Metropolis Metamorphosis

If Australia were a family, Brisbane would be the proverbial middle child; the misunderstood, seemingly unsophisticated quiet achiever, underestimated and dismissed by her siblings Sydney and Melbourne and treated with little more than a sneering indifference.

Though we protest the sniping and snobbery of our southern sisters, there’s no denying Queenslanders have always relished their inherent underdog status. From Cape York to Coolangatta, maroon blood flow througheth our veins. Unsurprisingly, Queensland is better known for its cauliflower-eared State of Origin behemoths than its world leading creative industries princincts and unique emerging cultural scene.

Let’s be honest. Only here would an infamous, 18-year-old student protester charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest go on to become one of the state’s best loved and longest serving premiers. Even the genetic mastery demonstrated by our home-grown Miss Universe Rachel Finch wasn’t enough to distract Australia’s media from the beauty’s distinctly nasal northern twang - enough to make even the cheese-eating pageant circle cringe. Where else but Queensland, ay?

But undeterred by the stereotypes, Brisbane is finally coming of age, growing out of her blue-collar roots to become a confident cultural epicentre in her own right.

According to Dr Raymond Evans, author of A History of Queensland, any lingering cultural cringe is attributable as much to our colonial immigration policy as a predilection for bordies and thongs.

“When they were encouraging european immigration, Queensland’s 19th century colonialists didn’t want intellectual people, they didn’t want creative, cultural people. They wanted people who could work with their hands,” explains Dr Evans.

“That led to quite a physical society, but not a particularly cerebral or intellectual society.”

Prioritising brawn over brains continued well into the twentieth century. As late as the 1970’s - when controversial social conservative Joh Bjelke-Petersen reigned over ‘the Moonlight state’ - about 38 per cent of all Queenslanders had only completed five to six years of schooling.

Queensland’s women were also substantially outnumbered by men, though two Brisbane feminists defiantly chained themselves to Toowong's Regatta Hotel bar in 1965 to gain equal drinking rights.

“The disproportionate gender ratio meant you had this bachelor kind of culture that developed a strong sense of mateship and bonds, but also hard drinking, rough-and-tumble kinds of personalities, and an environment for women that was dominated by male values,” says Dr. Evans.

Today, Queensland’s somewhat culturally baron, blokeish history is of small significance to the hoards of well-heeled fashionistas who stomp Paddington’s quirky LaTrobe Terrace each weekend; the groovy, creative types who discuss Kubrickian cinema over lattes in West End cafes; or the local hipsters who flock to Fortitude Valley’s James Street to acquire high-end fashion and social collateral.

But the city’s coming of age has been gradual and subtle. The renaissance began in the former working class suburbs of the 70’s, when middle class professionals moved in to renovate run down workers’ cottages (now exorbitantly priced real estate in some of Brisbane’s trendiest inner-city suburbs), while the 1988 World Expo became a landmark prelude to significant cultural events.

The inner city transformation continued throughout the 90’s with an increased emphasis on urban renewal projects - now led by the Brisbane City Council’s Urban Renewal Task Force - including the conversion of some of the city’s most historically iconic but derelict blue-collar landmarks into bustling pink-collar public spaces. Take for example, the reincarnation of the New Farm Powerhouse as a hub for creative and offbeat theatre, music, comedy, film, visual arts, festivals and ideas.

The rippling cultural transformation came to a head in 1998 with the implementation of the Queensland Government’s Smart State Strategy. Illustrative of this change in the ‘Banana Bender” psyche, the State Government spent over $3.6 billion investing in people, ideas, research, partnerships and infrastructure to realise its vision of a state where knowledge, creativity and innovation drive economic growth.

This included a $60 million Creative Industries Precinct at the Queensland University of Technology - the first of its kind in Australia and now an international hub for cultural enterprise. Recent Queensland Government estimates suggest that the Queensland creative industries sector is worth $3.4 billion annually, generates about $1.1 billion in annual export sales and employs 74,000 people.

According to Lindsay Bennett, director of Lindsay Bennett Marketing and the man behind Mercedes-Benz Brisbane Fashion Festival (MBFF), the influx of people moving to Queensland’s capital from the southern states - ironically lured by the tropical climate once so destested by European settlers and described by Dr Evans as a key catalyst in the “leathery” Queensland disposition - has upped the ante.

“Brisbane’s consumers expect cultural events, shopping and infrastructure to be parallel with that of Sydney and Melbourne, and I’m confident we have the capacity to satisfy this growing demand,” Mr Bennett says.

The city is a hugely competitive market for spring/summer fashion, and Mr Bennett has been tirelessly crusading to promote Brisbane as the perfect location for launching collection during the warmer months.

Even influential Vogue Australia editor Kirstie Clements has commended Brisbane on its anti-parochial fashion platform and positive fashion festival vibe.

Having secured MBFF’s Southbank venue for the next three years, Mr Bennett couldn’t be more thrilled.

“Southbank is the perfect conduit between the arts, fashion, and tourism industries - all vital components in Brisbane’s cultural melting pot,” he says, adding that focused attention of local designers through MBFF means they don’t need to move south to be recognised on the national stage.

The timing of this year’s Festival was perfect, coinciding with the Valentino Retrospective: Past/Present/Future exhibition , shown exclusively at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), the impressive example of architectural prowess situated next to the new State Library (opened in 2008) and a stone’s throw from the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), the Brisbane Powerhouse and the thriving Southbank restaurant and market scene.

This year, nine of MBFF’s 23 events were completely sold out, and many more were close to hitting that mark. In August, participating designers’ retail sales were in excess of $4 million nationally, up by 50 per cent since 2009 - proof that the annual event is working.

Unique, edgy, and unapologetic, Brisbanites are busy forging a cultural and style identity all of their own, which keen observers describe as adventurous and loaded with colour, with a fresh, youthful aesthetic that compliments the Queensland lifestyle.

“Australian cities have a different way of life and a different style. While Sydney is more about the pop culture and the hype, Brisbane is quirkier, edgier, avant-garde,” says Brisbane-based fashion designer George Wu.

So what will push Queensland to realise her full cultural potential?

“Brisbane is a much more cosmopolitan city now than it ever was, and a more tolerant society is emerging,” says Dr Evans.

“More women are getting into responsible positions in society and public life now, and that’s turning the culture around.”

These women include current Premier Anna Bligh, also Minister for the Arts, who has committed a significant cash pool to her special interest area. This has included more than $30 million per annum in support for GoMA and the Queensland Art Gallery, which are attracting record numbers of local, interstate and international visitors.

We may never truly shake the stereotypes imposed on us by other so-called culturally fertile parts of Australia. But historically, this modicum of repression has acted as a creativity incubator, and Queenslanders have a habit of far outstripping their detractors’ expectations.

Our strength lies in our unwavering faith in our own potential. And while the southern states were busy congratulating their cultural superiority and viewing Queensland through tired eyes, we’ve created a unique, thriving identity and a style that cannot be imitated.

As for our cultural backwater status? No matter - after all, this is the Sunshine State. We'll just bask in the dreamy kiss of that old seductress in the sky until the rest of the country catches up.

Lara Lavers for FROCK PAPER SCISSORS