Last Wander in Brisbane

I left Brisbane today and flew to Adelaide, Australia, which is where I am as I press the “Publish” button on this entry. But my flight left late enough that I had sufficient time for one last wander in Brisbane before I left.

As it happens, I chose a fortuitously fortunate time to leave Brisbane. A heat wave rolled into the city today. The forecast high here is 34° Celsius. The lowest daytime high for the next week is predicted to be 27°, including a couple more days with highs over 30°.

By the time I got back from my walk, which I did at a leisurely pace, I already had some perspiration spots on my shirt. And that was still in the morning, not yet at the daytime high.

The forecast high for Adelaide today, on the other hand, is 23° Celsius.

The very warmest it’s expected to be in Adelaide while I’m there is 26°, but that’s just for one day. And the evenings are forecast to be cooler. So, it’s a good time to head to Adelaide and escape the newly arrived heat in Brisbane. Obviously, I didn’t choose that. I just lucked out.

Wander in Brisbane

Riverside Walk

For my last wander in Brisbane, I started by heading to the riverside walk that runs for a fair distance along the CBD side of the Brisbane River.

In truth, to call it a riverside walk is partially a misnomer. There is a portion of the way that is not conducive to building a walkway on the river shore. For some of the distance, a sheer cliff abuts the river. For another bit of it, residences with private docks sit close to the water.

Rather than cut the walk short, they sunk pylons into the river and built the walkway on them. So, at that part, it’s more of an over-river walk than a riverside walk.

In an earlier post, I mentioned that Brisbane’s parks are one of its great assets. The Brisbane River is another one. And Brisbane makes good use of it.

The riverside walk makes for a pleasant stroll. But the city also puts the river to work.

A collection of catamarans called “CityCats” ply the river for a fair piece out into the suburbs, with a total of 18 stops on their route. They are a component of the city’s transit system and people use them to commute to and from work.

The city also runs some smaller catamarans that stop only at the docks in and near the CBD. They call those catamarans “KittyCats.” (Saccharine cute, eh?) Unlike the CityCats, KittyCats are free.

Before leaving the topic of the river, I should mention the city’s big “Story Bridge” that crosses it. I say I should mention it because on the three tours I took while in Brisbane—the walking tour, the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, and Springbrook and Mount Tamborine—all three guides spoke of it with pride. Don’t get me wrong, the big grey bridge is nice enough, but I don’t see what’s spectacular about it. There, I mentioned it.

Queen Street

After I finished my walk along the river, I headed to the Queen Street shopping district. I’d been there before, but I don’t recall mentioning it here until now.

A few blocks of Brisbane’s Queen Street are blocked off to cars so pedestrians can enjoy the whole street. Shops (both high-end and middle-class) and a few restaurants line either side of the street. I didn’t notice any vacant shops. It’s quite a lively place.

There’s an old, indoor shopping arcade, the Brisbane Arcade, that opened in 1924. It runs off of and perpendicular to Queen Street and through to Elizabeth Street¹, the next street over. It’s very quaint. And it has a notorious history, but I’ll get to that a few paragraphs down.

The arcade has a single aisle on the street level, with stores on either side. There is another level of stores above that where the aisle is split in two for much of the length of the arcade, creating an atrium.

A couple of sets of stairs lead to the basement. There is retail down there, but I think it’s just one or two larger stores. I’m not sure. I didn’t descend the steps.

This being a little less than a month before Christmas, the arcade was overgrown with sparkling lights and other decorations that all but obscured the walls and other architectural elements in large portions of the arcade. However, there was a section with bare warm wood walls, nice lighting and quaint permanent decorative elements (pictured). That section suggests the whole Brisbane Arcade probably exudes charm when it’s adequately distant from the Christmas selling season.

The Brisbane Arcade was built by two siblings, James Mayne and Mary Emelia Mayne, on property that their father, Patrick, bought. Patrick immigrated without much money. He befriended a rich person. That rich person ended up murdered and his money was never found. A little while later Patrick Mayne magically had enough money to fund a business that became quite successful.

Everyone assumed Patrick committed the murder and took the money, but it was never proven. The Mayne family was shunned because of it.

When I went on a walking tour the other day, Guy, the guide, said that Patrick admitted to the murder on his deathbed², but I haven’t seen that part of the story repeated anywhere. Then again, I didn’t look very hard.

The Mayne family donated huge sums of money to the University of Queensland. Apparently, there was and is considerable controversy over the university keeping the tainted money. But, well, huge sums of money. They haven’t given it back.

Oh, you might have noticed that I said that the arcade runs from Queen Street to Elizabeth Street. Streets in downtown Brisbane run at a roughly 45-degree angle to north-south and east-west, so I don’t know how to label them directionally. But, never mind that.

One set of parallel streets is named for female monarchs. The perpendicular streets are named for male monarchs.

That reminds me of a story told by the guide, Guy, I meant to relay when I wrote up the walking tour. The square in front of the city hall is called King George Square to honour King Charles. No. Of course not. It’s named after King George, the late Queen Elizabeth’s father.

I walked through the square on the way back to my hotel today, which is what reminded me of the story.

In the square, there’s a statue of King George on a horse. The king and horse face out to the square, with their rumps facing the city hall building. According to Guy, that wasn’t always the orientation of the statue. They used to face the city hall.

Then Queen Elizabeth visited. She saw the statue and asked why her father was in retreat. They turned the statue around after that.

So, soldier on, King George, soldier on. It’s a pity about your lovely daughter no longer being around to have any still wrong-facing statues of you turned around. Then again, you probably don’t care, what with you having died before I was even born and all.

Of course, the thing about stories told by guides is they might have just made them up. I’m not going to bother trying to confirm or refute it. It’s an endearing enough story that I will believe it, true or not.

And so concludes my stay in Brisbane.

Brisbane Summary

I greatly enjoyed Brisbane. It’s a beautiful city. The funny thing is, I almost didn’t come.

The first Australia guidebook I bought doesn’t have a section on Brisbane at all. So I bought another guidebook that does. And the walking tour app I have has a Brisbane offering.

I was a bit apprehensive about coming to Brisbane if a major guidebook doesn’t think it’s worth mentioning. But Air Canada has non-stops between Vancouver and both Brisbane and Sydney I thought it made sense to start in one and finish in the other so I wouldn’t have to double back. Hence, Brisbane.

And immediately connecting in Brisbane to another city in Australia after spending a full day getting here didn’t sound appealing to me. So I booked five nights in Brisbane to rest up from the flight and look around.

I’m glad I did. In fact, I wouldn’t have minded another day or two in Brisbane.

I think I’ve seen the major sights in the city. But there are more day trips I could have taken, such as the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast, among others. And spending more time just walking, sitting, and enjoying Brisbane’s beautiful parks wouldn’t have been a bad thing either.

Adelaide

My flight to Adelaide was supposed to land at 4:50 p.m., but it was late. It didn’t leave until about an hour and a half after the scheduled departure time. I checked online before I went to the airport and it said it was on time. When I got to the airport, the departure screens said it wasn’t.

If I knew it was going to be late, I could have spent more time in Brisbane. Then again, there is the heat that descended on Brisbane today. Whereas, the airport is air-conditioned. So there’s that.

The point I was getting to here is, I got into Adelaide too late to do anything today worth noting here.

I know. I know. Not being worth noting hasn’t always stopped me from noting things before. But I thought I’d spare you this time. You’re welcome.

I’m in Adelaide for four nights. So, more to come.

1. UPDATE: A reader who somehow stumbled on this post corrected me in the comments below. Apparently, Brisbane Arcade runs between Queen and Adelaide Streets. I appreciate the correction. Sorry for the error. ↩︎
2. UPDATE 2: The same reader who corrected me on the bounding streets of the Brisbane Arcade also contradicted the walking tour guide with regard to Patrick Mayne’s deathbed confession. The reader says that he copped to a different murder before he died. ↩︎