publicans and the law:
• the changing role of hotels
• the often stringent legislative requirements imposed on licensees
• the origins of Brisbane’s Irish brewers and cordial makers
Brisbane: Relaxation, Recreation and Rock ’n’ Roll offers a veritable smorgasbord of papers about popular culture in Brisbane from the 1890s to the present. It looks at entertainment, from the earliest open-air picture theatres to bathing facilities along the Brisbane River, from train excursions to Brisbane seaside resorts, to watching the cricket at the Gabba, and going down the pub for a little light refreshment. The popular radio and television programs of the 1950s are featured, and their impact upon Brisbane audiences. For those preferring live entertainment, there are the international personalities who visited Brisbane, from the famed, but somewhat inconspicuous and restrained, explorer Henry Morton Stanley to the ebullient and energetic Bill Haley.

There is much to sample and digest. In fact, the volume is for anyone interested in popular culture in Brisbane, from the nineteenth century to the recent past.