Carving a history:
a guide to the Great Court

The Great Court carvings

To “alleviate the severe simplicity of the outer walls”, the original planners called for extensive sculptural adornment of the Great Court walls and columns. Their objective was to record in stone:

• the most important events in Queensland’s history
• Queensland’s principal flora and fauna
• a fully representative collection of Aboriginal customs and social life
• the coats of arms of all universities in the British Commonwealth and other principal universities in the world.

They also added key figures and names in the history of scholarship to portray aspects of the University’s academic traditions.

Carving began in 1939 when the first University Sculptor, John Theodore Muller (1873–1953), and his associates interpreted the designs of Hennessy, Hennessy & Co principal architect Leo Drinan (although the subjects of the grotesques were his own). Muller produced several hundred carvings in a range of styles until his death in 1953, after which work on the Great Court carvings languished for more than two decades.

In 1976 the University Senate invited several artists to submit a sample grotesque and awarded the second commission of University Sculptor to Dr Rhyl Kingston Hinwood AM (1940–). Over a 35-year period, she too completed several hundred diverse carvings, mostly of her own design.

Carving styles and types

The carvings on the walls and columns of the Great Court comprise a variety of subjects and styles – from low-relief historical friezes to stand-alone statues and wall-mounted grotesques.

Friezes

Decorative bands or features on a wall, mostly bas-relief (low-relief), these carvings depict Indigenous life, historical scenes, scientific pioneers and noted literary authors

Full-shields

Located at the top of the three- or four-sided columns within the cloisters, these generally represent university coats of arms

Half-shields

Located on the three-sided columns within the cloisters, these carvings depict Queensland flora

Arch-carvings

Located on the outside walls of the cloisters, facing the Great Court lawn, these low-relief carvings depict Queensland flora and fauna

Roundels

Decorative panels, round in form, these are mostly flora and fauna, but also some individual heads of people

Statues

High-relief three-dimensional carvings, either free-standing or attached to walls, these depict famous scholars, writers and scientists, as well as books

Inscriptions

These are words carved into sandstone that depict academic quotations or the names of significant learned figures in history

Grotesques

Possibly the most popular of all the carvings, these projecting sculptures on the cloister walls were created to introduce an element of humour to the Great Court and include UQ academics, fictional literary characters and other mythical creatures (note: despite some having open mouths, the grotesques are not gargoyles, which are water spouts for carrying away rainwater)