Brisbane: Notable Mentions
It’s amazing to me that more people weren't raving and begging us to visit Brisbane. It is honestly one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen and having 21 countries on my belt, I’ve seen a few. The picturesque Brisbane river snakes its way through the city and separates it into the CBD and the slightly less chaotic and uber cultural Southbank. The green spaces here (all amazingly tropical) are plentiful and packed full of people on their lunch break, on an outing with the kids or just having a lazy afternoon napping in the green grass. Unlike Sydney, these people actually seem to be enjoying the outdoors while being active, not just rushing about trying to get their morning jog in. Woven into the modern skyscrapers and green spaces are beautiful historic limestone buildings with iron lace terraces and ornate staircases. It all seems contrasting and it all fits just the same.
Unfortunately, the city has suffered massive floods multiple times and has basically had to continuously be rebuilding itself. Lucky for Brisbane though, its people are so in love with their city that every single time a major disaster has occurred everyone gets together and fixes the problem. Everything gets restored with the public’s loving hands and life goes on… time and time again. Most notably in 2011 the CBD was up to my nose in water and there were sharks and crocodiles swimming in the streets hungry for a meal. As a Canadian, this is something I never would have dreamed a reality for some people in a first world country! It's hard to see in the picture but these are all the heights marked on this building of all the big floods.
A MAJOR thank you must be sent out to Dee and Sandy for housing us and cooking us a traditional Swiss dinner and giving us an early Easter bunny chocolate. You two were beyond the moon and back amazing.
CITY BOTANICAL GARDENS
This place is unbelievably large and skirts around the Queensland University of Technology. The towering fig trees, bunya pine trees, macadamia trees and tropical bushy flora give the park life with bright flowers, birds and massive (up to 1m long) lizards.
QUEENSLAND SPECIALS
I suppose every city has their own housing “special” and Brisbane is no exception. We stayed with a friend of D’s from Big White when we first arrived who just purchased a fantastic stilted Queensland special. Built in the early 1900’s this house has survived the wars. Inside space flows into outside space with little to no transition and windows are louvered pieces instead on one massive pane. The house has no insulation and cracks leave little to the imagination as to what the outside world is like. Geckos frequent the kitchen and bush turkeys and possums frequent the roof. It was a beautiful, tropical, magical place to stay.
CBD/CITYCAT
Being a city on the river, it makes sense to have an immaculate and outrageously fast ferry bopping around town. We took the city cat into town a few times when we were staying with two lovely twins (again, friends from times past in Big White) in the suburb of Auchenflower. At $5.60 it came in at a really cheap river cruise option!
LONE PINE KOALA SANCTUARY
Words cannot even describe this amazing place. It is set 20 minutes outside of the city in an attractive park lands along a section of the Brisbane River. It is home to over 130 koalas as well as kangaroos, possums, wombats and a handful of birds. Koalas are pretty fussy eaters and are in luck because Eucalyptus trees are all over Australia. To further their fuss, they only like 50 out of the 80 species and prefer the new shoots rather than older leaves. The loss of habitat and human invasion are the only real things that seriously threaten the koalas so the sanctuary was born from one man’s ambition to give back to the undeniably cute animals.
Not only did I spend hours flirting and dancing with cockatoos, I got to actually cuddle a koala and witness some rare dinosaur bird sightings. I though emus were a trip to watch but check out this Cassowary! It’s a wonder how any of these massive (this one stands close to my height) flightless have made it through years and years of predators.
Unfortunately, the city has suffered massive floods multiple times and has basically had to continuously be rebuilding itself. Lucky for Brisbane though, its people are so in love with their city that every single time a major disaster has occurred everyone gets together and fixes the problem. Everything gets restored with the public’s loving hands and life goes on… time and time again. Most notably in 2011 the CBD was up to my nose in water and there were sharks and crocodiles swimming in the streets hungry for a meal. As a Canadian, this is something I never would have dreamed a reality for some people in a first world country! It's hard to see in the picture but these are all the heights marked on this building of all the big floods.
A MAJOR thank you must be sent out to Dee and Sandy for housing us and cooking us a traditional Swiss dinner and giving us an early Easter bunny chocolate. You two were beyond the moon and back amazing.
CITY BOTANICAL GARDENS
This place is unbelievably large and skirts around the Queensland University of Technology. The towering fig trees, bunya pine trees, macadamia trees and tropical bushy flora give the park life with bright flowers, birds and massive (up to 1m long) lizards.
QUEENSLAND SPECIALS
I suppose every city has their own housing “special” and Brisbane is no exception. We stayed with a friend of D’s from Big White when we first arrived who just purchased a fantastic stilted Queensland special. Built in the early 1900’s this house has survived the wars. Inside space flows into outside space with little to no transition and windows are louvered pieces instead on one massive pane. The house has no insulation and cracks leave little to the imagination as to what the outside world is like. Geckos frequent the kitchen and bush turkeys and possums frequent the roof. It was a beautiful, tropical, magical place to stay.
CBD/CITYCAT
Being a city on the river, it makes sense to have an immaculate and outrageously fast ferry bopping around town. We took the city cat into town a few times when we were staying with two lovely twins (again, friends from times past in Big White) in the suburb of Auchenflower. At $5.60 it came in at a really cheap river cruise option!
LONE PINE KOALA SANCTUARY
Words cannot even describe this amazing place. It is set 20 minutes outside of the city in an attractive park lands along a section of the Brisbane River. It is home to over 130 koalas as well as kangaroos, possums, wombats and a handful of birds. Koalas are pretty fussy eaters and are in luck because Eucalyptus trees are all over Australia. To further their fuss, they only like 50 out of the 80 species and prefer the new shoots rather than older leaves. The loss of habitat and human invasion are the only real things that seriously threaten the koalas so the sanctuary was born from one man’s ambition to give back to the undeniably cute animals.
Not only did I spend hours flirting and dancing with cockatoos, I got to actually cuddle a koala and witness some rare dinosaur bird sightings. I though emus were a trip to watch but check out this Cassowary! It’s a wonder how any of these massive (this one stands close to my height) flightless have made it through years and years of predators.