Q is for…Queensland

In 2008 I travelled to Australia to do an exchange with Queensland College of Art. It was an amazing experience, living in Brisbane for 6 months and getting to do a little travelling around as well, though not quite as much as I would have liked. As I was still in university a lot of the photos that I can find are of friends and whilst a brilliant trip don memory lane for me not so interesting for anyone else, so here is a little glimpse into some of the places I went and things that I did.

These first two pictures were my commute from where I was staying to the university, I arrived in Brisbane in July which is technically Australian winter but is more like a British summer, so even though it maybe doesn’t look warm, it was better weather than I would usually come across in winter.

Whilst staying there was a big fireworks night called Riverfire, I’m not entirely sure what it was celebrating but a group of us made a night of it and I ended up getting some pretty interesting pictures.

I went to the Gold Coast with a friend on one weekend unfortunately the day we decided to make the trip it bucketed with rain; she was pretty disappointed, I loved it. It didn’t make for any decent pictures but it reminded me of home. However a few weekends later a group of us ventured up the Sunshine Coast, Mooloolaba specifically, and it didn’t disappoint. I’ve made myself jealous just looking at this picture of the beach and I was there.

Another road trip was to Toowoomba, where I actually have some distant family, we arrived on a parade weekend, I cant remember exactly what it was for but I believe there was a beautiful flower show on as well, which is impressive as at the time there had been massive drought and everywhere was trying to conserve water. It might still be the case.

We also had a look around and found a place called Picnic Point with some lovely views.

It had been a beautiful weekend and the sun had shone constantly and then on the drive back there was a horrendous storm, the pictures I did get didn’t do it justice but I had never seen anything like it and I’m surprised we actually made it back to Brisbane in one piece.

I actually did manage to leave the state only once and made it to Melbourne, which I loved. Lots of art, lots of interesting museums and galleries and we were staying out of the city so we got the best of both. It was the city of a few firsts, first time going to see some horse racing, at the Flemington racecourse (most likely the last time as well), first time going to the casino, first time on a tram and the first time going to see Wicked the musical.

So I was there to study and since a lot of my time was taken up creating work I thought I would share a photo that I made using zone plates, I would try and explain what a zone plate is but I honestly can’t remember all the details. All I remember was that this was when I started being quite experimental with my art work and that I was so glad that I had the chance to experience another way of working. Although I think I definitely need to go back to Australia and do a bit more exploring!

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