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When surveying the histories of plants under cultivation, one becomes immediately aware of the vagaries of shifting tastes. So it is with one of my favourite plants: the hardy croton, Codaieum variegatum. It was a popular hot-house plant in Europe during the nineteenth century, when colourful and variegated plants from the far corners of the world were all the rage. In the late part of the nineteenth century, these plants made their way to Australia, and were especially cultivated in Queensland. Even in sub-tropical Brisbane, plants can lose all their leaves in cold snaps during the mild winters, but further north, Queensland has a plant that can offer gardens a wide variety of colour and leaf shape. For a plant from the tropics, they are remarkably drought tolerant and have proved their resilience in both summer's heat and humidity, and our occasional extended droughts.

Some ofthe guests at the opening of the Queensland Art Gallery's exhibition Vida Lahey: Colour and Modernism on 16 October 2010 expressed their consternation when Lahey's most famous work, Monday Morning, was not included. Despite it being one of the icons of the Gallery's collection, it remained on display in the permanent collection galleries - a choice that was quite deliberate. Monday Morning is a striking, large figurative work, which has been displayed since it was donated to the Gallery by the Queensland poet, Emily Coungeau, after the Queensland Art Society's (QAS) Annual Exhibition in 1912. It was a clear sign that the artist, then aged 30 years and who had been exhibiting with the Society since 1902, was an established presence on the Brisbane art scene.

My interest in The Oasis developed from research I have been pursuing into cultural icons in Brisbane: how they are defined and how they develop. I would suggest the development of ‘iconic’ status for any site is a construction of shared memory and is very much tied to place and identity. Over the fifty years of its existence, The Oasis, in the suburb of Sunnybank, was intimately integrated into the social fabric of Brisbane. It held its place in the affections of Brisbanites and of the many southern visitors who came to enjoy our winter sun. In these terms The Oasis and its tropical gardens became one of Brisbane's icons and, within the terms of our conference theme, an exemplar of ‘Tropical pleasures’.