History

Contrary to common perception, Brisbane is very much a river city, where life developed, and still pivots, on the Brisbane River. Today, Brisbane can lay claim to being 'beautiful one day, perfect the next.' However, life was not always so heavenly for the first settlers.

The cat-o-nine-tails ruled and mosquitoes plagued the very first settlers in the Brisbane area. In 1824, the Moreton Bay penal settlement was established on the coast at Redcliffe but, after three months, a new site 20 kilometers up the Brisbane River (now called North Quay) was chosen. The reliable water supply made this a perfect place to establish a penal colony, not to mention the security provided by its upstream position on a natural bend in the river.

In 1828, with only ten cottages in the settlement, hundreds of convicts started to build the first stone buildings: The Colonial Stores Building and an Old Windmill (now known as the Wickham Terrace Observatory Tower).

This convict time ended in 1839 and, in 1841, Brisbane began again in three separate settlements viz. North Brisbane, Kangaroo Point and South Brisbane. A long battle for funds from the then Governor in Sydney, Sir George Gipps, commenced. In 1846, there were less than a thousand people living in these three areas.

Eventually, a separate colony, Queensland, began in 1859; its name being in honor of the Queen of England at the time, Queen Victoria. The Moreton Bay settlement became the capital, as it was now a thriving port and commercial centre of 6,000 people. There were still financial problems. When the first Governor of the new colony, Sir George Ferguson Bowen, commenced office, he found seven and a halfpence in the Treasury! Brisbane began to flourish and, by 1888, the main thoroughfare, Queen Street, sported some large well-designed buildings, many of which are still here today (or the façades at least). George Street boasts Parliament House and the Queensland Club, still used by country politicians and public servants as a city base. The City Botanic Gardens is the site of the original gardens that provided food for the convict settlement. Today, many rare native and exotic plants thrive here in the sub-tropical climate beside the river.

In the 1890s, a series of disastrous floods and more financial worries beset the city, but the city fought back and again prospered.

During World War II, General Douglas MacArthur directed the Pacific campaign from the AMP building (now MacArthur Chambers) in Queen Street. Hundreds of thousands of American servicemen and women poured through Brisbane, enhancing development in many ways--in came the swing and the jitterbug dance crazes as well as giving the city a welcomed financial injection. For a small city that was still staid, this was a great catalyst to 'move on.'

Migrants, refugees and displaced persons added greatly to the population in the 1950s, with many British immigrants receiving assisted passages. Despite less than 25 percent of those from other parts of Europe being financially assisted, migrants from all over Europe very quickly became central to the cultural, academic and business life of Brisbane.

Consumer culture started in May 1957 with the opening of Australia's first drive-in shopping centre at Chermside. In August 1959, commercial television started transmission. However, the story of television in Australia really began in Brisbane 25 years earlier with the first experimental television broadcast from the Old Windmill in Wickham Terrace. Brisbane's wide river was utilized well for the subsequent increase in trade, with produce coming down the river from Ipswich, as well as from the islands of Moreton Bay and nearby areas. The fruit and vegetable markets were near the river between Mary and Charlotte Streets, close to the wharves. With a successful shipbuilding industry also in place by this time, Brisbane was thriving.

In 1967, the city saw an important cultural progression, when Australian Aborigines achieved the same democratic rights as all other Australians. Brisbane was also maturing.

However, more troubles were to come. Cyclone Wanda, (cyclones are called male and female names alternatively) wreaked havoc in 1974, when 14,000 houses were flooded and 14 people died. Increased dams prevented more major floods, the upside of which was the steady growth in population in the now-safer southeast corner of Queensland. People from both overseas and interstate came from the 'cold' south wanting to live in the sun. Hosting the Commonwealth Games in 1982 heralded Brisbane's true coming of age. Expo 88 followed on the same site six years later and, a few years after that, the site became South Bank Parklands a wonderful area for visitors right across the river from Brisbane's central business district.

Today, you can walk along from South Bank to see the Queensland Performing Arts Complex, opened in 1985, with its three theatres, a concert hall and a conservatory next door. Although these buildings are all of modern architecture, Brisbane still has many distinctive 19th century buildings, sited to take in prime river views and parkland. Heritage Walks and River Cruises allow the tourist to see all this in beautiful weather (usually!) during all seasons.

Icons of today's Brisbane are the older-style houses on stilts, designed for cool breezes to flow underneath in warmer weather. These are called Queenslanders, and the even more grand ones are called Grand Colonials.

Brisbane's lifestyle is still centered on the wide, meandering Brisbane River. Walk along its banks, imagine it in days gone by, and take in the beauty of this great and friendly Australian city.