Brisbane

Dearest Rachel –

Once again, I’m waiting until virtually the last minute in order to put this report together, because so much else is going on for me to both write about and video. Something’s got to give, and these reports sort of wind up being that something.

At least Brisbane has a bit of a claim to fame with us, if, for no other reason, than the fact that several famous people hail from there – or at least ‘famous’ as far as we’re concerned. to be sure, it seems that everybody knows of the Crocodile Hunter, the late Steve Irwin, but for our part, you and I are more likely to think of Brisbane as the home of Teagan Jovanka, the Fifth Doctor’s argumentative companion, and Janet Fielding, the actress who played her. I honestly don’t know what that says about you and me.

The capital and most populous city of Queensland (although the city was part of New South Wales for over thirty years – and was named for the governor of the state at the time – before the northern half broke off to form the state of Queensland in the first place) and the third-most populous city in Australia, Brisbane was founded in 1824 as the Moreton Bay penal settlement, a place for secondary offenders from the Sydney colony. Prior to that, several aboriginal tribes, numbering as many as ten thousand people at the time of the British arrival, had been calling the area home for over twenty thousand years, with different tribes knowing it by names that described its shape (Meanjin, or “the spike,” to the Turrbal) or its fauna (Magandjin, a Yagara word for the tulipwood tree).

However, non-convict European settlement of the Brisbane region commenced in 1838 and the population grew strongly thereafter, with free settlers soon far outstripping the convict population. German missionaries settled at Zions Hill, Nundah (just a couple of miles north of the Brisbane River) as early as 1837, five years before Brisbane was officially declared a free settlement. By the late 19th century, the city had grown into a major port and center of immigration – as illustrated by the fact that this happens to be a terminal point for a number of my fellow passengers (as opposed to, say, Sydney, just to pick a random destination from the many we’ve visited thus far). During World War II, the Allied command in the South West Pacific was based in the city, along with the headquarters for General Douglas MacArthur of the United States Army.

Today, two million six hundred thousand people consider themselves Brisbanites, but, as with the concept of Greater Sydney, this is a little deceptive. Bear in mind that Brisbane as a whole supposedly covers over six thousand square miles; that’s very nearly the size of all the Hawaiian islands combined. Apply the population as stated, and the overall density of the city would be one-tenth that of our hometown. It hardly sounds like a city at such a rate, when you look at it that way, but of course, it’s not nearly so evenly spaced. To be sure, I don’t know how it shakes out specifically, but I could safely assume that the city center is considerably more crowded than a few hundred per square mile.

Whether I’ll have time to check any of it out remains to be seen; while everyone is required to disembark from the ship due to this being the endpoint of the current cruise itinerary, and I actually have a shore excursion to occupy my time while the ship is prepared for the new crop of guests as well as the old ones like myself now, it’s debatable as to how much of the city centre I’ll be able to take in. Unlike Sydney or Auckland, the port terminal is a considerable distance from the heart of downtown, and while I’ll be taking in the view at the Mount Coot-tha lookout, among other places, I suspect that the lion’s share of the time will be spent aboard a coach, being told stories about certain locations, buildings and the like. I’m hoping to write it down – and I’ve been given a list of must-see places from the internet, such as the South Bank Parklands, the Story Bridge, the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, the Queen Street Mall and the Eagle Street Pier – but I can’t always make promises, as I don’t know what I’m likely to have time for.

For now, honey, I guess I’m just going to have to ask that you keep an eye on me, and wish me luck. I’m going to need it.