I took photographs of the model of Brisbane in D Block to gain a better understanding of the site. The images of the HSW model are below:
My own pictures of the site from the walkshop for DAB525 helped me understand how the site stands today, how it might feel to walk under the bridge, and the challanges of this site. The site is currently of limits as there is work being done by council to stabilise the cliffs and banks, maintain the heritage buildings and the WWII bomb shelters. Some of the images from my time on the site are below.
Currently Council is developing the site for new use. The plans currently in progress i found on the couriermail website i found the artist impression below very helpful in understanding some of the infrastructure we need to build for which isn't present on the site yet.
Plans that Council has for HSW in progress now:
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/restoration-of-howard-smith-wharves-on-track/story-e6freoof-1226017051819 The Courier-Mail
The barges will be used to drive new piles in the river to replace the old timber piles with concrete and steel to stop them being damaged by marine borers.
Brisbane City Council Finance Chair Cr Adrian Schrinner said the restoration was the first step in council's $17 million plans to revitalise the area.
``Securing the old wharf will allow pedestrians to safely use it as a walkway as well as allowing us to liven them up with outdoor dining and other events in the future,'' he said.
The new wharf will be up to 7.8 metres wide and will feature bench seating.
Schrinner said while recent flooding and damage to the floating Riverwalk had delayed the wharves' parkland development, Council was working to determine a timeframe for its delivery.
Last year, cliff stabilisation works were completed to ensure the safety of the community and help protect the World War II air-raid shelters at the base of the cliffs.
The Howard Smith Wharves area includes five World War II air-raid shelters which will be restored along with the timber wharf.
This building is heritage listed for several excellent reasons i found the following site helpful in understanding why:
http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/chims/placeDetail.html?siteId=16518
The first of the new structures erected was a two-storeyed reinforced concrete building completed by 1936 as offices for Howard Smith Co. Ltd. It was located on the waterfront, and commanded excellent views of the Town and Shafton Reaches of the Brisbane River. Three berths with five new storage sheds were planned. Each of the gabled sheds was constructed primarily of hardwood timber, and sheeted and roofed with timber boards and corrugated iron. Sliding doors within these sheds opened towards the river for the handling of cargo. Sheds nos.1-3 were located at the upper berth under the Story Bridge, the middle berth accommodated the large no.4 shed [double-gabled , twice as wide as the others, and much longer], and no.5 shed was located at the lower berth downstream. No.5 shed was the first to be erected and a temporary wharf constructed. The middle berth with no.4 shed was almost completed by 1937, then work commenced on the upper berth, which was to contain sheds 1-3. This was completed in 1939. For the wharves, a reinforced concrete base was laid on the rock at the river's edge, with timber piles rammed into the riverbed. Large hardwood timbers were used for the walings and decking, which extended about 24 feet (8 metres) out over the river. Hundreds of thousands of feet of timber - mostly hardwoods such as ironbark, blue gum, yellow stringybark, spotted gum and messmate - were required to build the berths. The road widening behind the sheds, which necessitated the cutting back of the New Farm cliffs, was completed by 1938. As work continued on the lower berth into 1940, the Second World War intervened. By 1942 the men working on the Petrie Bight works were transferred to other projects more directly connected with the war effort, and work on the wharves was closed down. The third berth appears never to have been completed. A 1945 plan of the site shows the upper and middle berths complete but the lower berth still without any timber decking for wharfage. In 1941-42 the Brisbane City Council constructed five air-raid shelters near the Howard Smith Wharves below the cliff face, for the Bureau of Industry. The threat of invasion by Japan appeared very real at the time, there was a substantial workforce employed at the wharves, and the site was located adjacent to the Story Bridge - a prime target in wartime. Three of the shelters were the usual 'pillbox' style built by the City Council at many places in the inner city and in the suburbs. This was a standard type, rectangular in plan and constructed of concrete. However, the other two shelters at the Howard Smith Wharves were constructed of large stormwater pipes with multiple entrances. The Brisbane City Council used concrete stormwater pipes to cover the slit trenches in the Botanic Gardens and Victoria Park, but no other air raid shelters of the 'pipe' type have been identified in Brisbane. It is not known why the two different types of shelters were constructed at the Howard Smith Wharves. Howard Smith signed a 21 year lease over the Brisbane Central Wharves site in 1936. After this lease expired the company made the inevitable move in the early 1960s to better facilities downstream at the mouth of the Brisbane River. The Water Police then occupied part of the site [the office building and several sheds], and Queensland Works Department has used the site for storage for many years. Vehicles impounded by the police were stored here as well. A large part of the timber decking from both the upper and middle berths was washed away during the 1974 floods. Most of the wharves which were built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the central city have been demolished in the riverside re-developments of the last 20 years. The former Howard Smith Wharves remain one of the few surviving, and the most intact, with office, sheds and wharfage.
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