Friday, December 2, 2016

ARCHITECTURE OF NORTH QUEENSLAND #1 : INNISFAIL

The Innisfail Town Walk claims to have  the highest concentration of art deco buildings  in  a   CBD  area .
Robertson  Bros  building in centre established 1916. The Blue Bird Café , of Middle Eastern  design , dates  from  1920.
 
The impressive art deco detailed Heritage listed  shire hall  building , constructed after fire destroyed the original office in December 1932 , opened  in 1938 . Architects were Hill and Taylor, prominent between the two world wars , designing the  Cairns  City Council (1929), Cairns Post (1930), Proserpine  Hospital  and the Barron Valley Hotel (1940).
 
Supervising  contractors  for the shire hall were  the Van  Leewen  Brothers  who had come out from  Holland  to  Innisfail in 1918  and built the   town's  art deco water tower, National Bank , Hotel Grand Central , Queens Hotel ( see  below )  , Bank of New South Wales  and the Commonwealth Bank . Using unemployed  workers , the    shire  project  cost  53,000  pounds  ($106,000 ). 

 
Pearly white  building , with no visible cavities ,  impressive  home  of  Tropical Coast  Dental Surgery . Vallis  photographs.