Reflections on Brisbane...

It’s my last week at work. Soon this blog will be no more, save perhaps for the occasional smattering of smug travel photos over coming weeks. So I thought I’d do a few wrap-up blogs with some reflections on Brisbane, policy and politics down under, and perhaps Australia too.

Starting with Brisbane, I’d definitely recommend paying a visit if you’re ever in Australia. Often passed by, or seen merely as a gateway to the Great Barrier Reef, there’s actually a lot here to see. Australia’s third city, Brisbane started as a penal settlement but its propitious position and claiming of state capital status for the newly founded Queensland (from then inland rival Ipswich) established it as a dominant city. Since the 1970s, and particularly since the 1990s, there has been explosive population growth, with a further 600,000 expected to arrive in the urban region by 2020 (up from the current 1.8 million).

(A peculiar fact about Australia is that there are no mid-size cities between 500,000 and 1 million people. There are 5 large cities – Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide – where two-thirds of Australia’s population live and then lots of smaller towns. I can’t think of anywhere in the world with the same urban spread.)

Some of the best things about Brisbane:

• Excellent quality of life: lots of sunshine, relaxed people, close to great coastline and surfing, many interesting day trips around, a year long range of festivals, and strong sense of community and belonging.

• Some world class culture: this seems to have really come on in recent years. The new Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) has leading exhibitions, so too are the notable Queensland Galley of Art, the State Library, and the South Bank stretch, which architecturally tops London’s South Bank, if falling slightly short on venues.
  
  
• Not too small, not too big: the size of the city means you interact with people from a mix of backgrounds and there’s a compelling sense of shared culture. So when a Picasso exhibit comes to Brisbane (as it did earlier this year) it’s a shared experience for Brisbanites. You don’t get that in the likes of London, Paris or New York.
  
  

Some downsides are that it often seems a bit cliquey (the sort of place where you end up living next door to the cousin of the person in the office you don’t like), and that not being Australia’s biggest city (nor the capital) there’s a natural limit of opportunities. And it doesn’t have the same icons as say Sydney.

Brisbane is ranked the 34th most livable city in the world which I think worthy (five places above London, eight above Barcelona, and fifteen over New York). Mind due Zurich and Geneva do have two of the three top spots so there’s clearly something odd going on with the rankings.

Anyhow, the photos below fulfill my honorary role for the state tourist board…