Roma Street Parklands

 

Only our second day of rain in Brisbane, well more like cloudy skies and the threat of rain so off we went into the city again. The train back and forth is the way to go, no parking hassles!

We snuck into the City Hall auditorium as having checked out the splendor of the exterior on our previous town visit, we were still curious about the interior. It didn't disappoint.

There was a jazz trio playing so we sat and enjoyed the grandeur for a while. 

City Hall is magnificent and it's  great to have this historic building smack bang in the heart of the  city while all around  new modern towering buildings are popping up like mushrooms. Great rest rooms too!    

Off we set for the Roma Street Parklands across St George's Square which had a wonderful sculpture just tucked away in the corner. Only later did we discover there is a fantastic self guided CBD public sculpture walk  - we'll  save that  for our next visit.

To get to Roma Street Parklands you take the path up the delightful Jacobs Ladder Steps which in itself is a sweet little green spot in the city.

At the foot of Jacobs Ladder we came across  a set of four Darlek cast brass sculptures. They are terrific and were part of the 1988 Brisbane hosted World Expo. Whilst looking like Darleks we later discovered they were  "Forms of Myth" (Forme Del Mito ) by Italian artist Arnaldo Pomodoro. Each piece  a character from the ancient Greek play Agamemnon. They are in the sculpture walk apparently :)

Another surprise on our walk to the gardens was Queensland's oldest historic building, a human powered windmill built in 1828. It was used to grind wheat and maize and as there was not enough wind to drive the sails, a convict powered treadmill was used. Once the penal colony was closed in 1842  it became an observation deck/lookout used to signal ships coming up river by a series of flags and then later still it  was used  to fire a cannon daily at 1.00pm so the good people of Brisbane could set their  clocks and watches.  Fantastic to stumble upon the gem.

Hurrah we made it to Roma Street Parklands, literally just 10 mins direct walking (we stopped a lot) from the CBD and you have 16 hectares of stunning parkland with  a range of paths to explore.

The gardens are ready to burst into bloom with spring and will look even more stunning in a couple of weeks.

There are any number of picnic lawns, dells, outdoor seating and there looked to be a free entertainment programme every weekend. 

Just walking along admiring the gardens we came across two incredible water dragons  - living dinosaurs! They were clearly comfortable being admired by the park visitors! Zoom in and you can really see how incredible they are.

 There is a large lawn that leads down to a stunning fountain and  lake which is home to many  Australian White Ibis. They looked lovely in this park setting.  We've seen them in the city being a nuisance around outdoor cafe tables, like seagulls on the food scrounge but much bigger than seagulls!  

We had intended to walk across the river footbridge to the Museum but we had run out of steam so happily jumped on the train and went home happy.  We can highly recommend Roma's Street Parklands to Brisbane visitors and be sure to check the event programme online, they have free  summer concerts which would be fabulous in that garden setting.

Home again, home again jiggedy-jig.