Bush Houses of the Queensland International Exhibition

1897- Brisbane’s Second Intercolonial Exhibition

One of the main drawcards for the people of Brisbane, when attending the Exhibition was the spectacular Bush Houses. LImited evidence of these Bush Houses remain in the grounds of The Old Museum. But research reveals that they were extensive.

Bush Houses were created to provide cool shady conditions for people to congregate, and to propagate and care for palms, ferns and similar rainforest plants. At the 1897 Exhibition they provided a spectacular link between the building and the pavilions.

(Jeannie Sim, ‘the Bush -House: Shady Paradise Retreat’)

Photos below show Willian Soutters Award winning Bush Houses

“…more than 3000 staghorn, bird’s nest and elkhorn ferns collected from the Blackall Range, and filling its rockeries were some 9550 potted plants and ‘many thousands’ of other plants” The Queenslander, 19 June 1897

www.marquis-kyle.com.au/koken/albums/old-museum-bush-houses/

“The term 'bush-house' derived from early use of Tea-tree (Melaleuca) leaves for roofing; in India and elsewhere such structures were also known as canvas houses, lath houses (timber strips), chick houses (split bamboo) , or betel houses (the evergreen creeper Piper bet/e) after their mode of roofing.”

(Oxford Companion to Australian Gardens)

'“In Brisbane, as part of the Queensland Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1897, the award winning bush-house which connected the main Exhibition Building and the annexes, was reported in The Queenslander (1897b, 1344) as 'a perfect dream of greenery, an enchanted bower of ferns, palms and orchids, so artistically arranged, so tastefully interwoven, that one can hardly credit that it was erected by human hands in the space of a few short weeks. It is nature made perfect.' This bush-house perfection was the work of William Soutter, curator of the Queensland Acclimatisation Society's gardens in Bowen Park.”

'Climate and Garden Design in Queensland' by Dr. Jeannie Sim

Remnants of the Bush Houses and Gardeners sheds remain in the grounds.