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We'll Show the World: Expo 88 – Brisbane's Almighty Struggle for a Little Bit of Cred
How did one long and expensive party change a city forever? World Expo 88 was the largest, longest, and loudest of Australia's bicentennial events. A shiny 1980s amalgam of cultural precinct, shopping mall, theme park, travelogue, and rock concert, Expo 88 is commonly credited as the catalyst for Brisbane's 'coming of age'. So how did an elaborate and expensive party change a city forever? We'll Show the World explores the shifting social and political environment of Expo 88, shaped as much by Queensland's controversial premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen as it was by those who reacted against him. It shows how something initially greeted with outrage, scepticism, and indifference came to mean so much to so many, how a state better known for eliciting insults enchanted much of the nation, and how, to Brisbane, Expo was personal.
390 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 26, 2018
6 people are currently reading
77 people want to read
About the author
Jackie Ryan
30 books8 followersJackie Ryan is a prize-winning Australian writer. She is the author of
We’ll Show the World: Expo 88 (UQP), which won two 2018 Queensland Literary Awards: the Queensland Premier’s Award for a Work of State Significance and the University of Southern Queensland History Book Award. It was also shortlisted for The Courier-Mail People’s Choice Award. Jackie produces the Aurealis Award-winning
Burger Force comic book series (also twice shortlisted for a Ledger Award for Excellence in Australian Comics) and is the founding editor of comedy writing collective the Fanciful Fiction Auxiliary. She holds a PhD in history and political science from The University of Queensland.
We’ll Show the World: Expo 88 (UQP), which won two 2018 Queensland Literary Awards: the Queensland Premier’s Award for a Work of State Significance and the University of Southern Queensland History Book Award. It was also shortlisted for The Courier-Mail People’s Choice Award. Jackie produces the Aurealis Award-winning
Burger Force comic book series (also twice shortlisted for a Ledger Award for Excellence in Australian Comics) and is the founding editor of comedy writing collective the Fanciful Fiction Auxiliary. She holds a PhD in history and political science from The University of Queensland.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
June 15, 2018
A fascinating history of Expo 88, an event that looms large in the memory of any Brisbaneite my age. You can occasionally see the academic starting point of the book poking through, but it's accessible, fun and eye-opening. Ryan is especially good at drawing out the political machinations that made Expo possible and chronicles the disintegration of the Bjelke-Peterson government in the lead up to the event, which probably ensured a more universally appreciated shindig.
August 29, 2018
It is so rare to find a non-fiction book that delivers everything you want in terms of information, whilst also having an engaging narrative. Debut author Jackie Ryan has given us such a book in We’ll Show the World Expo 88 (UQP 2018). With a subtitle of ‘Brisbane’s Almighty Struggle for a Little Bit of Cred’, the story pulls us along on a journey of discovery every bit as compelling as a page-turning novel. At the same time, it is almost like a text book, forensic in its examination of the 1988 event that changed Brisbane forever.
Expo 88 was a big, brash party, a child of the eighties for the young at heart. When it was first suggested, everyone thought it would be an economic and social disaster, a ‘Joh Show’ representative of the then-Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen and his bold ambition. Anxieties over land resumption, site proposals, financial predictions and how the people of Brisbane – and of Australia – would respond, along with the demise or failure of previous World Expositions, polarised this expensive and risky venture. But by the time Expo closed its gates for the last time, it had indeed ‘shown the world’, and people’s fond memories of Expo still live on, 30 years later. Ryan dedicates her book to ‘… the people who objected to it, and the people who loved it … You were all right.’ And this is what her book achieves – it interrogates the whole Expo saga, from beginning to end, from idea to planning to execution, and even to what came afterwards, and it shines a light on the good and the bad, the memorable and the dubious.
In just over 300 pages, Ryan devotes more than 60 pages to annotations, references, a bibliography and an index (and also includes 8 pages of photographs). This book is so well-researched, I would challenge anyone to pick an Expo reference and NOT be able to locate it in the book. And yet because of the way the book is structured – with the references tidied away at the end (and often with amusing or interesting anecdotes attached that you might miss if you read only the main body of the book!) – because of this form, it is not dense or heavy-handed. Ryan’s conversational and humorous tone makes for easy reading, and her ability to focus on the small minutiae of details ensures a captivating dissection of the event and everything associated with it. Through hundreds of source documents, and dozens of interviews with the movers and shakers of the time, Ryan has constructed the ultimate Expo guide – not merely a description of Expo but an intimate investigation into how and why it came about.
Ryan introduces her subject by looking at World Fairs or Expositions more generally, and I found this historical part of the book especially interesting as she describes similar events held around the world from the first official Great Exhibition held in London in 1851. She tracks the changes in form and style of World Fairs over time and investigates the success – or failure – of previous events. Then she provides some background on the Australia of the time, and most particularly Queensland. She summarises the social and cultural norms of the fifties, sixties, seventies and early eighties in the lead-up to Expo, and more importantly, she navigates the political climate, made all the more poignant by the fact that Expo occurred simultaneously with the famous Fitzgerald Inquiry into corruption in this state; the two events could hardly have been more different, and yet both were powerful instruments for change in Queensland, and it could be said that one couldn’t have happened without the other, or at least that they fed off each other in some sort of strange, symbiotic relationship. Certainly, if you speak to a Queenslander who was around in the eighties, those are the two major events that seem to spark significant memories, both good and bad. Ryan goes on to describe the how and why of Expo – how it happened, why it mattered – and finishes with a look at the legacy of Expo, and what it meant for a changing Brisbane.
Expo 88 attracted everyone from celebrities, royalty and politicians to average householders with a season pass. As a Bicentennial event, it drew protests from Indigenous people, and as a huge exercise in inner-city land resumption, it drew the ire of local residents. But it also became ‘A colourful 1980’s amalgam of cultural precinct, theme park, travelogue, shopping mall, and rock concert …’, catering to over 18 million visits during its six-month run. To a Brisbane that closed its doors at noon on Saturdays, Expo offered entertainment, shopping and eating options from 10am to 10 pm, seven days a week. ‘Through night parades, the Acquacade, smoke machines, and laser beams, Expo held the people of Brisbane enthralled.’ Anyone who initially feared that Expo would be a parochial and humdrum affair was certainly proved wrong, and despite a rather rocky beginning, some shady dealings and a lot of angst, Expo ‘came to mean so much to so many’.
For all its ambition and showiness, despite all the detractors and obstacles and protestors, Expo 88 was a ‘coming of age’ for Brisbane, a giant party that left lasting memories for those of us who participated, a lasting physical legacy in the form of South Bank Parklands, and lasting socio-political and cultural change for our city. This book pays homage to everything Expo in a remarkable trip down memory lane, and along the way it unearths some fascinating facts and trivia about behind-the-scenes dealings, the people in power, the acts and entertainment and icons we came to love, the near-disasters that almost occurred, and the once-in-a-lifetime surprises that did.
Expo 88 was a big, brash party, a child of the eighties for the young at heart. When it was first suggested, everyone thought it would be an economic and social disaster, a ‘Joh Show’ representative of the then-Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen and his bold ambition. Anxieties over land resumption, site proposals, financial predictions and how the people of Brisbane – and of Australia – would respond, along with the demise or failure of previous World Expositions, polarised this expensive and risky venture. But by the time Expo closed its gates for the last time, it had indeed ‘shown the world’, and people’s fond memories of Expo still live on, 30 years later. Ryan dedicates her book to ‘… the people who objected to it, and the people who loved it … You were all right.’ And this is what her book achieves – it interrogates the whole Expo saga, from beginning to end, from idea to planning to execution, and even to what came afterwards, and it shines a light on the good and the bad, the memorable and the dubious.
In just over 300 pages, Ryan devotes more than 60 pages to annotations, references, a bibliography and an index (and also includes 8 pages of photographs). This book is so well-researched, I would challenge anyone to pick an Expo reference and NOT be able to locate it in the book. And yet because of the way the book is structured – with the references tidied away at the end (and often with amusing or interesting anecdotes attached that you might miss if you read only the main body of the book!) – because of this form, it is not dense or heavy-handed. Ryan’s conversational and humorous tone makes for easy reading, and her ability to focus on the small minutiae of details ensures a captivating dissection of the event and everything associated with it. Through hundreds of source documents, and dozens of interviews with the movers and shakers of the time, Ryan has constructed the ultimate Expo guide – not merely a description of Expo but an intimate investigation into how and why it came about.
Ryan introduces her subject by looking at World Fairs or Expositions more generally, and I found this historical part of the book especially interesting as she describes similar events held around the world from the first official Great Exhibition held in London in 1851. She tracks the changes in form and style of World Fairs over time and investigates the success – or failure – of previous events. Then she provides some background on the Australia of the time, and most particularly Queensland. She summarises the social and cultural norms of the fifties, sixties, seventies and early eighties in the lead-up to Expo, and more importantly, she navigates the political climate, made all the more poignant by the fact that Expo occurred simultaneously with the famous Fitzgerald Inquiry into corruption in this state; the two events could hardly have been more different, and yet both were powerful instruments for change in Queensland, and it could be said that one couldn’t have happened without the other, or at least that they fed off each other in some sort of strange, symbiotic relationship. Certainly, if you speak to a Queenslander who was around in the eighties, those are the two major events that seem to spark significant memories, both good and bad. Ryan goes on to describe the how and why of Expo – how it happened, why it mattered – and finishes with a look at the legacy of Expo, and what it meant for a changing Brisbane.
Expo 88 attracted everyone from celebrities, royalty and politicians to average householders with a season pass. As a Bicentennial event, it drew protests from Indigenous people, and as a huge exercise in inner-city land resumption, it drew the ire of local residents. But it also became ‘A colourful 1980’s amalgam of cultural precinct, theme park, travelogue, shopping mall, and rock concert …’, catering to over 18 million visits during its six-month run. To a Brisbane that closed its doors at noon on Saturdays, Expo offered entertainment, shopping and eating options from 10am to 10 pm, seven days a week. ‘Through night parades, the Acquacade, smoke machines, and laser beams, Expo held the people of Brisbane enthralled.’ Anyone who initially feared that Expo would be a parochial and humdrum affair was certainly proved wrong, and despite a rather rocky beginning, some shady dealings and a lot of angst, Expo ‘came to mean so much to so many’.
For all its ambition and showiness, despite all the detractors and obstacles and protestors, Expo 88 was a ‘coming of age’ for Brisbane, a giant party that left lasting memories for those of us who participated, a lasting physical legacy in the form of South Bank Parklands, and lasting socio-political and cultural change for our city. This book pays homage to everything Expo in a remarkable trip down memory lane, and along the way it unearths some fascinating facts and trivia about behind-the-scenes dealings, the people in power, the acts and entertainment and icons we came to love, the near-disasters that almost occurred, and the once-in-a-lifetime surprises that did.
June 14, 2018
Entertaining and illuminating.
August 30, 2025
One of the themes of this book is exploring why Expo 88 had such a big impact on Brisbane and its people - and why this impact was so much greater than can be logically explained by the event itself. Well, I am one of those people. Specifically, I am one of the teenagers the author describes as being unable to fully explain why they loved Expo so much, but they loved having somewhere to go and being allowed out at night!! If you are also still a fan of Expo 88 then this book is for you.
There's a lot of interesting context about Queensland politics and the Fitzgerald Inquiry. So the book moved me between happy Expo reminiscing and a kind of horror at the Queensland I grew up in.
There's a lot of interesting context about Queensland politics and the Fitzgerald Inquiry. So the book moved me between happy Expo reminiscing and a kind of horror at the Queensland I grew up in.
December 19, 2024
World Expo ‘88 was an historic turning point for the city of Brisbane. And so a book explaining how it came about - from inception, development and implementation, to its success and legacy - is very welcome and, perhaps, overdue. And Jackie Ryan’s, “We’ll Show the World” is an admirable attempt to document the behind-the-scenes machinations that enabled this event. However, early in the book, the author explains that her focus is not the six-month event itself - instead she provides a comprehensive examination of the Federal, State and Local government politics, the various bureaucratic committees, and the many commercial influences illustrating why the stakes were so high. And yet without detailing the event itself, the reader is missing a crucial part of the story and cannot appreciate the depth, breadth, and complexity of Expo ‘88 thus not understanding why the event was so vital and how it’s affect on Brisbane was so transformative. Although compelling, the book presents more as a bureaucratic report on the outcomes of the event rather than providing an intimate historical understanding of the entire audacious undertaking.
June 13, 2020
The amount of endnotes alone makes it obvious that this started life as a PhD, but the research that went into it was fascinating and edifying for me, trying to learn a little more about my new home state.
The similarity with Apartheid South Africa (as seen in Barbara Trapido's Frankie & Stankie) and to the police state of 1970s Yorkshire (so many Red Riding comparisons!) are terrifying, but this is ultimately a story of a state that found its way out of dark days with the help of a giant, expensive funfair, and that made for a satisfying story.
The similarity with Apartheid South Africa (as seen in Barbara Trapido's Frankie & Stankie) and to the police state of 1970s Yorkshire (so many Red Riding comparisons!) are terrifying, but this is ultimately a story of a state that found its way out of dark days with the help of a giant, expensive funfair, and that made for a satisfying story.
March 4, 2026
I didn’t expect to learn so much about our disgraced former Premier, Joh Bjelke-Peterson. He’s essentially unknown to most Gen Z Queenslanders. But the ‘Sir Joh’ days are the still the daily talk of Brisbane’s old-boy clubs. I had no idea how bad he was.
My favourite anecdote from the book is about his bizarrely close relationship with Nikola Ceaușescu. On meeting him in Romania, Joh said “you wouldn’t know he had blood on his hands, would you?”.
Ceaușescu and his wife, Elena (Codoi), even ended up coming to Expo 88 on Joh’s personal invitation.
“Ahern remembers Ceaușescu as an ‘obnoxious character’ who required the air-conditioning to be turned off during a dinner held in his honour… in case poison gas was fed through it, then insisted upon using food tests and avoiding all elevators for fear of assassination”
“The head of QAG during Expo, Doug Hall, recalls escorting the Ceaușescus on an excruciating gallery tour during which the couple frequently vaulted at winding staircases that might conceal assassins; Elena also required a private opening of the Myer Centre after-hours in order to shop. The couple’s paranoia was justified — after a revolution in 1989, they were found guilty of genocide and gathering illegal wealth and were executed on Christmas Day.”
Expo 88 has got me super excited for the 2032 Olympics. I would love to see ‘Expo Oz’ return.
My favourite anecdote from the book is about his bizarrely close relationship with Nikola Ceaușescu. On meeting him in Romania, Joh said “you wouldn’t know he had blood on his hands, would you?”.
Ceaușescu and his wife, Elena (Codoi), even ended up coming to Expo 88 on Joh’s personal invitation.
“Ahern remembers Ceaușescu as an ‘obnoxious character’ who required the air-conditioning to be turned off during a dinner held in his honour… in case poison gas was fed through it, then insisted upon using food tests and avoiding all elevators for fear of assassination”
“The head of QAG during Expo, Doug Hall, recalls escorting the Ceaușescus on an excruciating gallery tour during which the couple frequently vaulted at winding staircases that might conceal assassins; Elena also required a private opening of the Myer Centre after-hours in order to shop. The couple’s paranoia was justified — after a revolution in 1989, they were found guilty of genocide and gathering illegal wealth and were executed on Christmas Day.”
Expo 88 has got me super excited for the 2032 Olympics. I would love to see ‘Expo Oz’ return.
October 8, 2018
And I thought Brisbane's Expo 88 was just one big, long party! This meticulously researched book brings to light everything that occurred before, beneath and beyond the site's signature sails - the political personalities of the time that (often corruptly) allowed for it, the protestors who tried to stop it and the sense of mourning that followed Expo's lights being switched off for the last time. But it did give Brisbane a little bit of cred.
December 29, 2018
I was only three years old during Expo, but have relatives who have waxed lyrical about it for as long as I can remember. This was a great way of learning about how it came to be - and provided SO much background information about my own city and state, giving me a new level of information.
January 21, 2020
Is anyone an Expo 88 fan? Well 30 years on there is a great book by Jackie Ryan entitled "We'll Show The World Expo 88 - Brisbane's almighty struggle for a little bit of cred".
This book provides the behind the scenes back drop of all the wheeling and dealing that resulted in Expo 88 and how it's lasting legacy of South Bank came to be. It came at pivotal time in Queensland's history both politically and personally. It was the catalyst that Brisbane needed in its coming of age in arts, culture and entertainment and in having a sophicated alfresco lifestyle and night life that was lacking to say the least. Expo allowed people simply to no longer fear meeting in public places which previously had been a sign of protest against the status quo. 30 years on and Expo 88 continues to be held high regard for 6 months of a year where people felt happy.
As a 15 year old visiting Expo on an interstate holiday from Sydney with my two sisters and my mum and dad Expo made such an impression on me that I hoped to one day return. Little did I know then that about 15 years later I would be returning to Brisbane from Sydney with my wife Deb to make it our home.
I am sure many people have some great Expo 88 stories.
This book provides the behind the scenes back drop of all the wheeling and dealing that resulted in Expo 88 and how it's lasting legacy of South Bank came to be. It came at pivotal time in Queensland's history both politically and personally. It was the catalyst that Brisbane needed in its coming of age in arts, culture and entertainment and in having a sophicated alfresco lifestyle and night life that was lacking to say the least. Expo allowed people simply to no longer fear meeting in public places which previously had been a sign of protest against the status quo. 30 years on and Expo 88 continues to be held high regard for 6 months of a year where people felt happy.
As a 15 year old visiting Expo on an interstate holiday from Sydney with my two sisters and my mum and dad Expo made such an impression on me that I hoped to one day return. Little did I know then that about 15 years later I would be returning to Brisbane from Sydney with my wife Deb to make it our home.
I am sure many people have some great Expo 88 stories.
June 24, 2018
A real gem all about the wild and wonderful history of Brisbane's biggest party, Expo 88! Part cultural history, part pop culture revival, part memoir, this one has something for everyone. Rigorously researched by author and local Brisbane historian Jackie Ryan, the story of Expo and all of its colourful characters is told with wit and warmth, in rich detail. In this important book, Ryan helps us to better understand how it was that TWO key events of the 1980s helped Brisbane, and Queensland come of age, juxtaposing Expo 88 with the Fitzgerald Inquiry. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll be amazed that they pulled it off at all. If you're a fan of cult classic Pig City by Brissy writer Andrew Stafford, then you'll love it. Highly recommend.
August 18, 2018
I was excited to see this book on the shelf and grabbed it quickly, anticipating a great read, bringing back warm memories of a special time in history for Brisbane and Queensland. What I found was a very political story, at times seeming to have a strong bias that was almost uncomfortable and embarrassing to read. A very academic approach meant the telling of the history of Expo in Queensland lacked any warmth and personality. At time the writer seemed to be taking too much pleasure in denigrating the government of the time, making the book title almost obsolete.
I finished the book feeling disappointed in the lack of Expo history and detail.
I finished the book feeling disappointed in the lack of Expo history and detail.
June 25, 2018
An interesting time for Brisbane, and this book does a reasonable job of testing the assertion that Expo 88 was the city's "coming of age". Its meticulous research adheres to the rigors of academia, but it often means the narrative is dry and lacking in personality. And that's where this book has fallen short - a solid narrative backed by the research and coloured by the actor's anecdotes. It seems a fairly large misstep that such a unique period of Brisbane's development is not afforded the storyline is deserves.
This is a story in serious need of a storyteller.
This is a story in serious need of a storyteller.
May 29, 2021
I missed Expo 88, living in the UK at the time, though my partner visted a few times and remembers it fondly.
This book is a fascinating and eye-opening read: not just about Expo 88 itself, but about the surrounding politics of the state at the time. A great piece of education for me as a recently-made Australian citizen about the city I now call home.
I now see why Expo 88 meant so much to people of Queensland, and especially people of Brisbane. It was, absolutely, a changing moment in the history of the city.
This book is a fascinating and eye-opening read: not just about Expo 88 itself, but about the surrounding politics of the state at the time. A great piece of education for me as a recently-made Australian citizen about the city I now call home.
I now see why Expo 88 meant so much to people of Queensland, and especially people of Brisbane. It was, absolutely, a changing moment in the history of the city.
August 20, 2018
Wow! Well researched and presented account of the political environment and organisational workings behind Expo 88. I think my family may have been the ones in the glass elevator going up and down at the Hilton! So expo was a formative and amazing experience for us. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
June 2, 2018
I enjoyed this book as much for its broad-ranging discussion of the matters of local political and social history during the years of Expo’s planning, development and operation, as I did for its (excellent) analysis and discussion of Expo itself.
Highly recommended to Brisbane folk.
Highly recommended to Brisbane folk.
November 27, 2020
Pretty interesting nonfiction account of the World's Fair held in Brisbane, Australia, in 1988.
If you have any interest in World's Fairs, or Australia, I recommend. The author has a funny and snarky tone while being thorough.
If you have any interest in World's Fairs, or Australia, I recommend. The author has a funny and snarky tone while being thorough.
December 30, 2018
It’s a must read for all
April 2, 2024
More about leading up to Expo than while it was on.
Read
September 27, 2018Fascinating, illuminating and occasionally hair-raising.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews