QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

West Germany’s farewell

Image (T108-3) courtesy of Brisbane City Council

The site was a striking vista from near and far, by day and by night, with its huge high-tensile membrane ‘sun-sails’ making vaulted tents of the skyline, the 88m-tall Night Companion light spire, and the unique futuristic illuminated white inflatable cubes, triangles and spheres that floated in groups by the Expo foreshore, known as the ‘cubistic flotilla’. The 40ha site was split into several zones – each featuring a different colour of tropical and outback Queensland, and each corner filled with landscaped trees, shrubs and flowers representing the participating region of the world. Scores of large-scale international and Australian artworks dotted the site in one of the world’s most expensive and largest sculpture gardens. Meticulously planned street theatre comics, clowns and comedians entertained the queues, lines and boulevards of the Expo while 22 tropical fish blimps floated overhead on their tethers. The Queensland Pavilion also hosted the Expo Monorail which silently slid along its neon-blue 2.3km-long track as it passed through the top storeys of the Pavilion rainforest foyer. Every one of the more than 16.5 million Expo visitors had a favourite pavilion or highlight. Canada provided a multi-screen audio-visual projection, France brought leisure equipment and resorts, Cyprus works of art, Pakistan a carpet bazaar, Spain showcased its upcoming Olympics (Barcelona, 1992), and New Zealand and the USA both made their own striking impacts.

Above: The sun-sails logo which captured the sub-tropical party atmosphere of the event. Image by Cato Purnell Partners Below: The Expo Monorail glides past the very popular German Pavilion. Image by Papermoon Productions

Interestingly, two countries made their final official World Exposition appearances in Brisbane in 1988: the USSR and West Germany; neither would exist more than two years’ hence, as the Cold War ended with the collapse of one and the reunification of the other. Unlikely to ever be forgotten is the unofficial Bavarian Pavilion with its tavern-like 1,300-seat Munich Festhaus . There, attendants in traditional lederhosen served Sauerkraut and sausage to the lively tunes of the Bavarian brass band playing – over and over again – what was arguably the biggest hit of the fair. Hundreds of people at a time would stomp out the movements as they performed the “chicken dance” at an increasing frenzy of enthusiasm and tempo … and that’s not a bad way to remember a coming-of-age party.

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