Committee members out the front of the main Exhibition building of the National Agricultural & Industrial Association at the second Intercolonial Exhibition (Ekka), August 1877

The main portion of this building was erected by Ebenezer Chapman, a local building contractor in 1876, when it was insured for 1,000 pounds. The following year, extensions were carried out with the addition of a modest tower. The structure was later leased out by the National Association between exhibitions, and it was being used as a skating rink when it was destroyed by fire on 13 June 1888. (State Library of Queensland Description.) George Parkinson Wright was an important pioneer of photography in Queensland and was even appointed official photographer to the Governor, Sir Arthur Edward Kennedy . Wright was a key figure in the earliest period of professional landscape photography in the state. He was at his James Street, Fortitude Valley address from 1874 to 1878.