Share

Brisbane is the third largest city in Australia, as well as the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland. It is set close to the Pacific Ocean, and is situated on the Brisbane River on plains between Moreton Bay and the Great Dividing Range in south-eastern Queensland.

The city is named in honour of Sir Thomas Brisbane who was Governor of New South Wales from 1821 – 1825. The original settlement grew from a harsh penal colony established at his direction in 1824 at Redcliffe, 28km to the north. The colony was moved to what is now the location of the Brisbane CBD in 1825, and free settlers were permitted from 1842. It was chosen as the capital when Queensland was proclaimed a separate colony, in 1859. The city developed slowly until after World War II, when it played a central role in the Allied campaign as the South West Pacific headquarters for General Douglas MacArthur.

More recently, Brisbane hosted the 1982 Commonwealth Games, the 1988 World's Fair (Expo '88), and the 2001 Goodwill Games.

History

Main article: History of Brisbane

Queensland's first Government House located in the QUT Gardens Point Campus grounds.The area now known as Brisbane was inhabited before European settlement by the Turrbal people whose ancestors originally migrated to the region from across the Torres Strait. To these people the area that would become Brisbane was known as Mian-jin, which means 'place shaped as a spike'.

In 1823, an exploration party led by John Oxley explored Moreton Bay and sailed up the Brisbane River as far as Goodna, some 20 km upstream from what is now Brisbane central business district.

In 1824, the colonial administration of New South Wales established a penal settlement at what is now Redcliffe, on the shores of Moreton Bay. However, the Redcliffe settlement was abandoned after only one year and the colony was moved south to a peninsula on the Brisbane River (today the Brisbane CBD), which offered a more reliable water supply. Non-convict European settlement of the Brisbane region commenced in 1838.

German missionaries settled at Zions Hill, Nundah, as early as 1837, five years before Brisbane was officially declared a free settlement. During these five years, a small trickle of free settlers entered the area and by the end of 1840 Robert Dixon had started work on the first plan of Brisbane Town in anticipation of future development.

The German missionaries consisted of two ministers, Pastor C Eipper and K W Schmidt, and lay missionaries whose names were Haussmann, Johann Gottried Wagner, Niquet, Hartenstein, Zillman, Franz, Rode, Doege and Schneider. They were allocated 260 hectares and set about establishing the mission, which became known as German Station.

Queensland was proclaimed a separate colony in June 1859 and Brisbane was chosen as its capital. However, Brisbane was not incorporated as a city until 1902. Over twenty small municipalities and shires were amalgamated in 1925, to form the City of Greater Brisbane which is governed by the Brisbane City Council.

The Windmill in Wickham Park in Brisbane. Built by convicts in 1828, the heritage notice at the Windmill states that it is Queensland's oldest surviving building.Historic buildings include The Windmill, which was built by convicts in 1828. According to the heritage notice at the Windmill, it is Queensland's oldest surviving building. The Windmill was originally used for the grinding of grain and a punishment for the convicts that manually operated the grinding mill. The tower’s other significant claim to fame, largely ignored, is that the first television signals in the southern hemisphere were transmitted from it by experimenters in April 1934 – long before TV commenced in most places. These experimental TV broadcasts continued until World War II.

Another historic building is the Shrine of Remembrance, which was dedicated on 11 November 1930. The Shrine of Remembrance is Brisbane's main memorial of remembrance to Australia's war dead.

During World War II, Brisbane played a central role in the Allied campaign when the AMP Building (now called MacArthur Central) was used as the South West Pacific headquarters for General Douglas MacArthur, the chief of the Allied Pacific forces. Also used as a Headquarters by the American troops during World War II was the T & G Building. Approximately 1,000,000 US troops passed through Australia during the war, as the primary coordination point for the South West Pacific.

Brisbane staged both a successful Commonwealth Games during 1982, and World's Fair during 1988. These events were accompanied by a scale of public expenditure, construction and development not previously seen in the state of Queensland.

In the new millennium, Brisbane is one of Australia's fastest growing centres, receiving large numbers of migrants from other Australian states and territories.

Geography

Landsat image of the Brisbane region.Brisbane city centre is situated in the southeast corner of Queensland, Australia, at a latitude and longitude of 27°28'S, 153°02'E. The city straddles the Brisbane River, and its eastern suburbs line the shores of Moreton Bay. The greater Brisbane region lies on the coastal plain east of the Great Dividing Range, although the urban area is dotted by large hills reaching up to 300 metres such as Mount Coot-tha, Mount Gravatt, Whites Hill and Stephens Mountain.

Generally, the city is a low-lying floodplain and susceptible to severe flooding. Many suburban creeks also criss-cross the city, which increases the risk of localised flooding. The city has suffered two major floods since colonisation, in 1893 and 1974. The 1974 Brisbane flood occurred partly as a result of "Cyclone Wanda". Continual non-stop heavy rain had fallen during the three weeks leading up to the flood, which occurred during the Australia Day weekend (26 – 27 January, 1974). The flood damaged many parts of the city, especially in the suburbs of Oxley, Bulimba, Rocklea, Coorparoo and New Farm. The City Botanic gardens were also inundated, leading to a new colony of mangroves to form in the City Reach of the Brisbane River.

Map of Brisbane CBD.
Brisbane central business district
with New Farm Park in the foreground.The Brisbane central business district is situated in a curve of the Brisbane river. The area covers only 2.2 square kilometres and is easily walkable. The central streets are named after members of the House of Hanover. Streets named after female members (Adelaide, Alice, Ann, Charlotte, Elizabeth, Margaret, Mary) run parallel to Queen Street and Queen Street Mall (named in honour of Queen Victoria) and perpendicular to streets named after male members (Albert, Edward, George, William).

Brisbane has a lower inner city population density than Australia's two largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, although constant population growth occurring in Brisbane is closing the gap between Brisbane and Melbourne. The lower population density reflects the fact that most of Brisbane's housing stock consists of detached houses. Early legislation decreed a minimum size for residential blocks resulting in few terrace houses being constructed in Brisbane. The high density housing that did exist came in the form of miniature Queenslander-style houses which resemble the much larger traditional styles but are sometimes only 1/4 the size. These miniature Queenslanders are becoming scarce but can still be seen in the inner city suburbs. Multi residence accommodations (such as apartment blocks) are relative newcomers to Brisbane, with few such blocks built before 1970, other than in inner suburbs such as New Farm. Pre-1950 housing stock was often built in a distinctive architectural style known as a Queenslander, featuring timber construction with large verandahs and high ceilings. The relatively low cost of timber in South-East Queensland meant that until recently most residences were constructed of timber, rather than brick or stone. Many of these houses are elevated on stumps (also called stilts), that were originally timber, but are now frequently replaced by steel or concrete.

Overall the city has a density of 379.4 people per square kilometre, which is comparable to that of Sydney. Recently the density of the city and inner city neighbourhoods has increased with the construction of apartments, with the result that the population of the central business district has doubled over the last 5 years.

Climate

Brisbane has a humid subtropical climate (Koppen climate classification Cfa) with hot, humid summers and dry, mild winters. From late Spring through to early Autumn, thunderstorms are common over the greater Brisbane area, with the more severe events accompanied by large damaging hail stones, torrential rain and destructive winds.

The city's highest recorded temperature was 43.2 °C (109.8 °F) on the 26 January 1940. On 19 July 2007, Brisbane's temperature fell below freezing point for the first time since records began, registering -0.1 °C at the airport.[8] Brisbane's wettest day was 21 January 1887, when 465 mm (18.3 in) of rain fell on the city, the highest maximum daily rainfall of any of Australia's capital cities. From 2006, Brisbane and surrounding temperate areas have experienced the most severe drought in over a century, as supplying dam levels dropped below one quarter of their normal capacity. As a result, residents have been mandated by local laws to observe level 5 water restrictions on gardening and other outdoor water usage.

Climate Table Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Mean daily maximum temperature (°C) 29.4 29.0 28.0 26.1 23.2 20.9 20.4 21.8 24.0 26.1 27.8 29.1 25.5
Mean daily minimum temperature (°C) 20.7 20.6 19.4 16.6 13.3 10.9 9.5 10.3 12.9 15.8 18.1 19.8 15.7
Mean monthly rainfall (mm) 159.6 158.3 140.7 92.5 73.7 67.8 56.5 45.9 45.7 75.4 97.0 133.3 1146.4
Source: Bureau of Meteorology

Governance

Brisbane City Hall houses the Museum of Brisbane and offices of the Brisbane City Council.Main articles: Brisbane City Council and Government of Queensland
Unlike other Australian capital cities, a large portion of the greater metropolitan area of Brisbane is controlled by a single local government entity, the Brisbane City Council. Since the creation of the Brisbane City Council in 1925 the urban areas of Brisbane have expanded considerably past the City Council boundaries.

The City of Brisbane is divided into 26 wards, with each ward electing a Councillor as their community representative. The Lord Mayor of Brisbane and Councillors are elected every four years by popular vote, in which all residents must participate. The current Lord Mayor of Brisbane is Campbell Newman, who was elected to the position in March 2004.

Brisbane City Council is the largest local government body (in terms of population and budget) in Australia. The Council, formed by the merger of twenty smaller councils in 1925, has jurisdiction over an area of 1367 km². The Council's annual budget is approximately $1.6 billion, and it has an asset base of $13 billion.

The Brisbane metropolitan area now covers parts of several adjoining local government areas including Beaudesert Shire, Caboolture Shire, Gold Coast City, Ipswich City, Logan City, Pine Rivers Shire, Redcliffe City and Redland Shire.

Economy

Brisbane city by night, looking north along the Brisbane River towards the CBD.
Queen Street Mall, Brisbane CBD.Brisbane's economy has white-collar and blue-collar industries. White-collar industries include information technology, financial services, higher education and public sector administration generally concentrated in and around the central business district and recently established office areas in the inner suburbs. Blue-collar industries include petroleum refining, stevedoring, paper milling, metalworking and QR railway workshops tend to be located on the lower reaches of the Brisbane River and in new industrial zones on the urban fringe. Tourism is an important part of the Brisbane economy, both in its own right and as a gateway to other areas of Queensland.

Since the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Queensland State Government has been developing technology and science industries in Queensland as a whole, and Brisbane in particular, as part of its "Smart State" initative. The government has invested in several biotechnology and research facilities at several universities in Brisbane. The Institute for Molecular Bioscience at the University of Queensland (UQ) Saint Lucia Campus is a large CSIRO and Queensland state government initiative for research and innovation that is currently being emulated at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Campus at Kelvin Grove with the establishment of the Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation (IHBI).

The Port of Brisbane is on the lower reaches of the Brisbane River and on Fisherman's Island at the rivers mouth, and is the 3rd most important port in Australia for value of goods. Container freight, sugar, grain, coal and bulk liquids are the major exports. Most of the port facilities are less than three decades old and some are built on reclaimed mangroves and wetlands. The Port is a part of the Australia TradeCoast, the country's fastest-growing economic development area, is a marketing partnership between the Queensland Government, the city of Brisbane, Brisbane airport and its seaport, originally proposed by a UK marketer who had also developed the Amsterdam airport Area zone. Geographically, Australia TradeCoast occupies a huge swathe of land around the airport and port. Commercially, the area has attracted a mix of companies from throughout the Asia Pacific region.

Major businesses

Brisbane is also considered one of the major business hubs in Australia. Most major Australian and International companies have either a major or minor contact office in Brisbane. Many electronics companies also take advantage of the strategic port and airports by choosing to have distribution hubs in the city. LG, Panasonic, Samsung are just a few practical examples. DHL Global have their Oceanic distribution warehouse located in Brisbane, while Asia Pacific Aerospace has their headquarters there.

Home grown major companies from Brisbane include Suncorp-Metway Limited, Flight Centre, SunSuper, Orrcon, Credit Union Australia, Donut King, Wotif.com, WebCentral, PIPE Networks, Krome Studios, Mincom Limited and Virgin Blue are headquartered in Brisbane, while the city has regional presences of Alcan, Boeing, IBM and Red Hat.

Retail

Brisbane has many shopping centres. The Queen Street Mall has restaurants, souvenirs and shopping centres, including: Wintergarden, Broadway on the Mall, Queens Plaza, Brisbane Arcade and The Myer Centre. The majority of consumer commerce is generally done within the suburbs of Brisbane, via massive shopping centre hubs which include major departments chains. There are 4 major shopping centres in Brisbane located in the suburbs of Chermside, Indooroopilly, Mt Gravatt and Carindale. Smaller, yet significant shopping centres are also littered around the other suburbs of the city. (see List of shopping centres in Australia)

Employment

Despite strong economic growth, Queensland government statistics show unemployment rates of over 12% among migrants to Brisbane statistical division from interstate and overseas.

Demographics

Part of the Brisbane central business district, as seen from above Central station
(photo taken from the Sofitel Hotel)Brisbane
Population by year
1825 47 (convict settlement)
1831 1,241
1839 2,212
1846 6,257 (free settlement)
1851 8,375
1891 104,276 (gold rush)
1925 260 000
1950 442,000
1960 603,000
1970 798,000 (interstate migration)
1980 1,067,000
1990 1,303,000
2000 1,591,000
2004 1,810,943 (2005 estimate)
The population of Brisbane city is estimated at 989,152 (as of June 2006). Greater Brisbane has an estimated urban population of 1.7 million. Brisbane City Council as Australia's largest (by area) predominantly urban Local Government Area, is the most populous LGA in Australia. Brisbane is claimed to have the highest rate of population growth of any Australian capital city. The urban population reportedly grew by 11.5% between 1999 and 2004.

The last Australian Census in 2006 showed that 1.7% of Brisbane's population are of indigenous origins, while 21.7% were born overseas. Approximately 16.1% of households speak a language other than English, with the most common being Mandarin, Vietnamese and Cantonese. The median age across the city is 35 years old.

Education

The Forgan Smith Building and the Great Court University of QueenslandBrisbane has multi-campus universities and colleges including the University of Queensland (A member of the Group of Eight and Universitas 21), Queensland University of Technology and Griffith University. Other universities which have campuses in Brisbane include the Australian Catholic University, Central Queensland University, James Cook University, the University of the Sunshine Coast and the University of Southern Queensland.

Brisbane also has TAFE colleges including the Bremer Institute of TAFE, Brisbane North Institute of TAFE, Metropolitan South Institute of TAFE and the Southbank Institute. Other independent tertiary education providers include the Australian College of Natural Medicine, the Brisbane College of Theology, QANTM, Brisbane College of Photography and Art as well as Jschool: Journalism Education & Training.

Brisbane is covered under the jurisdiction of Education Queensland regarding public primary and high schools. (See the List of schools in Queensland).

Culture

A portion of the Brisbane skyline taken from the South Bank Parklands

Arts and entertainment

Main article: Popular entertainment in Brisbane
Main article: Classical culture of Brisbane
Brisbane has a thriving live music scene, as well as theatres and museums within the city, South Bank, the South Bank Parklands and Brisbane suburbs. It is the birthplace of internationally acclaimed singers, music bands, authors, actors, artists, sculptors and fashion designers. Many of Brisbane's singers and musicians (both popular and classical) have performed overseas, and have received international awards and recognition. Along with Beijing, Berlin, Birmingham and Marseille, Brisbane was nominated as one of the Top 5 International Music Hotspots by Billboard in 2007. There are also popular entertainment pubs and clubs within both the City and Fortitude Valley.

Annual events

Major cultural events include the Ekka (the Royal Queensland Show) is held each year in August, at the Brisbane Exhibition Ground, Riverfestival (which includes Riverfire), is held each year in September at South Bank Parklands and surrounding areas; Warana, (meaning Blue Skies), was a former spring festival which began in 1961 and was held in September each year. Run as a celebration of Brisbane, Warana was similar in many ways to Melbourne's Moomba festival. Warana was changed, in 1996, to a biennial Brisbane Festival.

The Paniyiri festival at Musgrave Park (corner of Russell and Edmonstone Streets, South Brisbane) an annual Greek cultural festival held on the first weekend in May. Also in Musgrave Park the Brisbane Medieval Fayre and Tournament is held each June.

The Valley Fiesta is an annual three-day event organised by the Valley Chamber of Commerce. It was launched by Brisbane Marketing in 2002 as a way to promote Fortitude Valley further as a hub for arts and youth culture. It features free live music, market stalls, food and drink from many local restaurants and cafés, and other entertainment.

Tourism and recreation

Popular recreational areas include the South Bank Parklands, the Roma Street Parkland (which has an outdoor amphitheatre), the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens (a colonial era botanic gardens founded in 1855 in the Brisbane CBD), and the Mount Coot-tha state forest (which includes a lookout over the city), the Brisbane Botanic Gardens (contemporary botanical gardens) which includes the Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium and the "Tsuki-yama-chisen" Japanese Garden, as well as Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and Brisbane Forest Park, the rock-climbing cliffs which are located at the southern approach to the Story Bridge at Kangaroo Point, and the more than 27 km of bicycle pathways which line both sides of the river east and west of the city centre. Another new Brisbane attraction is the Story Bridge Adventure Climb. The Story Bridge is one of only three legally climbable bridges in the world. The latest addition to Brisbane tourism is the $750 million Portside Wharf.