Vew from the chair: Speeches of Richard WL Austin

Public interest in the establishment of an art gallery was renewed some years later by Godfrey Rivers, who was the President of the Queensland Art Society and Art Master at the Technical College, and his enthusiasm produced results at the end of 1894. The Premier, Sir Hugh Nelson, undertook to donate some pictures and engravings belonging to the Government as the nucleus for an art gallery if suitable accommodation could be found. Rivers persuaded the Mayor of Brisbane, Robert Fraser, to make a room available in the upper floor of the Town Hall building in Queen Street, now demolished. Works of art were lent by a number of citizens, including Sir Samuel Griffith and Sir James Robert Dixon, and were donated by the artists Isaac Walter Jenner, Godfrey Rivers, L.W.K. Wirth and Oscar Fristrom. These formed the basis of the first collection, together with a bequest of seventeenth-century Dutch paintings from the estate of Thomas Lodge Murray-Prior, journalist and politician, who died in 1892. The Gallery was officially opened in the Town Hall by the Governor of Queensland, Sir Henry Wylie Norman, on 29 March 1895. It was managed by a Board of Trustees under the distinguished chairmanship of Sir Samuel Griffith, Chief Justice of Queensland. Godfrey Rivers, who set up the Gallery in these first premises, became its Honorary Curator. The Gallery's first full-time Curator, James Watts, was appointed in 1915, but it was not until 1949 that the first Director, Robert Campbell, was appointed. Since then the Gallery has had five Directors-Robert Haines ( 1951-60), Laurie Thomas ( 1961-67), James Wieneke ( 1967-74), Raoul Mellish ( 1974-87) and the present Director, Doug Hall, who took up office in 1987. Before its opening in the Queensland Cultural Centre in 1982, the Queensland Art Gallery was located in a series of temporary quarters. The first move was ln 1905 to the top floor of the then recendy completed Executive Building in George Street, later known as the Land Administration Building. 2 In 1930 the Gallery was moved again, to the Exhibition Building erected in 1891 to the design of architect G.H.M. Addison. The Gallery, situated in the building's former Concert Hall, was opened to the public on II February 1931, but was not officially opened by the Governor of Queensland, Sir John Goodwin, until 8 April 1931. In 1974 the Gallery was relocated to temporary premises in the Mount Isa Mines Building in Ann Street. In 1982 the Gallery moved from the MIM Building to its new home on the south bank of the Brisbane River-stage I of the Queensland Cultural Centre. With the move, the Gallery was transformed from a small institution with less than thirty staff to an institution of international standing with more than ninety staff. Winner of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects special citation in 1982 and the Sir Zelman Cowen Award for Architectural excellence, the Gallery-designed by Robin Gibson and Partners, has since been applauded by visiting museum professionals from throughout the world. The atmosphere of the Gallery, which complements the sub-tropical climate of the city, provides a relaxed, open and spacious environment, combining artificial and natural lighting and ornamental water pools. That really brings us almost up to the present day. Big changes, however, took place last year. In May a new Queensland Art Gallery Act, No. 40 of 1987 was passed. This turned the Council into a Board and turned the President into a Chairman, to be appointed by the Minister and not, as previously, selected by his fellow Trustees, 100