Nowhere Fast: Brisbane’s Punk and Post-punk Scene 1978-1982 featuring the photographs of Paul O’Brien, is a dark, dazzling, wild night-time ride into the Brisbane underground of the late 70s. O’Brien captured more than 800 images of Brisbane’s DIY subculture, a scene underpinned by politics, frustration, opposition. And music.

In 1976 The Saints kicked the door open and then split, leaving a restless energy in their wake. The music that emerged from the suburbs of Brisbane in the mid-late 70s did so in spite of active efforts by the police force to eradicate it. Suburban halls and inner-city venues were routinely raided by the police; dances were deemed riots and arrests were made; political protest was banned.

This book of 85 selected black and white photographs includes essays by two musicians and members of the scene, Robert Forster and John Willsteed.