The Brisbane Dental Hospital Building: "The Palace" An Era Ends

Constitutional, educational, humanitarian and political considerations underpinned the design and construction of the Brisbane Dental Hospital Building, often colloquially referred to as "The Palace." The Queensland Heritage Council's listing of the Brisbane Dental Hospital Building on The Queensland Heritage Register in 1999 confirms the cultural significance of Nowland's architectural signature, the historical importance of the Wickham Park precinct and prior students' connection with the building. Influences on decisions determining the location, grand design and timing of construction of the Brisbane Dental Hospital Building emanated from a far bigger and largely unrecorded political picture. The authors argue that the political context in two tiers of government, the timing and nature of the proposal, town planning issues, the exigencies of the caries epidemic and Forgan Smith's post-Depression economic reconstruction across Queensland underpinned the project. Hanlon's personal attributes and disdain for the autonomy of the dental profession, together with his desire to reform dental education and to establish statewide government-administred dental clinics, were also relevant. Accordingly, the BDHD portrayed aspiration, purpose, symbolism, and vision. This paper, essentially an integration of dental and mainstream history, assembles and analyzes hitherto scattered and unpublished evidence to fill a gap in the current literature.