Brisbane City Hall
This magnificent building was not the original town hall, which was built in Queen Street in 1864. Less than 20 years later, the town had outgrown these Queen Street facilities.
In 1883, a design competition for the new Brisbane City Hall was win by architect J. J. Clarke. As late as 1908 this design was still the leading contender for the building. The final building form was much modified.
Thereafter, years of indecision about the new location and concern about the significant cost of the proposed design, delayed the project. Finally, in 1914, the mayor of Brisbane, Charles Jenkinson, killed the debate about the best site by selling the alternative site in Fortitude Valley to the Catholic Church who proposed to construct a Cathedral on the site.
Two foundation stones were laid. The first was laid in 1917 and contained a time capsule. This stone was subsequently lost when construction started. The second stone was laid in 1920 by Edward, Prince of Wales. The building was designed by architectural firm, Hall and Prentice, according to the symmetrical, formal Italian Renaissance style with three floors and a partial basement. An impressive tympanum over the main entry was carved by local Brisbane sculptor Daphne Mayo and is supported by 14 m Corinthian columns. The centre of City Hall featuring a stunning auditorium, with a domed copper roof, was based on the design of the Pantheon in Rome.
Construction began in 1923, using mostly local materials. Granite for the base courses was sourced from Camp Mountain near Samford and the walls were clad in sandstone from Helidon. The site was originally swampy with a creek running through it and progress was slow as continual pumping was required to keep the site dry. In 1928, the building was partially occupied, though construction wasn’t completed until 1930.
The final cost of the project was £980,000, earning the hall the nickname of Million Pound Hall and making it one of the largest public infrastructure projects of its time, only outdone by the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
The swampy site also meant that 80 years later, the building was sinking. Brisbane City Hall underwent an extensive (and expensive at $215M) restoration from 2010 to 2012 to fix its sinking foundations, address structural concerns and upgrade building services, including the provision of a basement kitchen.
The Clock Tower and the Clock
The imposing 70 m clock tower (rising 91 m above ground level) is based on the design of the St Mark's Campanile in Venice, Italy. The tower was the tallest building in Brisbane until the 1960’s. Taking a lift up the clock tower to the observation deck was a popular pastime for American soldiers based in Brisbane in World War 2, who paid 6 pence for the privilege.
When it was built, the four clock faces on each side of the tower were the largest in Australia. Each clock face is 4.9 m in diameter, the hour hands are 1.7 m, and the minute hands are 3.0 m long. The clock can be read using binoculars at Camp Hill.
The clock has Westminster Chimes, which sound on the quarter-hour, and have reportedly been heard as far away as Wynnum. The clock does not chime over the weekends at the request of local businesses, churches and hotels. The time keeping is controlled by a master clock imported from England. The dials, hands and slave mechanisms were designed and built in Brisbane by the firm, Synchonome, who were well regarded clock manufacturers. Indeed, in 1931, the Courier reported that the clock had set a World record among big clocks by losing only five seconds in two years.
Legend has it that the ghost of a lift attendant, who was crushed to death during the lift installation, haunts the tower, riding the lift and causing going mechanical issues.
The cache
To find the cache, you will need to do the free Clock Tower tour. You can book your tour date and time here or by calling 07 3339 0845. Tours run every 15 minutes from 10am to 5pm, seven days a week and entry is free. If killing time waiting for your tour, I would suggest checking out the Museum of Brisbane. Entry is free.
Claiming this Virtual Cache
To claim this virtual cache, you need to take the tour to the top of the Clock Tower.
Inside the Lift: Upon entry, look to the brass panel high on the right hand wall. At the top of this brass panel are 4 lines of engraved writing
- A = First letter of first word on top line
- B = Third letter of first word on third line
- C = First letter of second word on top line
- D = Second letter of second word on second line
- E = Sixth letter of the word on fourth line
- F = Seventh letter of the word on the fourth line
- G = First numerical digit of the number on second line
- H = Second numerical digit of the number on second line
On the brass manual lift controller pedestal near the lift door : There are three words on the face of the controller.
- I J K L M N O = 7 Letters of the word on the upper right quadrant on this circular brass face.
To claim the cache, you must either:
1. Send an email to : ABACDEFGHIJKLMNO@gmail.com (all letters lowercase - note that the "A" clue is included twice!). In the email subject line, state your caching name and the date you visited Brisbane City Hall and took the clock tower tour. If your answers are correct, you will receive an email reply within a few minutes, providing permission to log the cache as well as some additional interesting facts about Brisbane City Hall and the clock tower.
2. Should you wish your email address to remain private, then you must send a message to the cache owner through the geocaching.com message service with the cache name, date visited, and the answer string ABACDEFGHIJKLMNO. In this case, you must wait to receive a reply (usually within a day or two) before logging the cache as found.
For both options, you must post a photo including you in the picture taken from the observation deck of the clock tower with your online log.
Be warned: **EDIT** I have received feedback that cachers have been able to determine the clues without undertaking the tour. I have now updated the photo requirement such that the photo must include your picture at the top of the tower to prove you undertook the tour. It is no longer adequate to include a photo which does not show you in the picture. From today, I will be reviewing logs and deleting any found logs which don't complete these requirements.
Virtual Reward - 2017/2018
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between August 24, 2017 and August 24, 2018. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards on the Geocaching Blog.