Brisbane

Modern and shiny is one of the best ways to describe Brisbane, a city which is home to an array of polished steel and concrete structures, yet still manages to maintain masses of open space. For a life al fresco, Brisbane is the place to be and the city is peppered with palm trees and tropical flowers, and boasts stacks of greenery and outdoor space. There is a great selection of Brisbane hotels, both traditional and boutique, that cater to every travel need.

Along the banks of the Brisbane River you’ll find open-sided shops and bars with outdoor tables, and acres of parklands, so although this is a working city and home to nearly two million people, it makes it feel more like a holiday resort.

Brisbane is not vying to be the biggest, richest or trendiest town in Australia. It doesn’t shout about itself, and it has nothing to prove, yet it regularly tops surveys for quality of life. While it’s easy to attribute this to the weather, the natural landscape and its resources have a lot to answer for, too.

Brisbane Facts

Like many Australian cities, it began life as a convict settlement. The penal colony of Redcliffe (now a suburb on the northern shore) was established here in 1823, as a remote and harsh outpost for re-offenders. Free settlers were prohibited from the area for many years, until 1842 when there were so few convicts left that the colony was having trouble sustaining itself. More people were needed, and so the colony was marketed as a free settlement, rich in timber and fertile agricultural land. Eventually, the penal settlement was closed down and the town was named Brisbane after the governor of New South Wales, which then comprised the eastern half of Australia.

Queensland became a separate state, carved out of the vast colony of New South Wales, in 1859, and Brisbane became its capital, although for a long time it remained an undeveloped outpost with none of the grandeur or capital investment enjoyed by the booming centres of Melbourne and Sydney. For this reason you’ll see much less in the way of grandiose Victorian architecture than you would in those cities. There is some, however - the Town Hall and Customs House being the two examples that spring to mind.

The wonderful weather has shaped Brisbane into a laid-back, outdoorsy, upbeat city, with plenty of promenading, rollerblading, boating, outdoor entertaining and the like. It even has outdoor cinemas. There’s plenty of room, less traffic than other major cities, lots of boating and sailing, and the warm Pacific on the doorstep, with wonderful fresh subtropical seafood, and the vast surf-pounded beaches of the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast within easy reach. In fact the Gold Coast is fast becoming one of Australia’s hottest tourist destinations and if you want to explore this wonderful region for yourself, by far the best place to see it all from is Brisbane - the capital of the Gold Coast! Find out more about Australia’s Gold Coast and just what makes it so special! Very Gold Coast gives you the lowdown on this popular area of Australia including holiday tips, where to stay and what to do.

Brisbane is not a beach city, it’s more a beach-loving city. Its shores are confined to the broad, meandering Brisbane River, and the marinas and foreshore of Moreton Bay. The only beach near the city is an artificial one, known as South Bank Beach, which has been built on a bend in the river using sand transported from a nearby coastline. A shallow, sand-bottomed freshwater lagoon has been formed amid the lawns and palm trees of the South Bank, and it’s a favourite spot with families who can picnic in the heart of the city while toddlers paddle around safely in the crystal clear turquoise pools with buckets and spades.

Find out more about what Brisbane has to offer with the official tourist guide to Brisbane.

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Courtesy of Tourism Australia

Courtesy of Tourism Australia

Courtesy of Tourism Australia