Backbencher

Yesterday we again had a guest lecture, This time from the University of Sunset Coast. Scott's lecture centered on the Brisbane Exhibition which Scott described as an agricultural fair comparable to a state fair here in the United States. Scott explained that she felt that studying the exhibition gave a research a portrait of life in Queensland from the 1870's to the present. Scott spent much of the lecture describing the first exhibition and then how the traditions created back in 1876 have been kept alive until today. She also explained how the Exhibition has changed over the last 130 years. Up until the 1960's "Sideshow Alley" was the home of many displays that would be considered very politically incorrect today, such as a zoo like enclosure where visitors could look at aboriginal people in their "natural state."

This lecture was interesting because Scott obviously loved her research and it came through in the way she talked about the Exhibition. It was also interesting to look at the Exhibit in the way Scott did, as a portrait of life in Queensland over the course of over 130 years. The craftsmanship of the district exhibits was very impressive. The whole concept of the Brisbane exhibition seemed comparable to the World's Fair in the United States except of course the the World's fair never managed to remain operating on the same piece of land since 1876.