As a child I hated history with a passion and I lay the blame squarely with the way it was taught. Dry, boring and non-relevant. As an adult, I am gradually falling in love with history all over again and its because the history I'm immersing myself in is Australian history. I visited Wickham Terrace this morning and visited The Old Windmill - Brisbane's longest surviving building, constructed by convicts in 1828. Originally, it was used in combination with a convict powered treadmill to mill grain. In 1861, it was converted to a Observatory and Signal Tower. A time-ball dropped at 1pm each day. The time ball was decomissioned in 1866, replaced by a canon firing at 1pm. The time-ball was recomissioned in 1984 and continued to operate until the City Hall clock tower came into operation in the 1930s. I walked up from the city, first taking on the historic stone stairs, then the concrete steps carved into the hill up to Wickham Terrace. I've walked this way often - a friend was in hospital up here for nearly six months. I find Wickham Park (pictured) truly spooky. I've never seen grass under these trees. They are incredibly old and I get a feeling of a ancient forest each time I come here. Its a very different park to the usual Brisbane sunshine-and-lawn open space. On the way back down to the city, I caught a glimpse of City Hall. The contrast between the spooky park and the sun-bathed city was too good to ignore, even if City Hall is now dwarfed by the city buildings. I recently "took tea" in the Original Shingle Inn, reconstructed inside City Hall. If you're visiting the city any time soon, I highly recommend it. I was instantly transported back to a frigid winter's day in 1979 - the first time I ever visited the Shingle Inn. Sadly, I can't give a recommendation on the food. I was too busy with the fittings and fixtures. The only thing I didn't enjoy - they took the orders on tablets. Wouldn't it have been nice if the wait staff recreated the original Shingle Inn experience as well as the fittings and fixtures did? 19/6/2013 07:03:07 am
I remember walking up those stairs and passing the old windmill many times when I was a kid and a teenager and never thinking anything of it. It's funny sometimes how as adult we crave history and learning, in some aspects, more than the child does. Or I guess it's just that our interests are different. I've never considered Wickham Park spooky though and now you've piqued my interest I think I'll have to take a walk through there again :)
Fiona Greene
25/6/2013 07:44:09 am
Danielle, my earlier reply was obviously eaten by a monster sitting under those trees in Wickham Park. 29/6/2013 02:02:54 am
As a child I spent some time in St Andrew's hospital on the terrace and quite a few months visiting specialists there. Every time I walked past the old windmill I added to a story running in my head of an entire community of magical people who lived inside but were never seen. I think it was not long after I'd read the story of the shoemaker so I had to find where his elves came from. Comments are closed.
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Fiona Greene AuthorWhen you set out on a journey and night falls, that's when you will discover the stars." Archives
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