page_title: Brisbane Showgrounds
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Brisbane Showgrounds / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Section of the 48,000 people who crowded the Show Ground and the Crowd at the Ringside, August 1908.
context_page_description: Brisbane Showgrounds is located at 600 Gregory Terrace, Bowen Hills, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia and was established in 1875. It hosts almost 300 events each year, with the largest being the Royal Queensland Show.
  The Brisbane Showgrounds was designed by Claude William Chambers and built by Walls & Juster. It is also referred to as the RNA Showgrounds, Ekka Grounds, National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland Exhibition Grounds, Royal National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland Exhibition Grounds/Show Grounds, and Royal Queensland Showgrounds. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 25 July 2003.
  The Brisbane Showgrounds is owned and operated by The Royal National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland. Over 10 days in August, it hosts the Ekka show. Throughout the rest of the year, other events can hire spaces in the Brisbane Showgrounds.
context_section_description: The site of the Brisbane Showgrounds, together with the nearby Victoria Park, was originally utilised by the Indigenous 'Turrbal' or 'Duke of York clan' as a campground. They called this area "Barrambin". During the early colonial period, the British named it "York's Hollow". During the 1840s up to 400 Turrbal people would reside around the waterholes at York's Hollow. In 1846 police constables dispersed this major campsite killing at least 3 people, while in 1849 British soldiers of the 11th Regiment conducted another dispersal wounding several. Also in 1849, York's Hollow started to be used as a campsite for the influx of newly arrived European immigrants under John Dunmore Lang's immigration scheme. It was also utilised as a site for brick manufacture and by 1860 it appears that Aboriginals were no longer able to reside in the area.
  In July 1863 the site became part of the Queensland Acclimatisation Society's grounds. This Society, established in 1862 to promote the introduction, acclimatisation, propagation and distribution in Queensland of economically useful plants and animals, was granted 33 acres (13 ha) of land bounded by Bowen Bridge Road, O'Connell Terrace, Brookes Street and Gregory Terrace. At the northwestern corner of the site, fronting Bowen Bridge Road and O'Connell Terrace, the Society established a public exhibition garden Bowen Park. The remainder of the site was used for experimentation purposes, growing and propagating plants and seeds sent from other parts of Queensland, other colonies and around the world, and raising various introduced animals. The Society played an important role in the beginnings of commercial agriculture in Queensland, introducing or trialling crops and plants such as mango trees, ginger plants, sugar cane, olive trees and choko vines.
  The history of the Ekka on the site of the Brisbane Showgrounds dates back to August 1876, with the staging of the Queensland Intercolonial Exhibition. None of the buildings from 1876 have survived, but the grounds have increased from an original 12 acres (4.9 ha) to 22 hectares (54 acres) and contain a variety of structures and facilities associated with the annual August Ekka. The site has been the venue for Queensland's principal agricultural exhibition for 139 years. It remains the home of the annual Royal Queensland Show and is Queensland's premier showground. Since 1876, only two annual Royal Queensland Shows on this site have been cancelled: the 1919 Exhibition due to the influenza epidemic, and in 1942 during World War II when the grounds were occupied by military personnel.
  Queensland's 1876 Intercolonial Exhibition was not the first competitive demonstration of agricultural and industrial progress in the colony. In 1854, squatters from the Darling Downs and Moreton Bay districts of New South Wales established the Northern Districts' Agricultural and Pastoral Association, modelled on the Scottish Highland Agricultural Societies. They planned to hold exhibitions (mainly of pastoral produce) at Brisbane, Ipswich, Warwick, Drayton and Gayndah, in rotation, and some shows were held before the Association became immersed in more political activities. Nurseryman Albert John Hockings was instrumental in holding horticultural shows in Brisbane from 1855. In the 1860s other regional agricultural and pastoral associations were formed, among the earliest being the Darling Downs Agricultural Society (based at Toowoomba) in 1860, the Drayton and Toowoomba Agricultural and Horticultural Society in 1864, the East Moreton Farmers Association (based at Ipswich) in 1866 and the Eastern Downs Horticultural and Agricultural Association (based at Warwick) in 1867. These Associations conducted annual exhibitions of agricultural, horticultural, and pastoral produce and farm machinery. Prizes were awarded for best exhibits. The object was to encourage the exchange of knowledge and to foster better farm practice. Associations such as these proliferated in Queensland during the second half of the 19th century and each held an annual "show".
  In 1874 moves were in
caption: 48,000 people crowding the show ground, August 1908
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