It didn't take long for Brisbane to recover from World War II, judging by this photograph of Queen Street.The reaction to the ceasing of hostilities in the Pacific was celebrated by people getting back to their lives.
As it should be.
But the influence of the war and particularly that of General Douglas MacArthur remains in the city centre today.
During the war Queen Street became more or less a garrison.
The National Mutual Building that dominates the left third of the photograph was commandeered for the war, the tiny building dwarfed next door is Brisbane's general post office and it leads out on to Post Office Square.
The flat topped, deco building next door to that was built in 1934 was the AMP building and it is better known today for its most important temporary tenant - MacArthur Central, named for the American five star general who made the building his headquarters for the south-west Pacific operations.
There's a museum on the eighth floor which originally housed the boardroom where MacArthur conducted operations.
Queen Street, between George and Edward Streets was closed to traffic and turned into a mall in 1982 as part of the Commonwealth Games redevelopment. Today Queen Street serves an army of shoppers and office workers.
Click for a larger image, photograph from the 1948 book, Queensland.
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