It starts at the beginning

Where to start my travel blog?  Well I guess the best thing would be to start at home and go from there.  So here is a little glimpse of the lovely little city I call home; Brisbane City, in the state of Queensland, in the lovely country of Australia.

Brisbane doesn’t have the wow factor of the Sydney Harbour Bridge or the Sydney Opera House, it doesn’t have the cafe culture of Melbourne, nor the monuments and political buildings of Canberra (thank goodness) – but it does have a lovely colourful history and well worth a visit if you are travelling the Eastern Seaboard of Australia.

Just for a bit of a history lesson, Brisbane came to be around 1825, when it was the site of a Penal Colony (convicts!) – it is named after the River on which it stretches itself around – and thanks to my grade 7 primary school teacher I can tell you it was named after Sir Thomas Brisbane.

Brisbane city skyline at sunset, image taken from Kangaroo Point Cliffs. Image © rmphotography.com.au

Visitors to Brisbane quickly realise that it is a city which really requires a car to get around, apparently it is actually one of the most spreadout cities in the world, the Brisbane Council area is actually the largest by population in Australia.

The Brisbane River dominates many of the activities of the city, and also plays a major part in the history and function of the city.  It has flooded a number of times over the past 150 years, 3 major ones – 1893 / 1974 / and most recently January 2011.

Overall visitors to Brisbane will notice plenty of parks and a newly emerging restaurant and cafe scene.  Brisbane is also ideally located between two popular surf areas – Sunshine Coast to the North and the Gold Coast (with the internationally recognised Surfers Paradise) to the south.

Story Bridge – Dominates the Brisbane Skyline. Now it is also possible to do a “Bridge Climb” to the top. Images © rmphotography.com.au

If you are coming to Australia for the first time, try to get some time away from the typical tourist towns of Sydney and Melbourne, and pop up to check out Brisbane.