Brisbane: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

This article is about the Australian city. For other uses of Brisbane, see Brisbane (disambiguation).

Brisbane is the capital city of the state of Queensland, Australia. The city's name is pronounced "BRIZ-buhn" (SAMPA: ["brIzb@n], IPA: [ˈbɹɪzbən]).

Geography

Brisbane is situated in the southeast corner of Queensland at latitude 27°28′S, longitude 153°02′E. The city straddles the Brisbane River, and its eastern suburbs line the shores of Moreton Bay. The greater Brisbane region lies on the coastal plain, east of the Great Dividing Range.

Brisbane has a subtropical climate with warm, mild winters and hot, bright summers. Brisbane is subject to humidity, mainly at the start of each calendar year.

Some of its climatic averages:

• Mean January maximum temperature — 29.4°C (84.9°F)
• Mean January minimum temperature — 20.7°C (69.3°F)
• Mean July maximum temperature — 20.4°C (68.7°F)
• Mean July minimum temperature — 9.5°C (49.1°F)
• Mean annual rainfall — 1146.4mm (45.1 inches)
• Wettest month on average — January, 159.6mm (6.3 inches)
• Driest month on average — August, 45.9mm (1.8 inches)

Some of its historical extremes:

• Hottest maximum temperature — 43.2°C (109.8°F), 26 January 1940
• Coldest minimum temperature — 2.3°C (36.1°F), 12 July 1894 and 2 July 1896
• Wettest month — 1026 mm (40.4 inches) of rainfall, February 1893
• Wettest day — 465 mm (18.3 inches), 21 January 1887
• Highest wind gust — 145 km/h (90 m/h)

The estimated population of the City of Brisbane is 938,384 (as of June 2003). Together with surrounding Local Government Areas, Brisbane has an estimated metropolitan population of 1,733,200 as of 2003. Brisbane City Council is the most populous Local Government Area in Australia and is one of the largest cities in the world in terms of geographic area. Brisbane boasts Australia's highest rate of capital city population growth. The metropolitan population reportedly grew by 9% between 1996 and 2001.

Brisbane has a diverse and generally vibrant economy with many sectors and industries represented in the city's total production of goods and services. Both white-collar and blue-collar industries are present, with white-collar industries such as information technology, financial services, higher education and public sector administration generally concentrated in and around the Central Business District and recently established office parks in the outer suburbs. Blue-collar industries such as petroleum refining, stevedoring, paper milling, metalworking and QR railway workshops tend to be located on the lower reaches of the Brisbane River and in new industrial zones on the urban fringe.

On 27 March 2004, former civil engineer Campbell Newman defeated incumbent Lord Mayor Tim Quinn in mayoral elections. Newman is a member of the Liberal Party and is only the second ever Liberal Lord Mayor of Brisbane.

The area of Brisbane city is split into 26 wards, which each elect a council member as a representative. The Lord Mayor is also elected by a popular vote, in which all residents must also participate. Voting occurs every four years. Currently, the Labor Party has a majority of seats on Council, causing inevitable problems as the Labor-dominated Council and the Liberal Lord Mayor argue over policy.

The city is named after Sir Thomas Brisbane (1773–1860), British soldier and colonial administrator born in Ayrshire, Scotland. However before British colonisation, Brisbane was known as 'Meeaan-jin' by the Turrbul tribe. In 1823, the explorer John Oxley discovered the Brisbane River and in 1824, the first convict colony was established at Redcliffe Point. Only one year later, the colony was moved from Redcliffe further upstream to North Quay, which is now part of Brisbane's CBD. In 1842, the area was opened for free settlement, while the convict colony was closed. By 1869 almost all of the Turrbul people had died. The few remaining survivors escaped the region with the help of the settler, Tom Petre. When Queensland separated from New South Wales in 1859 and became a colony by itself, Brisbane was declared the capital, but it was not until 1902 that Brisbane was officially declared a city. In 1924, the City of Brisbane Act was passed, giving Brisbane a local government, which took up its work in 1925. During World War II, US troops were stationed in the city, and it became the headquarters for General Douglas MacArthur, the Allied Commander of the South-West Pacific region.

Brisbane has been inundated by two severe floods of the Brisbane River — one in 1893 and one in 1974.

• 1982 Commonwealth Games.
• 1988 Expo 88.
• 1991 International Convention of Lions Clubs International.
• 1995 International Physics Olympiad
• 2000 Goodwill Games
• 2003 International Convention of Rotary International.
• 2003 Hosted matches during Rugby Union World Cup
• 2004 International Biology Olympiad
• 2004 International Youth Physics Tournament

• Annually — the Brisbane Exhibition or "Ekka".

Sights to see in the city's centre include Southbank Parklands (the site of Expo 88) and the recently developed Roma Street Parklands. The CityCat ferry service runs along the Brisbane River from the University of Queensland's Saint Lucia campus to Brett's Wharf at Hamilton, and is an easy way to get from one side of town to the other. Brisbane is also home to:

• Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, which displays many native Australian animals, and where you can have your photo taken with a koala (suburb: Fig Tree Pocket).
• The brewery of XXXX, one of Australia's most famous beers (suburb: Milton).
• The City Botanical Gardens near the Queensland University of Technology at Gardens Point.
• Mount Coot-tha lookout with adjacent botanical gardens (differs from the one at Gardens Point).
• The recently-refurbished (2004) Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium in the Mt Coot-tha botanical gardens.

Brisbane has a thriving performing arts culture, housed in theatres such as La Boite's Roundhouse Theatre in Kelvin Grove, the Optus Playhouse and Lyric theatre at Southbank, the Powerhouse in New Farm, and the recently opened "Judith Wright Centre" in Fortitude Valley.

Brisbane's CBD, in particular the fashionable Queen Street Mall, has a wide range of restaurants, and shops selling clothes, music and souvenirs.

Brisbane is served by six broadcast television stations: ABC, Seven, Nine, Ten, SBS, and community television station Briz 31.

There are eight commercial radio stations licensed to cover the Brisbane market: 4BC, 4BH, 4TAB, 4KQ, B105 FM, Triple M, NEW 97.3, and NovaFM. The ABC has all five of its radio networks broadcasting to Brisbane, via 612 ABC, Radio National, Triple J, Newsradio, ABC Classic FM. SBS also broadcasts its national radio network to Brisbane.

Brisbane's local sporting teams are:

• basketball — Brisbane Bullets
• cricket — Queensland Bulls
• Rugby Union — Queensland Reds
• Rugby League — Brisbane Broncos
• Australian Rules Football — Brisbane Lions
• soccer — Brisbane Strikers

A number of tertiary education institutions have campuses in Brisbane, or in the surrounding areas:

• Australian Catholic University
• Central Queensland University
• Griffith University
• Queensland University of Technology
• University of Canberra
• University of New South Wales
• University of Southern Queensland
• University of Queensland

• Kobe, Japan (July 1985)
• Auckland, New Zealand (August 1988)
• Shenzhen, People's Republic of China (June 1992)
• Semarang, Indonesia (January 1993)
• Kaohsiung, Republic of China (September 1997)

• Archerfield Airport
• Brisbane International Airport

See the list of Brisbane suburbs.