I’ve spent the last couple of days exploring Brisbane, not least in the hunt for a place to live. During which I’ve been struck by two things. First, that this place is, in many respects, perfectly familiar to someone coming from Britain. Not only do we share the same language, but apparently also many of the customs, attitudes and ways of going about our daily lives. But second, in many other respects, this place could hardly be more alien to one from Britain.
There are at least three things that make me think this. First, the sheer size and scale of even the Queensland region (let alone the rest of Australia) is hard to reconcile with the experience of Europe. After all, the next decent sized place up the coast – Cairns – is well over one thousand miles away. That’s over half the distance from London to Moscow, by which time you’d have passed at least several hundred million people compared to several thousand or so you’d see on your way up the Queensland coast.
Second, even the most urban of areas are inextricably linked with the environment in a way very different to home.
There are at least three things that make me think this. First, the sheer size and scale of even the Queensland region (let alone the rest of Australia) is hard to reconcile with the experience of Europe. After all, the next decent sized place up the coast – Cairns – is well over one thousand miles away. That’s over half the distance from London to Moscow, by which time you’d have passed at least several hundred million people compared to several thousand or so you’d see on your way up the Queensland coast.
Second, even the most urban of areas are inextricably linked with the environment in a way very different to home.
I kid you not: the park in the central business district of Brisbane actually has a sizable Mangrove swamp in the middle of it (see left). Only yesterday, as I peacefully strolled down one of Brisbane’s riverside boardwalks I was confronted by a giant lizard, the likes of which I thought native only to places like the Galapagos.
Third, this place is all just so new. To give some reference points, by 1825, when Britain was well in the middle of the industrial revolution, the official population of Brisbane was just 45 males and 2 females. (It must have been a tough existence, at least from the male perspective). The house I previously lived in London was as at old as that. Even by 1980s the population was in the low hundreds of thousands; it’s now a little fewer than two million. But with this come many great things: a capacity to build into the urban design a high quality of life; an infusion of youth, creativity and energy; an ability to make freer and easier choices and how and where you live (in very stark contrast to London); and (I trust) a greater appreciation of the beauty of, and our symbiosis with, nature and the environment.
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