Bris-Vegas

Or Bris-ney Land or Brissy.

Today we’ve ventured into the city to explore – but not without Janice & Paul setting us the “Brisbane Challenge”. The challenge consisted of 10 things :

• Find the Windmill
• Take an artistic photo of the Clock Tower
• Find the Vegetable Strainer ball
• What is the ‘purse’ all about?
• Find the Kangaroo sculpture
• Take a photo of Parliament House
• Review the “Elephant & Wheelbarrow” pub
• Where is the Wollemi Pine?
• Find the rudest sculpture on the Nepalese temple
• Locate the Bull Horns sculpture

Armed with the challenge and the added complication of not using our Rough Guide book, the local bus took us into town. Public transport appears to be very convenient with a clear website and customer service line that gives you the connections, costs, times and local information such as ‘its past the Brisbane Boys College’. Brilliant – and the tickets allow you to go to somewhere en route as part of your journey as long as you’re back on the bus.

We utilised this by looking into Toowong where the Centrelink offices were. Centrelink are the company that would be the equivalent of the job centre and benefits office in the UK and are responsible for providing Tax File Number (a bit like the NI number, NHS number and social security number all rolled into one.) Rather unhelpfully was that its actually the Australian Tax Office (ATO) that needed to sort ours out as we’re non-residents. Must do that!

Brisbane is home to approx 1m people and named after the original Queensland Governor. It is located on the banks of the Brisbane river and as a result has many different styles of bridges that allow residents and travellers to move between north and south of the city.

One new bridge is opening in June so we’ll see that at the end of the trip. The bridges are required not only for transportation but because it’s the home of the Bull Shark – arguably more dangerous that the more infamous Great White because its equally home in fresh and salt water and eats anything…hmmmm

A & I found a free walking tour from the Visitor Centre with a youngish local chap who knew his stuff. I reckon he must have a History degree or something similar as the tour was brilliant. Three hours of non-stop facts and figures detailing the birth of Australia to the present day. The company was XXXX and would definitely recommend it to anyone who was visiting the city.

The tour took in the King George Square and the current City Hall that is undergoing a controversial 2 year refurbishment. It is said that the building is sinking much to the annoyance of the council, although it is a fact that the city is built on a swamp. The City Hall also prompts controversy due to its sculpture of the emergence of Australia that depicts the native Aboriginal culture dying out..

A visit to ANZAC Square to commemorate the Australian and New Zealand involvement in the the two World Wars was next. The beautiful calming square has many sculptures to recognise the involvement of the local New Guineans in fighting off the Japanese that prevented the likely invasion of Australia and the role Brisbane played in the command of the South Pacific War.

We learnt about the Brisbane Line; General Macarthur’s backup plan to sacrifice Australian land North of Brisbane to the Japanese should they have invaded and the sensitive way the sculptures recognise the role of the three armed forces and the number of steps up to it on two levels 19 and 18 reflecting the date of the end of WW1.

The rest of the tour took in George St Mall,

the locally revered Empire Theatre,

the old Treasury that’s now a casino,

numerous sculptures including two on our Challenge,

the eco-friendly city library and office building,

the only sculpture of Queen Elizabeth II carrying a purse,

the old red light district and its role in aiding the war effort. It went on to talk about the current political status of Brisbane outside Parliament House, the ghost stories of Queenland University of Technology (QUT),

the Goodwill Bridge and the South Bank, the site of the Brisbane Expo in 1988 that’s being redeveloped into a pleasant walking and recreational area complete with flower gardens and artificial inland beach.

The tour’s style was very focussed at the younger traveller (I feel old!) referring to General Macarthur as G-Mac and how he communicated via Facebook. It was very Australian – shortening everything, giving things nicknames – and made it an enjoyable few hours. Although it was advertised as free, it was a ‘tipped’ tour so a voluntary contribution was requested..

The remainder of the afternoon was spent completing our Challenge,

 

exploring the cultural centre and finding some food

before being picked up by Paul for some fire-twirling.

This was an incredible experience. Paul practices fire-twirling and drumming and coincided with the Full Moon so both troupes were together in a local park. At one point 25 people were fire-twirling at the same time with many more having a go with light-based poise. Both of us had a good with the lights and by all accounts our faces were a picture. It created a wave of excitement and surrealism and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves – another first on the trip!

 

The day ended with a late night visit to the Mount Coot-tha Lookout that overlooks Brisbane and was the site of storage for weapons, fuel and stores during WW2.