BRISBANE—Some remember it as an excuse to do the chicken dance and drink beer.
But others recall Expo 88 as a seminal event that put Brisbane on the cultural map and took the Australian tourism industry into an exciting and lucrative new era.
It's been 20 years since 100,000 people poured each day through the gates of what later became Brisbane's South Bank, queuing to have their "passports" stamped at international pavilions, eating, drinking and doing the chicken dance at the Munich Festhaus.
The theme of the $625 million, six-month world fair was Leisure in the Age of Technology, the mascot was a platypus named Expo Oz and John Farnham was a regular visitor and performer.
It was the largest event of the 1988 Bicentennial celebrations in Australia.
But the fun wasn't just for Australians.
Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC) chairman John King was working in Los Angeles in 1988 as a regional representative of the Australian Tourism Commission.
Americans were keen to visit Brisbane's fair, even if some didn't really know where Brisbane was, he recalled.
"It was one of those events that, combined with the fact it was Australia's bicentennial year, it really created a lot of publicity and a lot of impetus for Australia," Mr King told AAP.
Expo came on the back of other 1980s Australian triumphs, including its upset win and publicity from the 1983 America's Cup, the 1986 box office blockbuster Crocodile Dundee and the success of the "throw another shrimp on the barbie" tourism campaign featuring Paul Hogan.
"From 1984 through to `88 was a major increase in visitation from the United States and certainly in that period, Australia jumped to one of, if not the most, aspired-for destinations," Mr King said.
"Australia until the early 1980s had never been on that list."
Expo 88 was a long time in the planning, starting with the establishment of then Queensland Tourist and Travel Corporation (QTTC) 10 years earlier, Mr King said.
"At that stage, Expo was one of the first things that QTTC really decided was an important part of putting Queensland on the map," Mr King said.
"Ten years before Expo, there wasn't one five-star hotel or resort in Queensland and only five per cent of all the inbound flights to Australia landed in Queensland, which was a tourism backwater as far as arrivals in Australia were concerned.
"That's hard to imagine today because Queensland is such a significant drawcard for Australia internationally."
But apart from landmarks, including the Ship Inn, the Nepalese temple and the Stefan Sky Needle (now under renovation), Expo 88 also left the city with a lasting legacy from the radical redevelopment of a partly derelict industrial wasteland on the Brisbane River into the landscaped precinct now called South Bank Parklands.
"It's one of the major cultural precincts in Australia now," Mr King said.
"It has significantly changed the character of Brisbane. Where previously the Brisbane River used to be the boundary of the city, now the river is much more the centre of the city, with South Bank really providing an adjunct to the city physically.
"It is one of the things that really turned Brisbane from being perhaps an oversized country town to a major metropolitan area."
Before Expo 88, Brisbane still clung to provincial ways, which did not make for a tourist-friendly environment, said the event's chairman, Sir Llew Edwards, now chancellor of the University of Queensland (UQ).
Brisbane City Council regulations forbade outdoor dining for fear of contamination by airborne germs and pollutants, and many establishments could trade no later than 6.30pm, Sir Llew said.
But Expo had its own 10am to 10pm outdoor dining regulations, and the city, with its generally balmy climate, has never looked back.
"It's been absolutely marvellous, and I don't think anyone has ever got sick (from eating outdoors)," Sir Llew said.
"The council kept saying it (the ban) was for health reasons, but I don't think there are any more germs outside than there are inside, which was the argument they had.
"But the regulations were changed, and I think it was a great breakthrough and Brisbane has benefited enormously as a result."
Sir Llew says he believes South Bank's tourism potential has still not been fully realised.
"I'd like to see it as a real people's site where there's a lot more restaurants, art and crafts and more entertainment, so that it's not just a parkland but a place where people sit and enjoy music and the atmosphere," he said.
After the success of Expo 88, Sir Llew received numerous requests to stage another one.
"I would get a letter or a phone call at least once a week, saying when are we going to have another Expo, or when are going to be able to do some more things like we were able to do at Expo.
"Whether we will ever have another Expo in Brisbane is for other people, but certainly it did build us a great reputation and the people of Brisbane are now regarded as some of the friendliest in the world."
Even the chicken dance had a lasting impact. People still ask where they can get the music, Sir Llew says.
He remains modest about his own performance, despite having led thousands of partygoers from the Expo site on the closing night - by flapping his hands, arms and twisting his hips.
"I was known to be a poor chicken dancer," he said.
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