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Brisbane ( ; (2025). 9781876429379, The Macquarie Library. ISBN 9781876429379 ) is the capital and largest city of the state of Queensland and the third-most populous city in Australia, with a population of approximately 2.8 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of South East Queensland, an urban agglomeration with a population of over 4 million. The central business district is situated within a peninsula of the Brisbane River about from its mouth at Moreton Bay. Brisbane's metropolitan area sprawls over the hilly floodplain of the Brisbane River Valley between Moreton Bay and the Taylor Range and D'Aguilar , encompassing several local government areas, most centrally the City of Brisbane. The demonym of Brisbane is Brisbanite.
The Moreton Bay penal settlement was founded in 1824 at Redcliffe as a place for secondary offenders from the Sydney, but in May 1825 moved to North Quay on the banks of the Brisbane River, so named for the Governor of New South Wales Sir Thomas Brisbane. Lutheranism established the first free settlement of Zion Hill at Nundah in 1838, and in 1859 Brisbane was chosen as Queensland's capital when the state separated from New South Wales. During World War II, the Allied command in the South West Pacific was based in the city, along with the headquarters for General Douglas MacArthur of the United States Army.
Brisbane is a global centre for research and innovation and is a transportation hub, being served by large rail, bus and ferry networks, as well as Brisbane Airport and the Port of Brisbane, Australia's third-busiest airport and seaport. A diverse city with over 36% of its metropolitan population being foreign-born, Brisbane is frequently ranked highly in lists of the most liveable cities. Brisbane has hosted major events including the 1982 Commonwealth Games, World Expo 88, the 2014 G20 summit, and will host the 2032 Summer Olympics.
Brisbane is one of Australia's most popular tourist destinations and is Australia's most biodiverse and Sustainable city. Brisbane's attractions include the Queensland Cultural Centre (which includes the Queensland Art Gallery, the Gallery of Modern Art and the State Library of Queensland), South Bank Parklands, Queen's Wharf, the City Botanic Gardens, the Mount Coot-tha Botanic Gardens, the Brisbane Riverwalk, Moreton Bay and the D'Aguilar National Park. Brisbane's inner-city neighbourhoods are known for their historic Queenslander houses.
Part of the Brisbane conurbation is located on traditional indigenous land known also as Meanjin, Meaanjin, Maganjin or Magandjin amongst other spellings. There is a difference of opinion between local traditional owners over the spelling, provenance and pronunciation of indigenous names for Brisbane. Tom Petrie in 1901 stated that the name Meeannjin referred to the area that Brisbane CBD now straddles. Some sources state that the name means or 'the spearhead' referencing the shape of the Brisbane River along the area of the Brisbane CBD. A contemporary Turrbal organisation has also suggested it means . Local Elder Gaja Kerry Charlton posits that Meanjin is based on a European understanding of , and that the phonetically similar Yagara language name Magandjin — after the native tulipwood trees (magan) at Gardens Point — is a more accurate and appropriate Aboriginal name for Brisbane.
Aboriginal groups claiming traditional ownership of the area include the Jagera people, Turrbal and Quandamooka peoples. Brisbane is home to the land of a number of Aboriginal language groups, primarily the Yagara language group which includes the Turrbal language.
Archaeological evidence suggests frequent habitation around the Brisbane River, and notably at the site now known as Musgrave Park. The rivers were integral to life and supplied an abundance of food included fish, shellfish, crab, and . Good fishing places became campsites and the focus of group activities. The district was defined by open woodlands with rainforest in some pockets or bends of the Brisbane River.
Being a resource-rich area and a natural avenue for seasonal movement, Meanjin and the surrounding areas acted as a way station for groups travelling to ceremonies and spectacles. The region had several large (200–600 person) seasonal camps, the biggest and most important located along waterways north and south of the current city heart: Barambin or York's Hollow camp (today's Victoria Park) and Woolloon-cappem (Woolloongabba/South Brisbane), also known as Kurilpa. These camping grounds continued to function well into colonial times, and were the basis of European settlement in parts of Brisbane.
Matthew Flinders initially explored the Moreton Bay area on behalf of the British authorities. On 17 July 1799, Flinders landed at present-day Woody Point, which he named Red Cliff Point after the red-coloured cliffs visible from the bay.
In 1823 the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Thomas Brisbane, gave instructions for the development of a new northern penal settlement, and an exploration party commanded by John Oxley further explored Moreton Bay in November 1823. Oxley explored the Brisbane River as far as Goodna, upstream from the present-day central business district of Brisbane. He also named the river after the governor of the time. Oxley also recommended Red Cliff Point for the new colony, reporting that ships could land at any tide and easily get close to the shore. The convict settlement party landed in Redcliffe on 13 September 1824 formally establishing the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement that would become Brisbane. The party was under the command of Lieutenant Henry Miller and consisted of 14 soldiers (some with wives and children) and 29 convicts. However, the settlers abandoned this site after a year and moved to an area on the Brisbane River now known as North Quay, south, which offered a more reliable water-supply. The newly selected Brisbane region was plagued by mosquitoes at the time.
After visiting the Redcliffe settlement, Sir Thomas Brisbane then travelled up the Brisbane River in December 1824. Governor Brisbane stayed overnight in a tent and often landed ashore, thus bestowing upon the future Brisbane City the distinction of being the only Australian capital city visited by its namesake. Chief Justice Francis Forbes gave the new settlement the name of Edenglassie before it was named Brisbane.
The penal settlement under the control of Captain Patrick Logan (Commandant from 1826 to 1830) flourished, with the numbers of convicts increasing dramatically from around 200 to over 1,000 men. He developed a substantial settlement of brick and stone buildings, complete with school and hospital. He formed additional outstations and made several important journeys of exploration. Logan became infamous for his extreme use of the cat o' nine tails on convicts. The maximum allowed limit of lashes was 50; however, Logan regularly applied sentences of 150 lashes.
During this period raids on maize fields were conducted by local Aboriginal groups in the Corn Field Raids of 1827-1828. These groups destroyed and plundered the maize fields in South Bank and Kangaroo Point, with the possible motive of extracting compensation from the settlers or warning them not to expand beyond their current area. Between 1824 and 1842, almost 2,400 men and 145 women were detained at the Moreton Bay convict settlement under the control of military commandants. However, non-convict European settlement of the Brisbane region commenced in 1838 and the population grew strongly thereafter, with free settlers soon far outstripping the convict population. German missionaries settled at Zions Hill, Nundah as early as 1837, five years before Brisbane was officially declared a free settlement. The band consisted of ministers Christopher Eipper (1813–1894), Carl Wilhelm Schmidt, and Laity missionaries 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 the German Station. Later in the 1860s many German immigrants from the Uckermark region in Prussia as well as from other German regions settled in the areas of Bethania, Beenleigh and the Darling Downs. These immigrants were selected and assisted through immigration programs established by Rev Dr John Dunmore Lang and Johann Christian Heussler and were offered free passage, good wages, and selections of land.
Scottish immigrants from the ship arrived in Brisbane in 1849, enticed by Lang on the promise of free land grants. Denied land, the immigrants set up camp in York's Hollow waterholes in the vicinity of today's Victoria Park, Herston, Queensland. A number of the immigrants moved in and settled the suburb, naming it Fortitude Valley after the ship on which they arrived.
Free settlers entered the area from 1835, and by the end of 1840, Robert Dixon had begun work on the first plan of Brisbane Town, in anticipation of future development. The Roman Catholic church erected the Pugin Chapel in 1850, to the design by the gothic revivalist Augustus Pugin. Letters patent dated 6 June 1859, proclaimed by Sir George Ferguson Bowen on 10 December 1859, separated Queensland from New South Wales, whereupon Bowen became Queensland's first governor, with Brisbane chosen as the capital. Old Government House was constructed in 1862 to house George Bowen family, including his wife, the noblewoman Diamantina Bowen. During the tenure of Lord Lamington, Old Government House was the likely site of the origin of Lamingtons.
During the War of Southern Queensland, Indigenous attacks occurred across the city, committing robberies and terrorising unarmed residents. Reprisal raids took place against the Duke of York's clan in Victoria Park in 1846 and 1849 by British soldiers of the 11th Regiment, however the clan had been wrongfully targeted as the attacks on Brisbane had not been committed by the Turrbal themselves but other tribes farther north. In 1855, Dundalli, a prominent leader during the conflict, was captured and executed by hanging at the present site of the GPO.
In 1862, the first sugarcane plantation in Queensland was established near Brisbane by Captain Louis Hope and John Buhôt.
In 1864, the Great Fire of Brisbane burned through the central parts of the city, destroying much of Queen Street. The 1860s were a period of economic and political turmoil leading to high unemployment, in 1866 hundreds of impoverished workers convened a meeting at the Treasury Hotel, with a cry for "bread or blood", rioted and attempted to ransack the Government store.
The City Botanic Gardens were originally established in 1825 as a farm for the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement, and were planted by convicts in 1825 with food crops to feed the prison colony. In 1855, several acres was declared a Botanic Reserve under the Superintendent Walter Hill, a position he held until 1881. Some trees planted in the Gardens were among the first of their species to be planted in Australia, including the jacaranda and Delonix regia.
looking west across the intersection with Queen Street, Brisbane, 1889]] Charles Tiffin was appointed as Queensland Government Architect in 1859, and pursued an intellectual policy in the design of public buildings based on Italianate and Renaissance revivalism, with such buildings as Government House, the Department of Primary Industries Building in 1866, and the Queensland Parliament built in 1867. The 1880s brought a period of economic prosperity and a major construction boom in Brisbane, that produced an impressive number of notable public and commercial buildings. John James Clark was appointed Queensland Government Architect in 1883, and continuing in Tiffin's design for public buildings, asserted the propriety of the Italian Renaissance, drawing upon typological elements and details from conservative High Renaissance sources. Building in this trace of intellectualism, Clark designed the Treasury Building in 1886, and the Yungaba Immigration Centre in 1885. Other major works of the era include Customs House in 1889, and the Old Museum Building completed in 1891.
Fort Lytton was constructed in 1882 at the mouth of the Brisbane river, to protect the city against foreign colonial powers such as Russia and France, and was the only Moat ever built in Australia.
The city's slum district of Frog's Hollow, named so for its location being low-lying and swampy, was both the red light district of colonial Brisbane and its Chinatown, and was the site of prostitution, sly grog, and . In 1888, Frog's Hollow was the site of anti-Chinese riots, where more than 2000 people attacked Chinese homes and businesses. was one of the worst disasters in the city's history, flooding in Queen Street.]]
In 1893 Brisbane was affected by the Black February flood, when the Brisbane River burst its banks on three occasions in February and again in June in the same year, with the city receiving more than a year's rainfall during February 1893, leaving much of the city's population homeless. In 1896, the Brisbane river saw its worst maritime disaster with the capsize of the ferry Pearl, between the 80–100 people on board there were only 40 survivors.
Russian immigration took place in the years 1911–1914. Many were radicals and revolutionaries seeking asylum from tsarist political repression in the final chaotic years of the Russian Empire; considerable numbers were Jews escaping state-inspired pogroms. They had fled Russia via Siberia and Northern China, most making their way to Harbin, in Manchuria, then taking passage from the port of Dalian to Townsville or Brisbane, the first Australian ports of call.
Following the First World War, conflict arose between returned servicemen of the First Australian Imperial Force and socialists along with other elements of society that the ex-servicemen considered to be disloyal toward Australia.Coulthard-Clark 1998, pg. 165. Over the course of 1918–1919, a series of violent demonstrations and attacks known as the Red Flag riots, were waged throughout Brisbane. The most notable incident occurred on 24 March 1919, when a crowd of about 8,000 ex-servicemen clashed violently with police who were preventing them from attacking the Russian Hall in Merivale Street, South Brisbane, which was known as the Battle of Merivale Street. Over 20 small municipalities and shires were amalgamated in 1925 to form the City of Brisbane, governed by the Brisbane City Council. A significant year for Brisbane was 1930, with the completion of Brisbane City Hall, then the city's tallest building and the Shrine of Remembrance, in ANZAC Square, which has become Brisbane's main war memorial. These historic buildings, along with the Story Bridge which opened in 1940, are key landmarks that help define the architectural character of the city. Following the death of King George V in 1936, Albert square was widened to include the area which had been Albert Street, and renamed King George Square in honour of the King. An equestrian statue of the king and two Bronze Lion were unveiled in 1938.
In 1939, armed farmers marched on the Queensland Parliament and stormed the building in an attempt to take hostage the Queensland Government led by Labor Premier William Forgan Smith, in an event that became known as the Pineapple rebellion. During World War II, Brisbane became central to the Allied campaign, since it was the northernmost city with adequate communications facilities. From July 1942 to September 1944, AMP Building (now called MacArthur Central) was used as the headquarters for South West Pacific Area under General MacArthur. MacArthur had previously rejected use of the University of Queensland complex as his headquarters, as the distinctive bends in the river at St Lucia could have aided enemy bombers. Also used as a headquarters by the American troops during World War II was the T & G Building. About one million US troops passed through Australia during the war, as the primary co-ordination point for the South West Pacific. Wartime Brisbane was defined by the racial segregation of African American servicemen, prohibition and Moonshine, crime, and jazz . It became Australia's third-most populous city in the post-war era, overtaking Adelaide in the early 1940s.
In 1942, Brisbane was the site of a violent clash between visiting US military personnel and Australian servicemen and civilians, which resulted in one death and hundreds of injuries. This incident became known colloquially as the Battle of Brisbane.
Post-war Brisbane had developed a big country town stigma, an image the city's politicians and marketers were very keen to remove. Brisbane's last in but best-dressed, Brooke Falvey, City news, 11 July 2008. In the late 1950s, an anonymous poet known as The Brisbane Bard generated much attention to the city which helped shake this stigma. "She picked me up at a dance one night", Joan and Bill Bentson, Queensland Government. In 1955, Wickham Terrace was the site of a terrorist incident involving shootings and bombs, by the German immigrant Karl Kast. Despite steady growth, Brisbane's development was punctuated by infrastructure problems. The state government under Joh Bjelke-Petersen began a major program of change and urban renewal, beginning with the central business district and inner suburbs. Trams in Brisbane were a popular mode of public transport until the network was closed in 1969, in part the result of the Paddington tram depot fire.
Between 1968 and 1987, Queensland was governed by Bjelke-Petersen, whose government was characterised by social conservatism, police corruption, and the brutal suppression of protest and has been described as a police state. However, during this time Brisbane developed a counterculture focused on the University of Queensland, street marches and Brisbane punk rock music.
In 1971, the touring Springboks were to play against the Australian Rugby team. This was met with plans for protests due to the growing international and local opposition to apartheid in South Africa. However, before their arrival Bjelke-Petersen declared a state of emergency for a month, citing the importance of the tour.Bryce, Alex. "We Would Live in Peace and Tranquility and No One Would Know Anything", Australian Academic and Research Libraries 31.3 (2000): 65–81. This did not stop the protest however with violent clashes between protestors and police erupting when several hundred demonstrators assembled outside a Brisbane motel on Thursday, 22 July 1971, where the Springbok team was staying. A second protest saw a large number of demonstrators assembled once more outside the Tower Mill Motel and after 15 minutes of peaceful protest, a brick was thrown into the motel room and police took action to clear the road and consequently disproportionate violence was used against demonstrators.Fitzgerald, Ross. "A History of Queensland, from 1915 to the 1980s", University of Queensland Press, 1985. Print.
In the lead up to the 1980s Queensland fell subject to many forms of censorship. In 1977 things had escalated from prosecutions and book burnings, under the introduction of the Literature Board of Review, to a statewide ban on protests and street marches. In September 1977 the Queensland Government introduced a ban on all street protests, resulting in a statewide civil liberties campaign of defiance.Keim, Stephen. "The State of (Civil Liberties in Queensland): New Broom – Same Dirt." Legal Service Bulletin 13.1(1988):10–11. Web. This saw two thousand people arrested and fined, with another hundred being imprisoned, at a cost of almost five million dollars to the State Government.Plunkett, Mark and Ralph Summy 'Civil Liberties in Queensland: A nonviolent political campaign.' "Social Alternatives" Vol 1 no. 6/7, 1980 p 73-90 Bjelke-Petersen publicly announced on 4 September 1977 that "the day of the political street march is over ... Don't bother to apply for a permit. You won't get one. That's government policy now."Bjelke-Petersen, in Patience The Bjelke-Petersen premiership 1968–1983 : issues in public policy. Longman Cheshire: Melbourne. 1985. In response to this, protesters came up with the idea of Phantom Civil Liberties Marches where protesters would gather and march until the police and media arrived. They would then disperse, and gather together again until the media and police returned, repeating the process over and over again.Summy, Ralph. Bruce Dickson and Mark Plunkett. " Phantom Civil Liberties Marches – Queensland University 1978–79"
The end of the Bjelke-Petersen era began with the Fitzgerald Inquiry of 1987 to 1989, a judicial inquiry presided over by Tony Fitzgerald investigating Queensland Police corruption. The inquiry resulted in the resignation of Premier Bjelke-Petersen, the calling of two by-elections, the jailing of three former ministers and the Police Commissioner Terry Lewis (who also lost his knighthood). It also contributed to the end of the National Party of Australia's 32-year run as the governing political party in Queensland.
In 1973, the Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub in the city's entertainment district, was firebombed that resulted in 15 deaths, in what is one of Australia's worst mass killings. The 1974 Brisbane flood was a major disaster which temporarily crippled the city, and saw a Corinda landslip at Corinda. During this era, Brisbane grew and modernised, rapidly becoming a destination of interstate migration. Some of Brisbane's popular landmarks were lost to development in controversial circumstances, including the Bellevue Hotel in 1979 and Cloudland in 1982. Major public works included the Riverside Expressway, the Gateway Bridge, and later, the redevelopment of South Bank. Starting with the monumental Robin Gibson-designed Queensland Cultural Centre, with the first stage the Queensland Art Gallery completed in 1982, the Queensland Performing Arts Centre in 1985, and the Queensland Museum in 1986. Brisbane hosted the 1982 Commonwealth Games and World Expo 88. These events were accompanied by a scale of public expenditure, construction, and development not previously seen in the state of Queensland. Brisbane's population growth far exceeded the national average in the last two decades of the 20th century, with a high level of interstate migration from Victoria and New South Wales. In the late 1980s Brisbane's inner-city areas were struggling with economic stagnation, urban decay and crime which resulted in an exodus of residents and business to the suburban fringe, in the early 1990s the city undertook an extensive and successful urban renewal of the Woolstore precinct as well as the development of South Bank Parklands.
The Queensland Cultural Centre has been expanded, with the completion of the State Library and the Gallery of Modern Art in 2006, and the Kurilpa Bridge in 2009, which is the world's largest hybrid tensegrity bridge. Brisbane also hosted major international events including the final Goodwill Games in 2001, the Rugby League World Cup final in 2008 and again in 2017, as well as the 2014 G20 Brisbane summit.
Population growth has continued to be among the highest of the Australian capital cities in the first two decades of the 21st century, and a number of major infrastructure projects have been completed or are under construction, including the Howard Smith Wharves, Roma Street Parklands, Brisbane Riverwalk, Queen's Wharf hotel and casino precinct, Brisbane International Cruise Terminal, the Clem Jones, Airport Link, and Legacy Way road tunnels, and the Airport, Springfield, Redcliffe Peninsula and Cross River Rail commuter railway lines.
Furthermore, the city has seen a renewed construction boom, with the rise of many new skyscrapers and apartment buildings throughout the city, though largely concentrated in the CBD and inner suburbs. Some of these new buildings include Riparian Plaza, Aurora Tower, Brisbane Square, Soleil, 111 Eagle Street, Infinity, 1 William Street, Brisbane Skytower, Brisbane Quarter and 443 Queen Street.
Brisbane will also host the 2032 Summer Olympics and 2032 Summer Paralympics.
The Brisbane River is a wide tide estuary and its waters throughout most of the metropolitan area are brackish and navigable. The river takes a winding course through the metropolitan area with many steep curves from the southwest to its mouth at Moreton Bay in the east. The metropolitan area is also traversed by several other rivers and creeks including the North Pine and South Pine rivers in the northern suburbs, which converge to form the Pine River estuary at Bramble Bay, the Caboolture River further north, the Logan River and Albert rivers in the south-eastern suburbs, and tributaries of the Brisbane River including the Bremer River in the south-western suburbs, Breakfast Creek in the inner-north, Norman Creek in the inner-south, Oxley Creek in the south, Bulimba Creek in the inner south-east and Moggill Creek in the west. The city is on a low-lying floodplain, with the risk of flooding addressed by various state and local government regulations and plans.
The waters of Moreton Bay are sheltered from large swells by Moreton Island, Stradbroke and Bribie Island islands, so whilst the bay can become rough in windy conditions, the waves at the Moreton Bay coastline are generally not surfing. Unsheltered surf beaches lie on the eastern coasts of Moreton Island, Stradbroke and Bribie Island islands and on the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast to the south and north respectively. The southern part of Moreton Bay also contains smaller islands such as St Helena Island, Peel Island, Coochiemudlo Island, Russell Island, Lamb Island and Macleay Island.
The city of Brisbane is hilly. The urban area, including the central business district, are partially elevated by spurs of the Herbert Taylor Range, such as the summit of Mount Coot-tha, reaching up to and Enoggera Hill. The D'Aguilar National Park, encompassing the D'Aguilar Range, bounds the north-west of Brisbane's built-up area, and contains the taller peaks of Mount Nebo, Camp Mountain, Mount Pleasant, Mount Glorious, Mount Samson and Mount Mee. Other prominent rises in Brisbane are Mount Gravatt, Toohey Mountain, Mount Petrie, Highgate Hill, Mount Ommaney, Stephens Mountain, and Whites Hill, which are dotted across the city.
Much of the rock upon which Brisbane is located is the characteristic Brisbane tuff, a form of welded ignimbrite, which is most prominently found at the Kangaroo Point Cliffs at Kangaroo Point and the New Farm Cliffs on the Petrie Bight reach of the Brisbane River. The stone was used in the construction of historical buildings such as the Commissariat Store and Cathedral of St Stephen, and the roadside kerbs in inner areas of Brisbane are still manufactured of Brisbane tuff.
Brisbane is home to numerous bird species, with common species including , , , Australian white ibises, Australian brushturkeys, , Australian magpies and . Common reptiles include common garden skinks, Australian water dragons, bearded dragons and blue-tongued lizards. Common ringtail possums and flying foxes are common in parks and yards throughout the city, as are Euploea core, blue triangle butterflies, Nephila and St Andrew's Cross spiders. The Brisbane River is home to many fish species including yellowfin bream, flathead, Australasian snapper, and . The waters of Moreton Bay are home to , , , Scylla serrata, soldier crabs, Moreton Bay bugs and numerous shellfish species. The koala and the graceful tree frog are the official faunal emblems of Brisbane, however both are increasingly less common due to the effects of increased development and climate-change.
Due to its proximity to the Coral Sea and a warm ocean current, Brisbane's overall temperature variability is somewhat less than most Australian capitals. Summers are long, hot, and wet, but temperatures only occasionally reach or more. Eighty percent of summer days record a maximum temperature of . Winters are short and warm, with average maximums of about ; maximum temperatures below are rare.
The city's highest recorded temperature was on Australia Day 1940 at the Brisbane Regional Office, with the highest temperature at the current station being on 22 February 2004; but temperatures above are uncommon. On 19 July 2007, Brisbane's temperature fell below the freezing point for the first time since records began, registering at the airport station. The city station has never dropped below , with the average coldest night during winter being around , however locations in the west of the metropolitan area such as Ipswich have dropped as low as with heavy ground frost.
In 2009, Brisbane recorded its hottest winter day (from June to August) at on 24 August; The average July day however is around with sunny skies and low humidity, occasionally as high as , whilst maximum temperatures below are uncommon and usually associated with brief periods of cloud and winter rain. The highest minimum temperature ever recorded in Brisbane was on 29 January 1940 and again on 21 January 2017, whilst the lowest maximum temperature was on 12 August 1954.
Sleet or snow is exceptionally rare in Brisbane. The Bureau of Meteorology has only three official records of snow in Brisbane: June 1927, June 1932 (witnessed by seven people), and September 1958 (light flakes were seen by four people at 5:15pm in Moorooka, Wooloowin, Bowen Hills and Taringa). Unofficial eports exist of earlier snowfalls, such as follows from July 1882: "The snow was most noticeable in Woolloongabba, but in Stanley Street, South Brisbane it was sufficiently heavy to allow of people wiping it from their clothing. "In the vicinity of the museum the fall was, though very slight, plainly noticeable. "It is said that snow fell in this city 35 years ago, and the summer following the period of the fall was remarkable for its excessive heat."
Annual precipitation is ample. From November to March, thunderstorms are common over Brisbane, with the more severe events accompanied by large damaging hail stones, torrential rain and destructive winds. On an annual basis, Brisbane averages 124 clear days, with overcast skies more common in the warmer months. Dewpoints in the summer average at around ; the apparent temperature exceeds on almost all summer days. Brisbane's wettest day occurred on 21 January 1887, when of rain fell on the city, the highest maximum daily rainfall of Australia's capital cities. The wettest month on record was February 1893, when of rain fell, although in the last 30 years the record monthly rainfall has been a much lower from December 2010. Very occasionally a whole month will pass with no recorded rainfall, the last time this happened was August 1991. The city has suffered four major floods since its founding, in February 1893, January 1974 (partially a result of Cyclone Wanda), January 2011 (partially a result of Cyclone Tasha) and February 2022.
Brisbane is within the southern reaches of the tropical cyclone risk zone. Full-strength tropical cyclones rarely affect Brisbane, but occasionally do so. The biggest risk is from ex-tropical cyclones, which can cause destructive winds and flooding rains.
The average annual temperature of the sea ranges from in July to in February.
The CBD's Town square include King George Square, Post Office Square and ANZAC Square (home to the city's central war memorial). At the broadest level, Brisbane's metropolitan area is informally divided into the northside and the southside, with the dividing line being the Brisbane River, as crossing one of the 15 bridges across the river is required to travel to the opposite side by land transport. Due to the river's winding trajectory, this results in many areas which are south of the CBD being classified as located in the northside, and vice versa. At a more specific level, the metropolitan area contains informal regions including the northern, southern, eastern and western suburbs, the bayside suburbs along the Moreton Bay coastline, and the Moreton Bay, Redland, Logan and Ipswich regions in the outer north, east, south and west respectively.
Greater Brisbane had a density of in 2021. Like most Australian cities, Brisbane has a sprawling metropolitan area which takes in excess of one hour to traverse either north to south or east to west by car without traffic.
From the 1970s onwards, there has been a large increase in the construction of apartment developments, including mid-rise and high rise buildings, which has quickened in the 21st century. At the 2021 census, 73.4% of residents lived in separate houses, 14.7% lived in , and 11.4% lived in , , or semidetached houses.
There are many national parks surrounding the Brisbane metropolitan area. The D'Aguilar National Park is a major national park along the northwest of the metropolitan area in the D'Aguilar Range. The Glass House Mountains National Park is located to the north of the metropolitan area in the Glass House Mountains and provides green space between the Brisbane metropolitan area and the Sunshine Coast. The Tamborine National Park at Tamborine Mountain is located in the Gold Coast hinterland to the south of the metropolitan area.
The eastern metropolitan area is built along the Moreton Bay Marine Park, encompassing Moreton Bay. Significant areas of Moreton Island, North Stradbroke and Bribie Island islands also covered by the Moreton Island National Park, Naree Budjong Djara National Park and the Bribie Island National Park respectively. The Boondall Wetlands in the suburb of Boondall include 1,100 hectares of wetlands which are home to mangroves and shorebirds as well as walking tracks.
One of the oldest synagogues in the Queensland area is the Brisbane Synagogue located on Margaret Street in Brisbane city. This historic synagogue can be attributed as the "centerpiece of the Jewish community's presence in the state" It was established in 1866 and designed by architect Arthur Morry. Another architect by the name of Andrea Stombuco has also been credited as a designer of the synagogue by previous members of the community. The architectural design of this historic synagogue is in the style of Neo-Moorish also known as Byzantine style.
Queenslander-style housing is common in Brisbane. Queenslander homes typically feature timber construction with large , gable roof corrugated iron roofs, and high ceilings. Most of these houses are elevated on stumps (also called stilts), traditionally built of timber, which allow for a void under the houses which aids in cooling. 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. Early legislation decreed a minimum size for residential blocks leading to few being constructed in Brisbane. The high-density housing that historically existed came in the form of miniature Queenslander-style houses which resemble the much larger traditional styles, but are sometimes only one-quarter the size. These houses are most common in the inner-city suburbs.
Brisbane is home to several of Australia's tallest buildings. All of Brisbane's skyscrapers (buildings with a height greater than ) are located within the CBD, but the inner suburbs are also home to a number of high-density buildings, Torbreck being the first high-rise and mix-use residential development in Queensland. Brisbane's 91-metre City Hall was the city's tallest building for decades after its completion in 1930 and was finally surpassed in 1970, which marked the beginning of the widespread construction of high-rise buildings.
Brisbane's tallest building is currently Brisbane Skytower, which has a height of . Architecturally prominent skyscrapers include the Harry Seidler-designed Riparian Plaza, One One One Eagle Street, which incorporates LED lamp resembling the of the Moreton Bay fig, and 1 William Street, the headquarters of the Queensland Government.
| + Place of birth (2021) ! Birthplace | Population |
| 1,726,655 | |
| 111,649 | |
| 95,284 | |
| 51,650 | |
| 41,978 | |
| 27,907 | |
| 26,918 | |
| 20,308 | |
| 13,305 | |
| 12,826 | |
| 11,956 | |
| 11,826 | |
| 10,800 | |
| 10,530 | |
| 9,799 |
At the 2021 census, the most commonly nominated ancestries were:
The 2021 census showed that 20.7% of Brisbane's inhabitants were born overseas and 25.2% of inhabitants had at least one parent born overseas. Brisbane has the 26th largest immigrant population among world metropolitan areas. Of inhabitants born outside of Australia, the five most prevalent countries of birth were New Zealand, England, India, mainland China and the Philippines. Brisbane has the largest community of New Zealanders outside of New Zealand.
The areas of Sunnybank, Sunnybank Hills, Stretton, Robertson, Calamvale, Macgregor, Eight Mile Plains, Runcorn, and Rochedale, are home to a large proportion of Brisbane's Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong-born population, with Chinese being the most commonly-reported ancestry in each of these areas. The Vietnamese-born are the largest immigrant group in Inala, Darra, Durack, Willawong, Richlands, and Doolandella. The Indian-born are the largest immigrant group in Chermside.
At the 2021 census, 3.0% of Brisbane's population identified as being Indigenous, which includes Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders.
The most popular non-Christian religions at the 2021 census were Hinduism (2%), Buddhist (1.9%), and Islam (1.8%).
Some of the largest companies headquartered in Brisbane, all among Australia's largest, include Suncorp Group, Virgin Australia, Aurizon, Bank of Queensland, Flight Centre, CUA, Sunsuper, QSuper, Domino's Pizza Enterprises, Star Entertainment Group, ALS Limited, TechnologyOne, NEXTDC, Super Retail Group, New Hope Coal, Jumbo Interactive, National Storage, Collins Foods, and Boeing Australia. Most major Australian companies, as well as numerous international companies, have contact offices in Brisbane.
Brisbane throughout its history has been one of Australia's most important seaport cities. The Port of Brisbane is located at the Brisbane River's mouth on Moreton Bay and on the adjacent Fisherman's Island, created by means of land reclamation. It is the 3rd busiest port in Australia for value of goods. Containerization, 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 and wetlands. The Port is a part of the Australia TradeCoast, which includes the Brisbane Airport along with large industrial estates located along both banks at the mouth of the Brisbane River.
White-collar industries include information technology, financial services, higher education and public sector administration generally concentrated in and around the central business district and satellite hubs located in the inner suburbs such as South Brisbane, Fortitude Valley, Spring Hill, Milton, and Toowong.
Blue-collar industries, including petroleum refining, stevedoring, paper milling, metalworking and Queensland Rail railway workshops, tend to be located on the lower reaches of the Brisbane River proximal to the Port of Brisbane 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, as is international education, with over 95,000 international students enrolled in universities and other tertiary education institutions in the central City of Brisbane local government area alone in 2018.
Outside of the inner-city, retail is focused on indoor Shopping mall, including numerous regional shopping centres along with six super regional shopping centres, all of which are among Australia's largest, namely: Westfield Chermside in the north; Westfield Mt Gravatt in the south; Westfield Carindale in the east; Indooroopilly Shopping Centre in the west; Westfield North Lakes in the outer-north; and Logan Hyperdome in the outer-south. Brisbane's major outlet store are the Direct Factory Outlets at DFO Brisbane and DFO Jindalee.
The Brisbane Markets at Rocklea are Brisbane's largest wholesale markets, whilst smaller markets operate at numerous locations throughout the city including South Bank Parklands, Davies Park in West End, Queensland, and the Eat Street Markets at Hamilton.
GOMA houses the Australian Cinémathèque, a dedicated film facility offering a diverse program of screenings, including international cinema, influential filmmakers, rare prints, restorations and silent films with a live musical accompaniment. Screenings take place Wednesday and Friday nights, as well as matinees on weekends. Most screenings are free admission.
Dramatic and musical theatre performances are held at the multiple large theatres located at Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC). The Brisbane Powerhouse in New Farm and the Judith Wright Arts Centre in Fortitude Valley also feature diverse programs featuring exhibitions and festivals of visual art, music and dance. Brisbane is also home to numerous small theatres including the Brisbane Arts Theatre in Petrie Terrace, the La Boite Theatre Company which performs at the Roundhouse Theatre at Kelvin Grove, the Twelfth Night Theatre at Bowen Hills, the Metro Arts Theatre in Edward Street, and the Queensland Theatre Company's Bille Brown Theatre in West End.
The Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) at South Bank, consists of the Lyric Theatre, the Concert Hall, the Cremorne Theatre and the Playhouse Theatre and is home to the Queensland Ballet, Opera Queensland, the Queensland Theatre Company, and the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. The Queensland Conservatorium, a musical conservatorium in which professional music companies and conservatorium students also stage performances, is located within the South Bank Parklands. Numerous choirs present performances across the city annually. These choirs include the Brisbane Chorale, Queensland Choir, Brisbane Chamber Choir, Canticum Chamber Choir, ChoirWorks, Imogen Children's Chorale, and Brisbane Birralee Voices.
Brisbane's live music scene is diverse and its history is often intertwined with social unrest and authoritarian politics, as retold by journalist Andrew Stafford in . Popular live music venues, including pubs and clubs, can be found within both the CBD and Fortitude Valley. The Brisbane Entertainment Centre at Boondall hosts many musical concerts, with some of the largest being held at Lang Park. Musicians from Brisbane include the Bee Gees (raised in Redcliffe and Cribb Island), the Saints (based in Brisbane since 1974, one of the first punk rock bands), the Go-Betweens (after whom Brisbane's Go Between Bridge is named, and whose songs and albums, such as Spring Hill Fair, reflect the attitudes of 1980s Brisbane), Savage Garden, Powderfinger (who met at Brisbane Grammar School and the University of Queensland), and the Veronicas (born and raised in Albany Creek). The city is featured in music including the Saints' "Brisbane (Security City)" (1978); the Stranglers' "Nuclear Device" (1979) about Joh Bjelke-Petersen; Midnight Oil's single "Dreamworld" (1987); and Powderfinger's album Vulture Street (2003).
Prominent writers from Brisbane include David Malouf (whose 1975 novel Johnno is set in Brisbane and at Brisbane Grammar School during World War II), Nick Earls (whose 1996 novel Zigzag Street is set at Zigzag Street in Red Hill), and Li Cunxin, author of Mao's Last Dancer and artistic director of the Queensland Ballet. Brisbane is a 2018 novel by Russian writer Eugene Vodolazkin. In the novel, the city serves as a metaphor of the promised land for the protagonist. The State Library of Queensland, the state's largest library, is located at the Queensland Cultural Centre.
Since the late 20th century, numerous films have been shot in Brisbane, and the popular children's animated television series Bluey is produced and set in Brisbane.
Brisbane is home to over 6,000 restaurants and dining establishments, with outdoor dining featuring prominently. The most popular cuisines by number of dining establishments are Japanese cuisine, Chinese cuisine, Modern Australian, Italian cuisine, American cuisine, Indian cuisine, and Vietnamese. Moreton Bay bugs, less commonly known as flathead lobsters, are an ingredient named for the Brisbane region and which feature commonly in the city's cuisine, along with macadamia nuts, also native to the region.
The Brisbane Festival is held each September at South Bank Parklands, the CBD and surrounding areas. It includes Riverfire, one of the nation's largest annual fireworks displays, which is attended by hundreds of thousands of residents.
The Brisbane International Film Festival (BIFF) is held in July/August each year in a variety of venues around Brisbane. BIFF features new films and retrospectives by domestic and international filmmakers along with seminars and awards.
The Brisbane Portrait Prize is an annual arts event held formerly at the Brisbane Powerhouse and from 2024, at the State Library of Queensland. Sitters for the portrait must have a connection to Brisbane city.
The Buddha Birth Day festival at South Bank parklands attracts over 200,000 visitors each year, and is the largest event of its type in Australia.
There are also many smaller community events such as the Paniyiri Greek Festival (held over two days in May), the Brisbane Medieval Fayre and Tournament (held each June), the Bridge to Brisbane charity fun run, the Anywhere Festival and the Caxton Street Seafood and Wine Festival.
Major events are often held at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre in South Brisbane.
It will host the 2032 Summer Olympics and 2032 Summer Paralympics. The city also bid for the 1992 Summer Olympics but lost to Barcelona. It holds the Brisbane International tennis competition every year.
Brisbane is represented by the rugby league teams the Brisbane Broncos and Dolphins, who play in the National Rugby League, and is also home to the Queensland Maroons, who play in the State of Origin series. In rugby union the city hosts the Queensland Reds who play in the Super Rugby competition. Brisbane also hosts a professional Australian rules football team, the Brisbane Lions, who play in the Australian Football League; as well as an A-League soccer team, the Brisbane Roar FC.
Cricket is popular in the Brisbane and the city hosts the Brisbane Heat who play in the Big Bash League and the Queensland Bulls who play in the Sheffield Shield and the Ryobi One Day Cup. Other Brisbane sports teams include a basketball team, the Brisbane Bullets; a baseball team, the Brisbane Bandits; a netball team, the Queensland Firebirds; a field hockey team, the Brisbane Blaze; and water polo teams the Brisbane Barracudas and Queensland Breakers.
The city's major stadiums and sporting venues include the Gabba (a 37,000 seat round stadium at Woolloongabba), Lang Park (a 52,500 seat rectangular stadium at Milton also known by its corporate name Suncorp Stadium), Ballymore Stadium, the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre, the Sleeman Centre (swimming), the State Tennis Centre, the Eagle Farm Racecourse, and the Doomben Racecourse. The city is also home to numerous golf courses, with the largest being the Indooroopilly Golf Club at Indooroopilly, Queensland, the Brookwater Golf and Country Club at Brookwater, Nudgee Golf Club at Nudgee, the Keperra Country Golf Club at Keperra, and the Royal Queensland Golf Club at Eagle Farm.
In addition to its flagship sport franchises, Brisbane and its regions and suburbs have numerous teams in secondary leagues including the Intrust Super Cup, National Rugby Championship, Queensland Premier Rugby, National Premier League Queensland, National Basketball League, ANZ Championship, Australian Baseball League, Hockey One, National Water Polo League, and F-League.
Away from the inner city, Brisbane has a number of tourist attractions and destinations such as the, University of Queensland in St Lucia, Sirromet Winery at Mount Cotton, Tangalooma on Moreton Island, Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Fig Tree Pocket, Eat Street (food night markets) at Northshore Hamilton, Fort Lytton, and Mount Coot-tha (including the Mount Coot-tha Reserve, Mount Coot-tha Lookout, the Mount Coot-tha Botanic Gardens and the Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium) is a popular recreational attraction for hiking and bushwalking.
Brisbane is notable for its Brisbane Riverwalk network, which runs along much of the Brisbane River foreshore throughout the inner-city area, with the longest span running between Newstead and Toowong. Another popular stretch runs beneath the Kangaroo Point Cliffs between South Brisbane and Kangaroo Point. Several spans of the Riverwalk are built out over the Brisbane River. Brisbane also has over of bicycle pathways, mostly surrounding the Brisbane River and city centre. Other popular recreation activities include the Story Bridge adventure climb and rock climbing at the Kangaroo Point Cliffs.
Moreton Bay and its marine park is also a major attraction, and its three primary islands Moreton Island, North Stradbroke Island and Bribie Island, accessible by ferry, contain popular surf beaches and resorts. Tangalooma resort on Moreton Island is popular for its nightly wild dolphin feeding attraction, and for operating Australia's longest running whale watching cruises. The Fort Lytton National Park including a colonial defence fort and museum is also a historical bayside attraction. Beachside suburbs such as those on the Redcliffe Peninsula, as well as Shorncliffe, Sandgate, Wynnum, Manly and Wellington Point are also popular attractions for their bayside beaches, piers, and infrastructure for boating, sailing, fishing and kitesurfing.
There are many surrounding the Brisbane metropolitan area which are popular recreational attractions for hiking and bushwalking. The D'Aguilar National Park runs along the northwest of the metropolitan area in the D'Aguilar Range, and contains popular bushwalking and hiking peaks at Mount Nebo, Camp Mountain, Mount Pleasant, Mount Glorious, Mount Samson and Mount Mee. The Glass House Mountains National Park is located to the north of the metropolitan area in the Glass House Mountains between it and that of the Sunshine Coast. The Tamborine National Park at Tamborine Mountain is located in the Gold Coast hinterland to the south of the metropolitan area. Moreton Island, North Stradbroke and Bribie Island islands are substantially covered by the Moreton Island National Park, Naree Budjong Djara National Park and the Bribie Island National Park respectively. The Boondall Wetlands in the suburb of Boondall are protected mangrove wetlands with floating walking trails.
Immediately to the south and north of Brisbane are the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast respectively, which are home to several of Australia's most popular swimming and surfing beaches, and are popular day and weekend destinations for Brisbanites.
In 2015, a competition by travel guidebook Rough Guides saw Brisbane elected as one of the top ten most beautiful cities in the world, citing reasons such as "its winning combination of high-rise modern architecture, lush green spaces and the enormous Brisbane River that snakes its way through the centre before emptying itself into the azure Moreton Bay".
Each LGA is governed under a similar structure, including a directly elected mayor (including the Lord Mayor of Brisbane), as well as a council composed of councillors representing geographical wards. Brisbane City Hall is the seat of the Brisbane City Council, the governing corporation of the City of Brisbane LGA, and the bulk of its executive offices are located at the Brisbane Square skyscraper.
As the capital city of Queensland, Brisbane is home to the Parliament of Queensland at Parliament House at Gardens Point in the CBD, adjacent to Old Government House. Queensland's current Government House is located in Paddington. The bulk of the state government's executive offices are located at the 1 William Street skyscraper. The Queensland Supreme and District courts are located at the Queen Elizabeth II Courts of Law in George Street, while the Magistrates court is located at the adjacent Brisbane Magistrates Court building. The various federal courts are located at the Commonwealth Law Courts building on North Quay.
The Australian Army's Enoggera Barracks is located in Enoggera, while the historic Victoria Barracks in Petrie Terrace now hosts a military museum. The Royal Australian Navy's HMAS Moreton base is located at Bulimba. The Royal Australian Air Force's RAAF Base Amberley is located in Amberley in the outer south-west of the metropolitan area.
Brisbane's largest prisons and correctional facilities, the Brisbane Correctional Centre, Brisbane Women's Correctional Centre, Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre and Wolston Correctional Centre are located at Wacol, while the city's main historical prison, the Boggo Road Gaol, is now a museum.
In the Queensland Legislative Assembly, Brisbane is represented by 41 single-member electoral districts. In the House of Representatives, Brisbane is represented by 17 single-member electoral divisions.
Brisbane has a diverse political climate. On the federal level, the centre-right Liberal National Party (LNP) holds six Brisbane-based seats, the centre-left Labor Party holds four and the left-wing Greens hold three. On the state level, Labor holds the vast majority of Brisbane-based seats, while the LNP holds just five and the Greens hold two. On the local level, LNP hold the Lord Mayoralty of Brisbane (with Adrian Schrinner as Lord Mayor) and 20 of the 26 wards of the City of Brisbane, while Labor holds five and the Greens and an independent hold one each.
Two other major universities, which are not headquartered in Brisbane, have multiple campuses in the Brisbane metropolitan area, namely:
Other universities which have campuses in Brisbane include the Australian Catholic University, Central Queensland University and James Cook University.
Brisbane is a major destination for international students, who constitute a large proportion of enrolments in Brisbane's universities and are important to the city's economy and real estate market. In 2018, there were over 95,000 international students enrolled in universities and other tertiary education institutions in the central City of Brisbane local government area alone. The majority of Brisbane's international students originate from China, India and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
There are biotechnology and research facilities at several universities in Brisbane, including the Institute for Molecular Bioscience and CSIRO at the University of Queensland and the Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation at Queensland University of Technology.
There are three major TAFE colleges in Brisbane; the Brisbane North Institute of TAFE, the Metropolitan South Institute of TAFE, and the Southbank Institute of TAFE. Brisbane is also home to numerous other independent tertiary providers, including the Australian College of Natural Medicine, the Queensland Theological College, the Brisbane College of Theology, SAE Institute, , JMC Academy, and American College, and the Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts.
Many of Brisbane's pre-school, primary, and secondary schools are under the jurisdiction of Education Queensland, a department of the Queensland Government. Independent (private), Roman Catholic and other religious schools also constitute a large share of Brisbane's primary and secondary schooling sectors, with the oldest such independent schools composing the memberships of the Great Public Schools Association of Queensland (GPS) for boys schools and Queensland Girls' Secondary Schools Sports Association (QGSSSA) for girls schools.
Brisbane also has a large network of major road tunnels under the metropolitan area, known as the TransApex network, which include the Clem Jones Tunnel between the inner-north and inner-south, the Airport Link tunnel in the north-east and the Legacy Way in the south-west. They are the three longest road tunnels in Australia.
The Houghton Highway (northbound) and Ted Smout Memorial Bridge (southbound) bridges, over Bramble Bay between Brighton, Queensland and the Redcliffe Peninsula, are the longest bridges in the state. The abutment arches of the original crossing The Hornibrook Bridge still remain in place.
55 million passenger trips were taken across the network in 2018–19.
Construction of the network began in 1865 and has been progressively expanded in the subsequent centuries. Electrification of the network was completed between 1979 and 1988.
The Cross River Rail project includes a twin rail tunnel ( long) which will pass under the Brisbane River to link two new railway stations at Albert Street in the CBD and Woolloongabba; it is under construction and scheduled to be completed in early 2025.
There are also numerous suburban bus routes operating throughout the metropolitan area, including the high-frequency blue and maroon CityGlider routes which run between Newstead and West End (blue), and Ashgrove and Coorparoo (maroon) respectively.
Brisbane Metro is a bus rapid transit (BRT) project which will initially consist of two routes (Metro 1 and 2) running between Eight Mile Plains and Roma Street, and UQ St Lucia (UQ Lakes) and the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital respectively. It is set to open in 2024.
The CityCat high-speed catamaran ferry service, popular with tourists and commuters, operates services along the Brisbane River between the University of Queensland and Northshore Hamilton, with wharves at UQ St Lucia, West End, Guyatt Park, Regatta, Milton, North Quay, South Bank, QUT Gardens Point, Riverside, Sydney Street, Mowbray Park, New Farm Park, Hawthorne, Bulimba, Teneriffe, Bretts Wharf, Apollo Road, and Northshore Hamilton.
The Cross River services operate smaller vessels for popular cross-river routes, namely: Bulimba–Teneriffe and Holman Street–Riverside.
The free CityHopper service operates smaller vessels along a route between North Quay and Sydney Street, stopping at South Bank, Maritime Museum, Riverside and Holman Street.
There are tourist passenger ferries that depart the Brisbane River at Pinkenba to Tangalooma on Moreton Island four times daily, and Micat 4WD car ferries that depart from the Port of Brisbane daily.
Archerfield Airport in Brisbane's southern suburbs, Redcliffe Airport on the Redcliffe Peninsula and Caboolture Airfield in the far north of the metropolitan area serve Brisbane as general aviation airports.
Brisbane is also served by other major airports in South East Queensland, including Gold Coast Airport at Coolangatta, Sunshine Coast Airport at Marcoola, and Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport at Wellcamp.
There are two cruise ship terminals in Brisbane. Portside Wharf on the north side of the river at Hamilton is an international standard facility for cruise liners. Due to the height of the Gateway Bridge which must be passed to reach the terminal, the wharf services small and medium-sized cruise ships. The Brisbane International Cruise Terminal at Luggage Point in Pinkenba on the north side of the river opposite the Port of Brisbane is able to accommodate the largest cruise vessels in the world.
Specialist and general medical practices are located in the CBD, and most suburbs and localities.
Brisbane is also home to the headquarters of the Queensland Ambulance Service central executive, located at the Emergency Services Complex Kedron Park, along with the headquarters of the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services and the Queensland Emergency Operations Centre.
The provision of electricity in Brisbane is managed by government and private bodies. Generators (some private and some owned by the Queensland government) sell energy into the wholesale market for eastern Australia known as the National Electricity Market. Transmission and distribution of electricity is managed by the Queensland government owned corporations Energex and Powerlink Queensland respectively. Private retailers then purchase electricity from the wholesale market and sell it to consumers, which have the ability to choose between different retailers in a partially de-regulated market.
The supply of Natural gas to users is more heavily privatised, with the private APA Group distributing gas in Brisbane, which is then bought and sold by retailers (mainly Origin Energy and AGL Energy) in a partially de-regulated market.
Metropolitan Brisbane is serviced by all major and most minor telecommunications companies and their networks, including Telstra, Optus, and Vodafone Australia.
Brisbane is home to numerous cemeteries including the following large 19th-century historical cemeteries: the 44-hectare Toowong Cemetery (the largest cemetery in Queensland, which is a popular destination for walkers and joggers), Balmoral Cemetery, Lutwyche Cemetery, Nudgee Cemetery, Nundah Cemetery, and South Brisbane Cemetery.
The Brisbane Times is Brisbane's second major local news source, owned by Nine, and is online only. Its sibling papers, The Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne's The Age are sometimes sold in print in Brisbane in small numbers. The national broadsheet Australian Financial Review, also owned by Nine, is sold in print in Brisbane.
There are community and suburban newspapers throughout the metropolitan area, including Brisbane News and City News, many of which are produced by Quest Community Newspapers.
Brisbane is serviced by numerous major commercial and community radio stations including 4BC (local and national talk, news and current affairs); SENQ (sport); 4BH (classic hits); KIIS 97.3 (pop); B105 (pop); Nova 106.9 (top 40); Triple M (rock); 96five Family FM (Christian/pop); Radio TAB (betting); and 4MBS (classical).
Brisbane is also serviced by community radio stations such as VAC Radio (Standard Chinese); Radio Brisvaani (Hindi); Radio Arabic (Arabic); 4EB (multiple languages); 98.9 FM (indigenous); 4RPH (vision impaired); Switch 1197 (youth broadcasting); 4ZZZ (community radio); and Vision Christian Radio (Christianity). Additional channels are also available via DAB digital radio.
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