Brisbane is Australia's 3rd largest city with a population of about 1.8 milion, which, compared to Sydney and Melbourne, makes it quite a distant 3rd. Although it is only slightly larger than the next largest city, Perth, which has a population on about 1.5 million. However, if you were to count only local councils, sort of like city councils or boroughs, then Brisbane is Australia's largest city with a population of 1 million.
Brisbane was founded in the 1820s as Australia's 3rd city, after Sydney and Hobart, meaning that it is actually older than the much larger Melbourne. Brisbane was founded as a convict settlement for some of Sydney's tougher criminals and was placed on a bend in the Brisbane River to make escape more difficult. This is where the CBD now lies. Brisbane, at 27S is Australia's most northerly major city and at 153E is Australia's easternmost capital city.
My brother and I arrived in Brisbane in the early afternoon. In keeping with their, shall we say eccentric spirit, Queenslanders do not partake in daylight savings. This means during that time period, not only is Queensland 1 hour behind Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and all the rest of the east coast, it is 30 minutes behind South Australia and the Northern Territory which are further west; SA and NT are, like Newfoundland, an odd time zone, half-an-hour behind the one to the east instead of a full hour. My brother and I took the train to Roma Street Station and then made our way to our YHA hostel.
We spent a good amount of time in the hostel before we set out to explore Brisbane in the evening. As you can imagine, being sub-tropical, the weather in Brisbane was hot, though not entirely sunny. There was a bit of a breeze, but it didn't take away the heat entirely. AS we walked, I commented that Brisbane was a little disappointing and wasn't as exciting as I supposed. We eventually found ourselves next to Parliament and the Botanical Gardens and here I had my first surprise. The night sky of Brisbane isn't populated by night birds, but by large bats. They flew quite close to us and it took some getting used to.
My brother and I then crossed a pedestrian bridge and made it to Southbank and here I found Brisbane's beating heart of night. Along the riverbank there was a boardwalk with restaurants, an artificial beach and buskers. My opinion of Brisbane suddenly changed as I realized that you had to find the right parts of Brisbane. We walked along the boardwalk and then across the William Jolly Bridge to make it back to our hostel for the night and the air conditioning.
The next day, I convinced my brother to go on a tour of Parliament. When we arrived I noticed that the next tour was scheduled to leave 7 minutes ago so stepped in and asked the friendly guard when the next tour was. He said that as soon as we got through security (him) a tour guide would take us. We cleared security and the tour guide just started when another couple walked in and we agreed to let them in on the tour. If we had been 5 minutes sooner we could have had a private tour. As it was, 4 people and the tour guide was still pretty private.
Queensland is youngest state, now celebrating its 150th birthday, having separated from New South Wales in 1859. The current Parliament building was built soon after and is one of the few buildings from that era to be used for its original purpose, or even exist. Most of downtown Brisbane was built in the 1960s during a mining boom and compared to Melbourne and Sydney, there are few Victorian buildings. Queensland's Parliament was built of wood and is much less grandiose then that of Victoria's as Queensland was still relatively poor while Victoria was in the middle of a gold rush. The Parliament had to be renovated in the 1980s after extensive termite damage was discovered. The premier, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, more on him soon, wanted to tear the thing down and start over but public pressure made him reconsider.
We walked along the hallways and found ourselves on a balcony overlooking a a green quad. On the other side was the Annexe, something added by Bjelke-Petersen to increase the functionality of the parliamentary precinct. The structure is perfectly functional and the space was needed but it is a little hard on the eyes.
Joh Bjelke-Petersen was Queensland's longest serving premier, governing with more or less and iron fist for 20 years. He was known for his eccentric ways and stopping at almost nothing to get his way. One of his nicknames was Gerrymander Joh for his habit of changing constituencies to make his party's chance's better. With respect to old buildings, he was not a fan. To avoid problems, he would send in wrecking crews in the middle of the night to avoid public protest. When people woke up, where there was once a building, there was now a pile of rubble and nothing to be done. It's partly because of him that the Brisbane of today looks very different to the one that General Douglas MacArthur would have known when he made it his headquarters during World War Two.
Queensland is known for it's bizarre politicians, though the current prime minister, Kevin Rudd, seems pretty normal except a bit religious for an Australian. I'm thinking of Pauline Hanson in particular. A former fish and chip shop owner, she was elected on a very right-wing platform in urban Brisbane (Oxley). She had very "interesting" ideas about Asians and indigenous Australians, but she provided no end of amusement. At one point, while being interviewed she was asked if she was xenophobic and her reply, which became classic, was, "Xenophobic? Please explain." This earned her the nickname, the "Oxley Moron". Depsite her own best efforts, her One Nation Party (now called Pauline Hanson's One Nation) had 9 seats in the Queensland Legislative Council. However, since the late 1990s her party has been on the decline though they still have 1 member who, ironically, has a Chinese last name. Even the mere mention of her name causes Australian's to cringe.
Back to the Queensland Parliament, we were then ta'en to the Legislative Council chamber. Queensland is the only Australian state that is unicameral, having abolished its Legislative Council in 1922, spurring an unsuccessful attempt in New South Wales. The chamber, though no longer used for a legislative purpose, is is now hired out for movies, parties, weddings and just about anything else that will bring in some money. The photo of me you see is me in the president's chair. From there, we were taken to the Legislative Assembly which is Queensland law-making body and the Parliamentary Library whose alcohol cabinet now contains reference materials; I guess progress isn't always a good thing. Just before we finished we passed cabinets containing the ceremonial mace and a new ceremonial didjeridu. To celebrate Queensland's 150th birthday, the didjeridu was commissioned in the spirit of reconciliation. The artwork on the didjeridu represents aboriginal arrival, then European arrival where the 2 peoples trod their own paths and finally, the hope that the future brings an intertwining of cultures. It is hoped that an aboriginal elder will play the instrument when Parliament opens again.
After leaving Parliament my brother and I continued exploring inner Brisbane. This included a stop at the old Treasury Building which is now, quite appropriately, a casino. We also explored the nearby Botanical Gardens and saw a rather large goanna (go-AN-na), a large native lizard. I wanted to go through City Hall but there was construction going on and it didn't seem open to the public. My brother and I did manage to take in a fascinating exhibit at the state library on the history of computer games. I had seen the exhibit in Melbourne but I was keen to see it again. The exhibit covered the history of computer games from its earliest starts like Asteroids, Pong and Pac-Man to the Wii. The best part was the you could even play the games. This interactivity makes this exhibit probably the most interesting one I've ever been to. I hope it comes to Canberra.
My brother and I explored a little more but we had to be in bed early as we were heading to Queensland's, and Australia's, ocean playground the next day.
No comments:
Post a Comment