The Brisbane Showgrounds (formerly known as the Brisbane Exhibition Ground) is a multi-purpose venue located in Bowen Hills, Brisbane, Australia. Established in 1875, it hosts more than 250 events each year, the largest being the Royal Queensland Show (Ekka).
The Brisbane Showgrounds was designed by Claude William Chambers and built by Walls & Juster. It is also referred to as the RNA Showgrounds, Ekka Grounds, Royal National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland, Exhibition Grounds/Show Grounds, and Royal Queensland Showgrounds. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 25 July 2003. https://qhr.detsi.qld.gov.au/asset/?slug=qld-brisbane-exhibition--eaf4e5
The Brisbane Showgrounds is owned and operated by The Royal National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland. Over 9 days in August, it hosts the Ekka show. Throughout the rest of the year, other events can hire spaces in the Brisbane Showgrounds.
History The site of the Brisbane Showgrounds, together with the nearby Victoria Park, was originally utilised by the Indigenous Turrbal or Duke of York clan as a camp ground. They called this area Barrambin. During the early colonial period, the British named it York's Hollow.Tom Petrie's Reminiscences of Early Queensland. St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press. 1992. p. 35. . During the 1840s, up to 400 Turrbal people would reside around the waterholes at York's Hollow. In 1846, police constables dispersed this major campsite killing at least 3 people, while in 1849 British soldiers of the 11th Regiment conducted another dispersal wounding several. Also in 1849, York's Hollow started to be used as a campsite for the influx of newly arrived European immigrants under John Dunmore Lang's immigration scheme. It was also utilised as a site for brick manufacture and by 1860 it appears that Aboriginal people were no longer able to reside in the area.
In July 1863, the site became part of the Queensland Acclimatisation Society's grounds. This Society, established in 1862 to promote the introduction, acclimatisation, propagation and distribution in Queensland of economically useful plants and animals, was granted of land bounded by Bowen Bridge Road, O'Connell Terrace, Brookes Street and Gregory Terrace. At the north-western corner of the site, fronting Bowen Bridge Road and O'Connell Terrace, the Society established a public exhibition garden Bowen Park. The remainder of the site was used for experimentation purposes, growing and propagating plants and seeds sent from other parts of Queensland, other colonies and around the world, and raising various introduced animals. The Society played an important role in the beginnings of commercial agriculture in Queensland, introducing or trialling crops and plants such as mango trees, ginger plants, sugar cane, olive trees and choko vines.
The history of the Ekka on the site of the Brisbane Showgrounds dates back to August 1876, with the staging of the Queensland Intercolonial Exhibition. None of the buildings from 1876 have survived, but the grounds have increased from an original to and contain a variety of structures and facilities associated with the annual August Ekka. The site has been the venue for Queensland's principal agricultural exhibition for 139 years. It remains the home of the annual Royal Queensland Show and is Queensland's premier showground. Since 1876, four annual Royal Queensland Shows on this site have been cancelled: the 1919 Exhibition due to the influenza epidemic, in 1942 during World War II when the grounds were occupied by military personnel and the 2020 and 2021 shows due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Queensland's 1876 Intercolonial Exhibition was not the first competitive demonstration of agricultural and industrial progress in the colony. In 1854, squatters from the Darling Downs and Moreton Bay districts of New South Wales established the Northern Districts' Agricultural and Pastoral Association, modelled on the Scottish Highland Agricultural Societies. They planned to hold exhibitions (mainly of pastoral produce) at Brisbane, Ipswich, Warwick, Drayton and Gayndah, in rotation, and some shows were held before the Association became immersed in more political activities. Nurseryman Albert John Hockings was instrumental in holding horticultural shows in Brisbane from 1855. In the 1860s other regional agricultural and pastoral associations were formed, among the earliest being the Darling Downs Agricultural Society (based at Toowoomba) in 1860, the Drayton and Toowoomba Agricultural and Horticultural Society in 1864, the East Moreton Farmers Association (based at Ipswich) in 1866 and the Eastern Downs Horticultural and Agricultural Association (based at Warwick) in 1867. These Associations conducted annual exhibitions of agricultural, horticultural, and pastoral produce and farm machinery. Prizes were awarded for best exhibits. The object was to encourage the exchange of knowledge and to foster better farm practice. Associations such as these proliferated in Queensland during the second half of the 19th century and each held an annual "show".
In 1874 moves were initiated by Queensland's Chief Inspector of Stock, Patrick Robertson Gordon, to form a national agricultural society, to plan Brisbane's first intercolonial exhibition. He was supported by Gresley Lukin, editor of the Brisbane Courier and the Queenslander, and agricultural agent John Fenwick. In May 1875 an inaugural meeting, presided over by the Queensland Governor, Sir William Wellington Cairns, was held to form the National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland. A constitution drafted by the headmaster of the Brisbane Grammar School, Thomas Harlin, was adopted in July, and the first meeting of the National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland was held at the Brisbane Town Hall on 13 August 1875. Arthur Hunter Palmer, later Premier of Queensland, was elected to the chair and other founding members included Joshua Peter Bell, George Harris, George Gromes, Thomas Harlin, Charles Stewart Mein and William Hemmant. At this meeting, the use of part of the Queensland Acclimatisation Society's grounds was discussed and subsequently, a lease of approximately from the Society was arranged.
The alliance with the Acclimatisation Society was considered to be a sensible arrangement. There were common interests, the site was well supplied with water and convenient to the city and it was thought at the time that many women and townspeople, who might have hesitated in visiting a purely utilitarian exhibition of produce, animals and farm machinery, may have been induced by the additional attraction of the Acclimatisation Society Gardens.
The Intercolonial Exhibition was intended to promote and showcase the agricultural, pastoral and industrial resources of the whole of Queensland. Whether it could be sustained beyond a single exhibition remained to be seen. The National Association did not wish to supplant regional agricultural societies and associations, but wished to encourage their organisation, and foster a spirit of friendly rivalry amongst them by holding a grand central exhibition for the competition of winners at minor shows.Brisbane Courier 25 October 1875 To avoid clashing with local shows and in order to hold the exhibition during fine weather, before the shearing season, and when good feed would be found along the roads, it was decided to stage the Exhibition in August 1876.
The first exhibition building was a large timber hall with side aisles and a central clerestory. It was erected in 1876 along Gregory Terrace near the corner of Bowen Bridge Road, at a cost of , and was a modification of a design prepared by Queensland Colonial Architect, Francis Stanley. Sydney exhibitor Jules Joubert added a rectangular wing to the northern side to increase the extent of his exhibition. Cattle, sheep and horse stalls of hardwood framing with corrugated iron roofing were erected in the grounds and a small showring was established north of the Exhibition Building.
The first Queensland Intercolonial Exhibition was declared open by Governor Cairns on Tuesday 22 August 1876 and ran until 28 August. It proved immensely popular, with a total of taken at the gate. Thereafter, the Exhibition became an annual event.
In the period 1876–1888, the National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland expended an estimated on the grounds. The main exhibition building was doubled in size for the 1877 exhibition and another annexe was provided for horticultural exhibits.
In 1879, the National Association was awarded a lease of of the Acclimatisation Society grounds for a period of 50 years, for use as an exhibition ground. In 1881 the railway to Sandgate was constructed through the National Association and Acclimatisation Society grounds creating the Exhibition railway station. The line was later re-routed via Central, Brunswick Street and Bowen Hills, but the Exhibition railway line still opens each year during the August show. By 1882, the Exhibition Grounds comprised all the land south, southeast and east of the railway line and bounded by Bowen Bridge Road, Gregory Terrace, Brookes Street and O'Connell Terrace. A 1000-seat capacity grandstand, designed by Francis Stanley, was erected in 1885 (not the first grandstand on the site). In 1887 a timber residence designed by George Addison was constructed at the corner of O'Connell Terrace and Brookes Street for the Secretary of the National Association.
In 1887, the first exhibition building was destroyed by fire. The public called for it to be replaced with a masonry building, but the National Association was reluctant to commit to the necessary expenditure without more secure land tenure, against which they could borrow money for permanent exhibition buildings. In 1888 a temporary timber exhibition building was constructed for approximately , while the National Association called for competitive designs for a permanent exhibition building. Under the provisions of the National Association and Acclimatisation Society Act 1890, the land leased from the Queensland Acclimatisation Society for an exhibition ground was resumed and granted to the National Association as Trustees, who were also empowered under this act to borrow money from the Queensland Government to erect the new exhibition building.
The design competition was won by George Addison, the Brisbane partner of the Melbourne based firm Oakden, Addison & Kemp. In 1890 Addison amended his original design to a T-shape, incorporating a southern wing with a concert hall which could be rented out to offset repayments on the government loan. The new building was erected closer to the corner of Bowen Bridge Road and Gregory Terrace than the original building. The foundation stone was laid on 25 April 1891 and the builder, John Quinn, was required to have a section of the building completed for the August 1891 exhibition, with the whole of the building to be completed within 12 months.
A plan of the Exhibition Grounds published in The Queenslander on 15 August 1891 shows the new exhibition building, several smaller pavilions, a show ring in the position of the present main show ring, the 1885 grandstand (where the Ernest Baynes Stand is now located), animal shelters along the boundaries and the secretary's residence near Brookes Street.