queensland

SUNSHINE STATE OF MIND

Queensland is best represented by images of sunshine! This becomes clear as day when you see the hundreds of tea towels from the ‘Glenn R Cooke Souvenir Textiles Collection’ which have been hung out to for all to see in the State Library’s current free-to-enter ‘Queensland to a T’ exhibition. Presented en masse, the linen tea towels are a Queensland encyclopaedia in themselves, depicting the great diversity of attractions across the State, primarily to promote tourism, and also celebrating rural and regional communities and events. By their nature, tea towel designs feature curiosities and stereotypes, but what caught my eye and drew me to study them closer was the preponderance of smiling suns.

I’m a sunseeker. I migrated from Melbourne and adopted this ‘Sunshine State’, specifically for the weather and the lifestyle that it offers. I consciously appreciate every sunny morning, never taking it for granted ­unlike many of my Queenslander friends and neighbours, who understandably do!

We can't taste, or hear, or smell or touch sunshine, but we feel its warmth. It darkens our skin and lightens our mood. It creates colour and brightens the world around us. Its magic makes nature and agriculture grow and thrive, and us with it. We can even harness it to power our homes, machinery and transport.

I often wonder if sunshine is a critical success/failure factor in all human endeavour. Were everyone to enjoy a sunny climate, could there be fewer famines and wars, smaller nuclear arsenals, less reason for frustrated middle-aged men to brood over their failings and make poor decisions under the oppressive influence of grey skies?

Canned sunshine, gag souvenirs, from the collection of the author, aka Gold Coast Collector

It’s a pity we can’t contain sunshine. Imagine if we could mine it instead of coal, bottle it like beer, compress it like Vitamin D into capsules, or can it like pineapples and export it to places that don’t get enough.

Gold Coast Bulletin cartoon

Cartoon from Gold Coast Bulletin

Paradoxically, Queensland fails to value and take full advantage of its abundant sunshine. For the last 30 years, Queenslanders have been robbed of a precious hour of sunshine every morning in summer, simply because in 1992, the State Government abandoned Daylight Saving Time. However, that’s immaterial, when considered alongside grand scale theft of sunshine which is occurring in growth areas of south-east Queensland. City planning authorities routinely approve excessively dense tall buildings that steal sunshine from neighbours and cast shadows over streets, parks and beaches. I wonder if people realise that the most precious, public and iconic of all aspects of Gold Coast life, is literally being blacked out by development? Many stretches of our magnificent coastline, alongside the unlimited building height area, are in full shadow from early afternoon. It is easy to envisage the future when there will be continuous beach shade from Broadbeach to Narrowneck. Perhaps councillors and developers think that we get enough sun in the mornings, but it seems criminal to me.

Wall of sunshine, 130 Scarborough Street, Southport, February-April 2020

Resident protests against excessive buildings fall on deaf ears. I took an opportunity for my own public protest in the lead up to the 2020 Gold Coast council election. With my friend Yen and a couple of old-skool sign painters, we created a giant wall of sunshine to brighten up the grey space outside the Southport campaign office of mayoral challenger Mona Hecke. ‘Steal My Sunshine’ by LEN was playing on the radio and I thought that could be our anthem with its lyrics “And of course you can’t become if you only say what you would have done.” So we did it! https://www.instagram.com/p/B-Asvt8Jmd8/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

The initial concept said “DON’T STEAL MY SUNSHINE” but we thought that sounded a bit aggressive and switched to ”Walking on SUNSHINE”. It was intended as the backdrop to Mona’s campaign countdown launch, and victory celebrations, but then COVID came. There was no opportunity to for public events. The election came and went, and while the city was still in lockdown, we honoured our promise to the landlord to repaint the wall grey. I wish the story had a different outcome.

Sunnyside Flats, Haig Street, Kirra

The current (2016) City Plan is designed to deregulate and super-charge development across swathes of the city. Coinciding with a national construction boom, it has proven to be a death knell for ‘the old Coast’. Buildings from previous eras, which most cities regard as heritage worth keeping, are being rapidly and senselessly replaced. I keep close watch on a handful of remnant gems from the 1950s, 60s, 70s, including “Sunnyside’, a cheery block of flats in Haig Street, Kirra, but I don’t expect these to survive. That’s why, like Glenn Cooke I collect memorabilia (and photos), so that history doesn’t forget these places.

‘Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone’. That’s why it’s important to aggregate, acknowledge, embrace and remember the values that we attach to things. Perhaps then, our communities, and the politicians we elect to represent us, will be more inclined to protect the things we value most. If you want to help save our sunshine, or the historical record of our changing cityscape, here’s a starting list of things to do!