Thanks to the many people who took the time to send condolences following the death of my mother. I appreciate the messages of support immensely. It has been a really stressful time for the whole family - my wife lost her father to cancer in February; then Mum was diagnosed with cancer in April and passed away in July; to top it off, this month mrs tff and I have moved out of our abode for a couple of months to allow for some renovations to occur.
Now back to blogging!
Just as an appetiser to get us rolling again, here is an aerial photo taken above Teneriffe in March 1993. The Story Bridge and some of the taller CBD buildings are clearly visible in the background.
But it's the foreground that I am more interested in.
The long building with the white roof is what used to be the Queensland Primary Producers Woolstore No 8, and it is situated on the corner of Macquarie St and Florence St. It is now known as Teneriffe Village, an apartment complex that on its ground floor houses a convenience store, a bottle shop, a bar, four restaurants, a hairdressing salon and a couple more small businesses. You can find an earlier piece on this building here.
Across Macquarie St towards the Brisbane River (bottom, out of picture) is the site of the former Teneriffe Wharves, the area having been cleared to allow for the urban renewal of the area so wonderfully articulated by then Lord Mayor Jim Soorley and Trevor Reddacliff. The vacant site in the lower left is now 135 Macquarie, an apartment complex, and to the right of that now stands Winchcombe Place, another apartment building.
The middle right of the picture shows another vacant site - it is now 10 Vernon Terrace and contains the extremely popular Italian bistro Beccofino.
This area has been thoroughly transformed in twenty years. The landscape has been softened by the planting of trees; City Council buses "buzz" along here every 10 minutes; another Lord Mayor, Campbell Newman, introduced the CityCycle program that has dotted bike stations along the length of Macquarie St and Vernon Terrace; alongside the Brisbane River (out of shot at bottom of photo) is a heavily-used walkway connecting the Teneriffe ferry terminal to New Farm Park and shortly will continue right through to Toowong again. Regrettably Macquarie St, Vernon Terrace and Skyring St now are connected to Breakfast Creek Rd and the through-traffic has increased dramatically in an area that should be more pedestrian friendly.
Click here for a Google Map.
tff