Brisbane

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We were in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia for the month of February avoiding the snow and cold of Canada for the summer heat of the Antipodean. Kate was working on her book with Ross, I was retired and tasked to carry the luggage and document our adventures.

The picture at left is the Story Bridge over the Brisbane River with Kangaroo point to the left (and south side of the river). Eagle Street landing and the CBD in the distance.

We've been to Brisbane before and again found ourselves at the City Park Apartments on Gregory Terrace just south of the CBD on a rise over the city. It's the perfect place for a long stay with large wrap around balconies and good sea breezes. Brisbane can be awfully hot, but our apartment was always comfortable.

As we were there for a month you'll see that we spent quite a bit of time visiting the local markets: the Saturday market at Rocklea, Ann Power's Market at the Powerhouse district in New Farm, Ann Power's Market at the Treasury Casino, the Brunswick Street Market, and more. We're in a tropical environment and loved having the fresh mangoes every day.

Dan Murphy's is the place to buy your wines while in this part of the world -- we asked our colleagues and to a one they recommended Dan Murphy. There's lots of corner shops and speciality bottle shop but it's worth a drive out on Kingsford Smith Dr. (on the way back to the airport) to find the deals. In Australia you can find great deals on "clean skin wines". These are sort of no-name wines that are the result of over production in the industry. Wine makers will clear out wine that hasn't sold to retailers like Dan Murphy who slap on a generic lable and sell it as "Shiraz" from "South Australia" with no hint at all about who made it or where precisely it was grown. These sell for under $10 and are well worth exploring.

Our friend Murray (Darling) had us out to his home on the river in Chelmer. That's a little way up river from the CBD. We first met Murray back in 2004 through the local Beefsteak and Burgundy Wine club (we have a chapter here in St Marys) when we shared a lunch with the club and a drunken afternoon. This year we again attended a BS&B luncheon, this time they had wives as well (the last time they told us the rule was wives at dinner, mistresses and guests at lunch).

The interesting thing about Murray's home on the river was that they had a large home on a decent sized lot when we had last visited. Since they they had divided the house and property in half! They kept a very grand home on the river side and pocketed some cash for their retirement.

There were lots of adventures outside of Brisbane. To the north, at the far end of Bribie Island, we went to Caloundra a few times. There's nice tidal bathing where the water behind Bribie feeds back out to the ocean. The Wild Horse Mountain lookout is nearby. These mountains are the remains of volcanic cores and jut out from the surrounding forest. We toured some nearby wineries: Sir Romet (read T.E. Morris backwards) for my birthday. That's south of the city near Burleigh Head and the Gold Coast. Mt Nebo and Mt Glorious are just a short drive out of the city to higher land but well worth the trip. Sutton Beach in Redcliffe is just a short drive away in a northern suburb of the city. It's a pretty beach but not that great for swimming. We were out to Bribie Island for a swim.

Within town, I've already mentioned the markets. Mt Cootha is an interesting place to have dinner and enjoy views of the city a short drive from the CBD. I explored the river side, tramped around the Roma Street Parkland just down the street from our apartment, within the CBD there's the old city hall and one day there was a very interesting display and dance by Torres Strait Islanders (not all aborigines are the same) in the Queen Street Mall. China Town and Brunswick street were a short bike ride away for us. We caught an interesting comedy show at the Powerhouse (cf. the Powerhouse markets at New Farm) and at dinner there I learned to know the simple joys of "Panna Cotta" for dessert.

We left for Melbourne in early March for a KBS special topic conference after a fun visit to Brisbane. Kate and Ross did make some progress on their book and we all enjoyed our visit.

Here's an album of photos from our visit.