Well guys ... guess what I found today .... 1946 Brisbane aerial
photos online, covering pretty much the entire Brisbane City Council
local government area!
Now, I've known about these aerial images for three years now. One of
the privileges of being a student in the Faculty of Built Environment
& Engineering at the Queensland University of Technology is that I get
free access to eBIMAP, an interactive Geographic Information System
provided by the Brisbane City Council with a name that makes 18-year-
old first-years snigger, which allows you to do all sorts of cool
things like show water mains, bus routes, cadastral descriptions,
planning zones, heritage properties - you name it, eBIMAP will do it.
Now, of course, to regular people this stuff costs an arm and a leg.
Anyway, one of the layers within eBIMAP is 1946 aerial imagery. But
BCC has given my university a licence which lets four users from QUT
log onto it at the one time. Often it's impossible to get on because
of all the urban planning students need it for their assignments. In
any case, you need a $$$$ licence, or be a student or on the teaching
staff at the Faculty of BEE. And there are strict licencing conditions
that your use of eBIMAP can only be in relation to genuine study work.
However, today ... I found another way to access these images. For
FREE!!! I hope this link works for you guys:
http://olr13.brisbane.qld.gov.au/website/MN_CP/index.htm
If that link doesn't work, another way of getting to the images is
this:
(1) Go to
http://pdonline.brisbane.qld.gov.au -- the Council's
planning & development web portal
(2) Click on "Interactive Mapping"
(3) Accept the licence
(4) A web GIS app should load up. When it loads up, expand "Aerial
Imagery" on the left sidebar, then tick "Aerial Photography 1946".
And have lots and lots of fun!
Some intereseting observations so far ...
(1) The north end of the Story Bridge ... the Bradfield Highway just
ENDS at a t-junction with Ann Street. Gipps Street is nothing more
than a back alley (albeit, a back alley with a bridge over the
railway), but it requires a dogleg across a very busy Ann Street to
take that route (Ann Street looks busy, even in the days of petrol
rationing and spare parts shortages and a metropolitan population of
roughly 400,000). Otherwise, to get to the northern suburbs from the
Story Bridge, you have to turn right onto Ann Street and left onto
Brunswick Street through gazillions of trams (Fortitude Valley was the
terminus for two routes from the southside, and of the ones that
didn't terminate, all passed through the Valley), or go left and do a
very sharp right-hand turn at Centenary Square.
(2) Barry Parade ... it is totally obvious that someone (probably the
visionary and not-very-well-remembered first Lord Mayor of the City of
Greater Brisbane, William Jolly) had intended for Barry Parade to be
the new main highway north of the city. Compare its width to
surrounding main streets and the amount of traffic on it - it's busier
than it is today, now that Barry Parade is just a cul-de-sac and even
that dopey "TO BRUCE HWY AND NORTHERN SUBURBS" sign has been moved.
Also, by driving down Barry Parade, you avoid the gazillions of trams
in the Valley and the thousands of housewives doing their shopping at
McWhirter's (if they were Protestant) or T.C. Beirne (if they were
Catholic).
(3) People complain about sprawl and bad town planning now ... check
out some of the outer suburbs of the time, like Banyo or Camp Hill.
Look at all the empty lots and the oversized lots and the dirt roads.
Look at how discontiguous the urban footprint is. Town planning in
Australia has a lot to learn from overseas best practice - but still
we've come a thousand miles since those days!
(4) Saul Street and Skew Street at the northern end of the William
Jolly Bridge are both two-way. There must have been a lot of lovely
accidents where the Bridge, Saul St, Skew St, Coronation Dr offramp
and North Quay all met.
(5) Lang Park doesn't even have a grandstand. I'm guessing Brisbane
Rugby League Grand Finals and Test matches were played at the Gabba or
the RNA.
(6) In Woollongabba ... check out the long-gone railway line which
branched off at Dutton Park, snaked its way northwards through
Woollongabba and then went through a tunnel under Vulture Street. Then
activate the most recent 2009 aerial imagery. The tunnel is now a
cutting for the M3 Pacific Motorway.
(7) Gregory Terrace between College Road and Brunswick Street is the
only divided road I can find. Seems strange, because it's not THAT
busy now - Gregory Tce is quiet enough that it's fairly easy to cross
mid-block without the assistance of zebra stripes or lights. I can't
see why it would have been busy enough to warrant duplication
pre-1946.
Now ... why are there 1946 photos on PDOnline, 1999 photos, and
nothing in between? My theory ... Brisbane City Council has some very
strict rules about demolishing or altering pre-1946 houses (World War
Two being the rough dividing line between the ornate, aesthetically
pleasing architecture of yesteryear, and the drab post-war fibro boxes
which were a product of post-war rationing, a long post-war credit
squeeze, a dominant architectural philosophy of functionalist
minimalism, and building material shortages ... these houses are
generally ugly to most people and therefore, based on superficial
aesthetic criteria, not worthy to be included on heritage lists). So,
these 1946 aerial photos could come in very handy for developers and
even mum-and-dad renovators.
Also, after the war, my hunch would be that there would have been a
metric crapload of photogrammetric equipment lying around in idle
aircraft which the Royal Australian Air Force under the direction of
the Commonwealth Department of Post-War Reconstruction would have made
available to state governments and local authorities across the
country.
I hope you enjoy these 1946 photos as much as I do. =)
Cheers,
Brad.