The Geological Society of Australia Queensland Division, in conjunction with Global GBM has built a mobile app for a self-guided walking tour of the Brisbane CBD, highlighting a selection of significant buildings.

It presents a GPS linked map with hot-links to a brief history of the each building, its architecture and details of the building stones used, along with both recent and historical photographs.

In addition to the sand and gravel that makes up the ubiquitous concrete structures, our cities are built from an exciting variety of geological material. In Brisbane these range from the warm brown sandstone of iconic structures such as the City Hall and Parliament House to granites and exotic marbles from around the world.

The Queensland Division of the Geological Society of Australia chronicled these fascinating materials as a self-guided walking tour for the International Geological Congress in 2012.  The tour has recently been extended and built into a mobile App that will be available to the public in time for G20. The app presents a GPS linked map with hot-links to the history of each building and details of the building stones used along with both recent and historical photographs.

The mobile app, configured through Global GBM Enterprise Mobility Solutions using data compiled by Friedrich von Gnielinski and John Siemon, will open Brisbane up to the growing market for geotourism and is also an important resource for teachers, tour operators and anyone interested in the built environment of Queensland’s capital. The Division sees it as important outreach tool in promoting an understanding and importance of Earth science in the public. It was released in mid-November.

The app has a database-like structure with all information pertaining to a particular site related to a grid reference. Each site gives a brief historical and cultural reference to the object described and discusses the relevant geology that can be observed.

Attached photos show the character of the project or site; historical photos show developmental or other changes and detail photos mostly refer to geological observations.

This app may be the forerunner of others that could take information from the  GSA’s Rocks and Landscapes series.

The Brisbane History in Stone and Brick App can be downloaded from the Google and Apple App Stores. If you have trouble finding it, search for “Geotourism Brisbane”.

For additional information visit the GSA website.

A Facebook page has been developed to help promote the app to a wider audience. Hit Like to follow the app and be notified of any updates. It is planned to periodically publish information on this page for sites not currently in the app.