page_title: World Expo 88
section_title: Pavilions
hierarchical_section_title: World Expo 88 / The Fair / Pavilions
caption_attribution_description: English: Outside the British pavilion at Expo '88 ( this photograph was taken by Figaro )
context_page_description: World Expo 88, also known as Expo 88, was a specialised Expo held in Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, Australia, during a six-month period between Saturday, 30 April 1988 and Sunday, 30 October 1988, inclusive. The theme of the Expo was "Leisure in the Age of Technology", and the mascot for the Expo was an Australian platypus named Expo Oz.
  The A$625 million fair was the largest event of the 1988 Bicentennial celebrations of the arrival of the First Fleet in Sydney Harbour. Expo 88 attracted more than 15,760,000 visitors who bought tickets worth A$175 million. The event achieved both its economic aims and very good attendances, was successfully used to promote Queensland as a tourist destination and it spurred a major re-development at the South Brisbane site. The core feature of the site were the international pavilions. Many of the exposition's sculptures and buildings were retained by various entities around the state and are still in use or on display today.
context_section_description: Despite late entrants into the Exposition due to domestic political measures, World Expo 88 attracted some 100 pavilions, from 52 governments, of which 36 were from international-level, and numerous corporate participants. Major western and European nations were represented such as the United States, the Soviet Union (last representation at a World Exposition), France, West Germany (also last representation at a World Exposition), the United Kingdom, Canada, Spain and Greece, as well as major Asian countries such as Singapore, Thailand, Nepal, Pakistan, China, Japan, Sri Lanka, South Korea and Indonesia, amongst others. Close neighbouring countries, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea were also represented.
  State-level and multi-lateral organisations included the six Australian states, the United Nations, the European Union, Vatican City, three American states (Hawaii, California and Alaska), one Japanese prefecture (sister state of Queensland, Saitama Prefecture), and one Japanese city (Brisbane's sister city Kobe City).
  Corporate pavilions included IBM, Ford, Fujitsu, Queensland Newspapers, Australia Post, Cadbury Chocolate, Suncorp, and the Queensland Teachers Credit Union. NASA and Universal Studios hosted outdoor exhibits, with models of the space shuttle and Apollo program, as well as the car KITT from the TV series Knight Rider. Also having its own pavilion was the official Australian TV partner of the Expo, Network Ten, via its Queensland station TVQ, whose news studios were located there for public tours and during the Expo also switched channel frequencies in September (from channel 0 to channel 10) in line with the other state channels.
  The most expensive pavilion was Japan (A$26 million), followed by the Queensland Pavilion (A$20 million) and the Australia Pavilion (A$18 million). The largest Pavilions were also Queensland, followed by Australia then Japan.
  High Definition TV received its Australian premiere at the Japan Pavilion, and the text-based Internet at the Swiss Pavilion. At the University pavilion the world's longest lab experiment was on display. The pitch drop experiment, which features tar pitch slowly dripping through a funnel at a rate of nine drops in 81 years, actually made an unseen drop while on display.
  The most popular pavilion was New Zealand with its animated Footrot Flats show and glow worm cave followed by Australia, with its special effects 'Dreamtime Theatre'; Queensland, with its popular 180-metre long people mover ride through Queensland of the present and the future; Japan with its Japan Pond and Garden and hi-tech displays; Switzerland, with its artificial snow ski slope and cable car ride; and Nepal, with its 3-level hand-crafted Nepalese Peace Pagoda.
caption: British Pavilion
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