This pin marks the Big Thing itself. If stopping, choose a safe and legal place nearby.
27.46718° S, 153.02119° E
FIELD GUIDE
The story
Brisbane's floral emblem is the poinsettia, and Luke Roberts built one that catches fire.
Poinsettia Riverfire was installed in Emma Miller Place in 2016 – a large stylised poinsettia bloom, animated through choreographed LED sequences, so the flower appears to burn and flicker after dark. The title carries both halves: the city's emblem, and Riverfire, the annual fireworks display over the Brisbane River that is the biggest night in the city's calendar.
Roberts is a significant Queensland artist, and the work does something a static sculpture cannot. A poinsettia's colour is its whole character – the scarlet bracts that people mistake for petals – and rendering that in light rather than paint means the intensity changes through the evening and the sculpture reads completely differently at midday and at midnight.
Light-based public art carries a cost that solid sculpture does not, and this is where the record becomes interesting. Brisbane City Council engaged specialists to lead a complex refurbishment through its Public Art Maintenance Program, working with lighting specialists, an electrical firm and a blasting contractor, with the stated aim of preserving the artist's vision while future-proofing the work's operational performance.
That is a genuinely unglamorous and genuinely important sentence. An LED artwork installed in 2016 has a maintenance path measured in years, not decades, and whether it survives depends entirely on whether a council keeps funding electricians. This one has been through that process and come out the other side.
It stands in central Brisbane and is free to see, best after dark.
Photograph
This is a photograph, shown separately from the illustration artwork.
A free public-art stop in central Brisbane, best approached on foot or by public transport rather than as a drive-up roadside attraction.
ACCESS
Poinsettia Riverfire is a pedestrian public artwork in Emma Miller Place. Drivers should use Brisbane City Council's King George Square Car Park (underground, paid, 1.93 m height limit; vehicle access at 100 Adelaide Street and 87 Roma Street), about 260 m away, and walk from there; public transport is also a good option. Council confirms the car park and OpenStreetMap independently maps it. Do not attempt to stop a vehicle at the sculpture.
Other recorded points
Pedestrian entry · Pedestrian entry · Do not attempt to stop a vehicle at the sculpture itself.
Lists King George Square Car Park with vehicle access at 100 Adelaide Street and 87 Roma Street, operating hours, paid rates and a 1.93 m height limit.
OpenStreetMap node 7027504446 (amenity=parking, parking=underground, operator Brisbane City Council) at -27.468035, 153.023629, about 260 m from the sculpture; used as a destination-level map-checked arrival.
File-level source for reusable image and camera coordinates.
Other
What we're still checking
Emma Miller Place is confirmed as the pedestrian artwork location, but a specific lawful vehicle arrival/parking coordinate has not yet been independently map-checked.
Something not right?
If this Big Thing has changed, moved or gone, telling us keeps the guide honest for the next traveller.
