041 Research: Australia

In order to get a better perspective of Australia's rural regions, and isolated communities, I went to the Museum at Southbank on Wednesday afternoon, to get a brief background. I found myself being explained by a museum volunteer briefly on some aspects of Queensland's rich rural history at the 'Discover Queensland' exhibit:-

• Artesian water - blackall 
• Brisbane valley area - research
• Wivenhoe dam
• Wool industry - declining industry
• Strangler fig tree
• "Boxes on stilts" - Queenslander's timber houses

As it was only a brief background, I decided to check out for more information at the State Library of Queensland and was given some books by the librarian at the John Oxley section of the library, at level 4. Here are some brief notes:-

book: australia: an illustrated history

terra australis

maiwar - brisbane rive

walter burley griffin design of Canberra 1913

my comment: restore the faith of Australians for hope of the future

book: the federation mirror: queensland 1901-2001

federation in 1901 and queensland's history

centenary of federation program that moved to a different region of queensland each month celebrated a state of diverse and decentralised queensland

my comment: this a mobile program of events and activities, not necessarily architectural design as a motivator

my question: i think this can work for australia capital city. but what sort of architectural design can encourage a "different face" of australia that the citizens want to project on the global platform?

book: the changing face of rural australia

wambo, local govt shire in darling downs - most fertile region of QLD

"a microcosm of the changing face of rural Australia"

talks about the commitment of wambo's local farmers towards clean, disease free farming or agriculture in the face of evolving challenges that continues to be an obstacle for the locals

my question: how does this relate to the governance of Australia from the stand point of Canberra?

There were two more books which the librarian had nicely recommended to me, but I had no time to read two books of full written content. However, I will still look it up online, to see if I can get hold on some brief information in relation to the topics covered in the books;

1. book: squatter, selector and storekeeper - a history of the darling downs
2. book: a history of queensland by raymon evans

I think I have a little bit more understanding of the rural landscape of Queensland, and a general history of Australia. The long political spotlight that Queensland came under was an interesting portion, which also highlighted the much critical factor of multilevel governance that continues to exist in Australia. This "characteristic" is a bit unique to contemporary Australia coz I believe it has retained a lot of the traditional methods of planning and design since the World War I. There really is room for Australia to slowly depart itself from the "dipping" hands of this multilevel governance which has actually proven to stagnated some parts of growth for various states and regions, as this is proving to leave some of the society to fall behind within the cracks.

~ H