Brisbane, Brisbane and Brisbane…

Last year a few people requested that I write something
about Brisbane. Well here it is:

Gert and I spent on Nov 6 and Nov 17 a full day in the
city. I have put both days into one story and added a few extras as well.

First of all what is “Brisbane"? There is some confusion about the name versus
the area. For example if I was in Sydney I would tell someone that I lived in
Brisbane. But in Brisbane I would say that I live in “The Redlands” or refer to Redland Bay as the place where I actually live. Basically this is how it works:

A. Brisbane city or, as we say, the Brisbane CBD (Central Business District) or for us just, "The City".

The Brisbane Central Business District is an area of densely concentrated modern skyscrapers and other, older Colonial style buildings, interspersed by several parks including the Botanical Gardens.
It occupies an area of 1.367 km². The City is laid out according to a grid
pattern, a feature typical of most Australian street patterns. As a general
rule, the streets aligned northwest-south east are named after male members of
British Monarchy, while the northeast-south west aligned streets are named
after female members of which Queen Street is the central roadway. This was
turned into a pedestrian Mall in the 80’s. Not many people live in the CBD.

B. Brisbane & Metropolitan Area.

This includes the CBD and all suburbs listed in the
Brisbane Municipal Council Region.

C. The Greater Brisbane Area

This includes all Suburbs and smaller regions attached to
area B and makes up the total of “Brisbane”.

The length and the width of the Greater Brisbane Area you
could say runs from Caboolture in the north to Beenleigh in the South – about
75 km and east west to Ipswich about 55 km. There are also a number of Islands
in Moreton Bay which are also included in the Brisbane area, most notably Moreton
Island, the third largest sand island in the world, and, just south of it,
Stradbroke Island.
Both of these islands are only accessible by ferries which
run regular services to and from Brisbane Bayside suburbs. There are also a
number of smaller islands from which people commute daily to work in Brisbane.

Brisbane's inhabitants
live on what they classify as the "north side" or the "south side" - meaning north or south of the Brisbane River which runs like a giant snake from the West to the East into Moreton Bay.

Ok - enough statistics. Gert and I spent a few days exploring the city and saw about 5% of it. We started with a ride on a ferry - services cross the river from side to side and also travel from one end of the city to the other. The ferries are fast and efficient. If you want to find out what they are like here is a link.

You have to copy it in your browser.

http://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/traffic- transport/public-transport/citycat-ferr y-services/citycat-journeys.

The parks and facilities are free, as is the Museum.
Electric BBQs are to be found in nearly all parks and are cleaned and
maintained daily by the municipal council. Toilets are everywhere and are also
free. (And if you really have to go you can just enter any government building,
and, as they are paid from tax payer’s money, you can always use the toilets).

Then there is a large park (South Bank) in the city
center right along the river. Southbank has restaurants, a beach and large
pools and fountains - again all free for all to enjoy.

Brisbane has a sub tropical climate, warm winters and hot
humid summers, so the parks and gardens are well patronized by the people of
Brisbane and the many tourists who visit the area.

Enough babble, further comments with the pictures, which
I hope will give you an idea of the city
PS I noticed on the bottom of the column of pictures you can press slide show and view them in full screen, however some pictures are not large enough and are shown slightly pixelated.