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OK, this title doesn’t really rhyme like the old saying because the locals don’t say Bris’-bain, they say Bris’-ben.
We arrived in Brisbane early this morning after navigating up the long, wide, deep Brisbane River to the main port area. The river meanders gently for over 14 miles before you arrive at the downtown area. Like many parts of Australia this area was originally founded as a penal colony. During WWII it was the South West Pacific headquarters for General Douglas MacArthur.
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Brisbane is the third largest city in Australia with over 2 million people. It is also the capital and largest city in the state of Queensland which also includes Townsville, where we will visit in a couple days. Brisbane is a vibrant city and one that deserves more time on a nicer day. There are world-class museums and art galleries. Fantastic restaurants and shopping centers and tons of beautiful historic buildings including cathedrals, government buildings and old residences many built during the gold rush days of the 1800’s. There was even a church, that took over 200 years to build, that was just completed in the last 10 years! There are many interesting bridges crossing the river, some which have rather interesting architecture. The main bridge in the downtown area is called the Story Bridge which is a cantilevered design built by John Bradfield, the same man who designed the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Both bridges have highways, the length of the bridge named after Bradfield.
The tour today is a bus ride to downtown Brisbane followed by a riverboat tour on an authentically re-created 1800’s paddle wheeler called Kookaburra Queen. Of course, it was all made more interesting by on and off again rain throughout the morning. It was wet, but not enough to keep away the ambitious tour goers from the Voyager. Well, except for Margaret who is still recovering from her cold.
The tour guide was a crusty old guy who was about 5 feet tall, had huge mutton chops, a cute captain’s hat and an ever-present accordion. He was a hoot as he told us about everything on both sides of the river, from historic buildings to modern museums, from expensive residences to the ferry system. We went a couple miles up-stream, came back to our starting point and then about a mile downstream and back. They served us tea, coffee and cake and took very good care of us. On the bus ride back they gave us some more city history before stopping at a shuttle stop downtown to let drop off those of us that wanted to explore. I got off, walked a block to the pharmacy and picked up some medicine for Margaret. The pharmacists were very helpful and the large shopping mall was very busy. A quick walk back to the stop and I found the free Regent shuttle waiting. In a half an hour I was walking through the terminal returning to our home on the Voyager.
When you have a river this large and so many buildings right on the banks, you will eventually have flooding and Brisbane is no exception. There have been many severe floods and the last was just last year. A perfect storm of rain, high tides and high winds created a real nightmare in the area where we had our tour. Most indications of it are already gone, a sign to the resilience of the people here.
Photography Comments:
Another gray, rainy day. Not much going on today in the photography department. The bus windows were wet with big rain drops that definitely dampened (so to speak) my picture taking ambitions. This city would be totally fantastic if you had a few days to scout things out as far as lighting. Night time pictures would be great in the area where we took the ferry. I even had to succumb to including pictures taken through a very wet bus window on this outing. Sorry. Oh well, there’s always next time and Brisbane is definitely worth another trip!
Trip Summary » Travel with Dale & Margaret - […] Brisbane, Australia […]