If you’re into sunshine, rugby and drinking loads of beer, then Brisbane is the place for you. Though perhaps not an obvious destination for the short-term tourist, this city is certainly a more accurate depiction of Australian culture than Sydney or the Gold Coast.
Being the closest I have to a ‘home town’, I have a kind of love-hate relationship with Brisbane – when I’m there it annoys me and often bores me to tears, while when away I often miss it profoundly. Though nowhere near as exciting as London, Edinburgh or even Melbourne, it still has its merits.
The City is pretty much like any other – a big mall (by the way, by mall we mean a big paved street with shops on either side, not an indoor shopping centre), loads of department stores, food courts, pubs, high rise apartments blocks and so on. There are loads of souvenir shops selling cheap and tacky boomerangs, koala toys and didgeridoos, so this is a good place to buy presents for friends back home. For people with mainstream music tastes, this is where you will also find the most popular nightclubs. Rugby fans should definitely check out City Rowers on the Riverside – this is where the Brisbane Broncoes tend to hang out (and also my former workplace). Other clubs worth visiting include The Gig (for techno or the downstairs pool bar), Fridays (popular and retro music) and Adrenaline (a sports bar with an enormous fishtank spanning the better part of one wall).
Just across the river is Southbank, probably the closest thing Brisbane has to a ‘tourist attraction’. Built on the site of the former ‘Expo ‘88’, Southbank is basically comprised of souvenir shops, eateries, pubs, an information centre, a butterfly house, a boardwalk and a large artificial beach (i.e. an outdoor swimming pool with sand on the edges). There are also a couple of outdoor movie screens and a Nepalese pagoda (the last authentic remnant of the Expo). It’s good for a visit and the ‘beach’ is free, but personally I’d go somewhere else to eat/drink/shop – it’s damned expensive.
Down the road from Southbank is West End – no it’s not full of theatres, but rather is one of Brisbane’s former ‘alternative’ suburbs turned cosmopolitan. It’s a great place to go for a meal – along the main street alone there is an all-you-can-eat sushi place (£6/head), Café Babylon (which not only has delicious food but ‘treehouses’ you can sit in to eat in the backyard), a Vietnamese restaurant that serves a delicious banquet (also £6/person), a gourmet bagel place and several other bohemian cafes including ‘The Three Monkeys’ and ‘The Jazzy Cat’. This is also a great place to go for second hand bookstores, cheap clothing, exotic fruit and vegetables and bizarre little pubs.
To the north of Brisbane city is Fortitude Valley, Brisbane’s excuse for a red light district. This suburb has also become rather more cosmopolitan over the years – besides the strip clubs and corner prostitutes, there is also an ever increasing number of trendy cafes and pricey boutiques. Most of Brisbane’s best alternative pubs and clubs are to be found here, for example:
The Zoo - a crazy little place with wildly painted walls and oil-drums for tables. This generally costs a bit to get into but they always have the best bands (e.g. Powderfinger, Custard, Something For Kate, Jebediah) playing and the beer is relatively cheap.
The Empire – a pub downstairs with pool tables, beat music and a ‘chill-out room’, while upstairs Wednesday to Saturday they have a nightclub with two different sections – one for hardcore alternative music and one to suit more mainstream tastes.
The Press Club – a very upmarket little place with a décor straight out of a Humphrey Bogart movie. Exotic lighting, plush comfy seats, a huge brass fan and expensive cocktails make this an interesting but more occasional place to visit.
The Beat – Brisbane’s most famous gay nightclub but also well known for its music and its opening hours (5am every night of the week, every day of the year). Upstairs is the Cockatoo Bar with retro music, Karaoke and cheap champagne, while downstairs is all hardcore techno (with a twice-nightly break for a drag show).
After the last club has closed, if you’re feeling a bit peckish just head down to Mellino’s on the mall – they serve pizza, pasta and liqueur coffees 24 hours a day!
Also in The Valley, just down the road from the main mall is Chinatown – certainly not as large and impressive as its counterpart in Sydney or London, but still rife with Yum-Cha restaurants and cheap delicious eateries. A recommended place for a meal is ‘Chopstix’ in an arcade off Duncan street – you can take your pick from Chinese, Thai, Korean, Malay or Japanese food as well as drink beers, play pool or feed the jukebox.
No trip to Brisbane would be complete without a night time visit to Mount Cootha. High up on a hill to the north west of the city centre, this is the perfect place to sit and look out over the lights of the city. A great place to bring that special someone… Besides being home to several TV and radio stations there is also a nice little restaurant and gift shop as well as some great picnic places.
As for accommodation, there are plenty of cheap little hostels including The Palace Backpackers in the city (which also has its own pub, the DownUnder Bar, famous for cheap beer and wet T-shirt competitions) and Globetrekkers in New Farm (just down the road from Fortitude Valley). Both are priced at around £8/night for a dorm bed, with cheaper weekly rates.
[For more info on hostels and other tourist info, check out https://hostelbrisbane.com]
Of course you might not want to spend your whole time there in Brisbane itself – why not take a day trip? A short train trip to the south-east will bring you to Dreamworld (the closest Australia has to Disneyland), Sea world and Warner Bros.’ Movieworld (bearing a certain resemblance to Universal Studios), as well as of course the Gold Coast. To the north is the Sunshine Coast – smaller towns like Caloundra and Noosa have a lot to offer if you just feel like hanging out on the beach and relaxing for a day or two.
For the nature lovers out there, the south/south-west of Brisbane is home to many areas of dense rainforest, mountains and farmlands. If you’re looking for an affordable 3-day tour led by a qualified zoologist that will introduce you to a vast array of Australia’s native animals and plants, check out the Araucaria Ecotours homepage (https://users.eis.net.au/~ecotoura/). (Oh, and tell Mum I said ‘hi!’ :)
So anyway, if you’re in the area… give Brisbane a go. I’ve been back since November (after living in the UK for 2 years), so look out for me at The Zoo – I’ll be the one drinking Coopers’ sparkling ale and dancing like a mad thing… :)