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Matthew Condon's Extract

Decent Essays

In this extract, Matthew Condon looked back on the ‘spatial’ history of the Brisbane’s famous rectagular granite obelisk. It sat on the exact location where explorer, John Oxley, set foot on the northern bank of the Brisbane river in 1824 where he proclaimed a settlement site. This obelisk marked the birthplace of Brisbane and had always stood in that site as a permanent structure.
Condon also talked about the history of Frew Park, Milton – an empty plot of land which was the former home of Milton Tennis Centre that was abandoned in the aftermath of the year 1999 due to bankcruptcy. The centre was later burnt by a 14-year old schoolboy. Its story is an example of a ‘trauma’ in psychogeographical point of view. It was also mentioned in the …show more content…

He decided to walk down to the Milton landing site, beginning at the old Western Creek outlet on the river, in search of Oxley’s chain of ponds. He was so excited that he will discover the changes in his city for the first time after years of absence from his birthplace. However, despite all the significant changes in the area such as the presence of computer stores, tanning salons, office buildings, or block of units, Condon felt that nothing is fantastically different from the past environment. This is because of the fact that the river, hills and gullies are still present and …show more content…

He also recollected how his mother played in the bowling league for years at the Milton Bowl bowling alley. He also saw the Milton State School where his grandfather and his mother used to study. Regardless of the changes that took place, it brought out old memories and the same old feeling each person has towards an old place. Pile (2005) states that the derive is a technique through which these emotions are to be registered and experienced. This is evidently shown as Condon’s emotions and feelings are registered as he recollected of his old memories when he was young. There has been a saying that ‘change is the only thing that is constant in this world’. In relation to the concept of urbanization, psychogeography is commonly used in the process of enabling human beings to change the urban life (Coverley 2010, p. 10). Within this context, psychogeographers usually aim to examine the impact of different ambience of urban places on the feelings, emotions, mental stability, and socializing behaviour of people (Casino 2011, p. 285). This further explains why most of the modern architects today are carefully analyzing how light can significantly affect positive ambience in space when creating a new architectural design (Knabb, 2007, p.

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