Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 10 : Record of press coverage, March 1982 - May 1984

., ,r ------- 18 February 1983. The Courier-Mail. Games were catalyst for new city pride 1982 will come to be known as the year Brisbane emerged from some serious na,•el gazing into an agressive and optimistic city. The labored transition between countrv town and big cit,· was resolved once and for all. For the first lime the local people regarded themselves as Brisbanites first and Queens– landers serond. No doubt the major catal~·st for this new-found 11ride was the Commonwealth Garnes. Brisbane proved itself capable of staging a world-rlass event with a great deal of st,·le and an almost defiant air of parochial Australianism. llead;v stuff for any State ,·apital, hut desperately needed to stake a claim in this largel.v decentral– ised State. An award-winning public rt•la– tions campaign kickl'd off h_,, thf' Hrisbanr. Citv Counl'il - urging resid1•nls io "shin,· on llrisbanl'" - pru,·cd lo he mort• 11opular than lht• 1111ndil~ 1.:011ld J1a,·e ever inm,:-incd. But underlying the hype were tangible reasons for this almost embarrassing show of city pride. The oft-reported flight to the sun belt by the southern resi– dents showed the average Aust– ralian was voting with his feet to take advantage of the eco– nomic opportunity and improved lifestyle in south-east Queensland. Most of these people settled in Brisbane and its immediate surroundings, The culturally aware were tre– ated to the opening of the Queensland Art Gallery. Sev– eral hundred ilH'iled g-uests thronged the banks of the Bris– ban,• River lo lake part in an O\'erl (b.v Hrishane standards) display of pomp and ceremony. Stagc one of the Queensland Cultural Cl'ntre, the art gallery, 1·ontributed substanliall.1· lo the o\'crall 1·sti111:1l~cl 1·ost of S28 million , l'iol suqll'isingl,1·, llu• ,·,·ar's al'li\'ill' 1·n•:tll'd a n1riositl' fal'– lol' that i., IHI\\ IH'ing fi•IL in louri,111 fi,:11r1•s, \ ,