BS&B, CityCat

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BS&B Lunch

I'm a member of the Beefsteak and Burgundy wine club which is based out of Australia — while most of the clubs are in Australia and New Zealand, with a few in East Asia, there is a local chapter here in St Marys where we live. Ours is the Stonetown Beefsteak and Burgundy Club (club #227) and was formed some time ago (1991) by our friend Pierre who had discovered the club while on sabbatical in Australia. I've been a member for many years and had a tenure as the chapter president (2015-2017).

Membership in the club is a passport, of sorts, to friends and events when travelling; especially in Australia where there are many clubs. Anytime we're in Australia we try to find a local club (e.g., there are lots in Brisbane; it's a big city) that is having an event that we might attend. Over the years we've been to several clubs around the country (in Perth, Melbourne and here in Brisbane) and always are welcomed. We looked for a club in Fremantle and Perth when in Western Australia earlier on this trip but there were no events that worked with our visit (there's only a few clubs in that area).

When we go to these events, sometimes just a tasting, often a gourmet dinner, we always have a good time, some good food and drink, and sometimes meet and make some long lasting friends. See our Brisbane BS&B (2006) story (a visit to "Brisbane" (club #17) at the United Service Club near the city centre) and note the photos of Murray and Baggins. Murray was a great friend, as was his wife Joan, who we met with many times outside the club. They had a very strong Canadian connection having studied here. He has passed away in 2019 and will be sadly missed.

The Fortitude chapter (club #138) has a regular first Wednesday of the month lunch event which would work while we were in Brisbane (we attended on June 5). I reached out to see if we could come as guests and, as expected, we were welcomed with open arms. Chris, the president, and Mick, the secretary were kind and gracious hosts to us; we shared their table. Although their club is a men only club they were happy to have Kate come as a guest. The event was a chef prepared gourmet lunch at the Royal Queensland Golf Club, in Eagle Farm, a far eastern suburb of Brisbane towards the airport and on the river at the Gateway Bridge. We took an Uber to the event and planned on riding the CityCat back along the river.

As you can see from the photos the lunch was quite a spread; a gourmet meal accented with gourmet wines. Wines were selected by the wine steward of the club; likewise for the dinner served. The many wines were all presented blind, poured from bottles wrapped to hide the label, so you did not know what you were drinking. The objective of the game is for the wine steward to call on various people from the club to have their say in evaluating the wine and what they thought the wine was that they had just tasted. This is a bit of a laugh because 9 times out of 10 the guesses were wildly off (at least beyond that was a red or white and probably from Australia, we could seldom guess the grape let alone the region, country of origin or vintage). That's interesting as all the members, like Kate and me, drink a lot of wine and should do better. Our wine club has a similar blind tasting at our January event. Kate, who is a bit of a super taster, was able to correctly identify several of the wines. She was, to my mind, the champ at this game.

Some of the wines were from their wine cellar. Brisbane is a tropical climate and wine cellars are rented space from a cold storage company as nobody has a cool basement. Some of the wines would have been recent purchases. And some wines were awarded in a draw at the end. The price for the event also included some money raised to replenish the cellar. They are a long standing club and have quite an investment in their wine cellar. So much so that they've recently, at the recommendation of the parent club, incorporated and are now insured to limit their liability.

I was called upon to speak to the main plate. As you can see it was filet of Australian beef au jus with a bit of black pudding (Kate had some fish, barramundi perhaps?), roasted cherry tomatoes, asparagus, beet greens and Hasselback potatoes all tastefully arranged. (I say fill-aye, they say fill-ette and are surprised by that dang French influence in Canada). One comment I had was on the mustard served with the beef. In Canada mustard is slathered on dishes and adds a bit of heat. Dijon mustard adds a lot of heat and is my mustard of choice. But the mustard they had absolutely cleared the sinuses and took my breath away! It seemed to have the intense kick of horse radish or wasabi paste. Really wild. "Is it always like this?" I ask. "Yup, that's normal", they say. All of the food served was great. The chef was introduced and rightly congratulated on the feast he had prepared.

There were several guests to this event beyond Kate; several wives as well some "Old Bulls". Within the BS&B club system there are "lifetime members"; a special status for long standing members who have contributed a lot. We have a couple at our club. This club had an interesting informal designation for older members who are no longer regulars. They're called "Old Bulls", an apt title as the logo for BS&B is a bull with a glass of wine, and are invited to events. This helps to make sure that friendships are maintained and they have good attendance at their events. We should do something similar at our club.

We chatted with many members. They even gave me a copy of the recently published BS&B history — quite a large tome. I am constantly surprised at how well travelled Australians are. Many we talked to had been to Canada and all were more than hospitable. When the event wrapped up we hitched a ride to the nearby CityCat landing at "Northshore Hamilton" where we caught a ferry around 3:30pm

CityCat River Tour

The Brisbane River is a distinctive feature to the city. Draining the Wivenhoe Dam in the mountainous interior and opening onto Moreton Bay, quite a few miles down river from the here (ie. Eagle Farm and the golf course), the river meanders through the city and, while there are many bridges, the river is an obstacle. The CityCats (large fast catamarans) are part of the city transit system. They're also a very good way to tour the city. We bought transit passes at a local shop in New Farm and only later discovered that we could have just used our credit cards to tap on/off the ferry.

Near Eagle Farm and the wine event the river is quite wide with the Gateway Bridge, the last bridge on the river, immediately downriver. The next bridge up river is the Story Bridge which crosses from Kangaroo Point to Fortitude Valley and nearby New Farm where we are staying. On the CityCat ferry it's about an hour up to the Story Bridge with many stops on each side of the river in between.

We continue on the ferry past the city center with it's many towering high rise buildings, the Botanic Gardens with it's quiet green space, the glossy Star Casino Center and across from that the South Bank park with the GOMA, on to the Milton stop where we got off and turned around on the next CityCat to head back towards New Farm as the day was ending and the sun had set. We returned down river and got off at New Farm Walk (there are several stops in New Farm) and called a Uber to take us home.

When we started at Northshore Hamilton there was a fellow waiting with us obviously dressed to serve on the boat. He said we needn't worry, that the boat wouldn't leave without him (hence us as well). It turns out he was the captain. Jeff was an incredibly friendly fellow, a real ambassador for the CityCats and the city of Brisbane. He posed several times for pictures with us and other tourists. He even had me come up to the wheel house to see things from that vantage point. He's our age, I would guess, and has been working on the river transit for many years. He obviously enjoys his work and the social aspect of meeting people. Not everyone wants to retire early. In the selfie above that's Jeff with Kate and me.

The river floods on a fairly irregular basis (see Historical Flooding in Brisbane). In our time there was a serious flood in 2011 and another in 2022. The 2011 flood happened, when after torrential rains (they have cyclones, we have hurricanes), water was released from the Wivenhoe Dam causing extensive flooding. At the time our friend Murray, who lived far up river in Chelmer (across the river from Indooroopilly where Ross and Bev live), had a home on a high bank of the river where we had visited a few times. He had a boat and dock on the river. It must have been 20' or so above the water with stairs down to the river but with that flood they had water to their doorstep. 

We had turned around on our CityCat tour at Milton. This has a flood connection as well. The first time we met Murray's wife Joan was at a lovely floating restaurant tied to the north bank at Milton. The flood of 2011 washed that restaurant away along with much more. There's a walkway/bicycle path on the river under the Story Bridge at the Howard Smith Wharves that I had explored before that flood. I know that much of that was wiped away in the flood of 2011. I can recall watching the news back then and seeing the damage that flooding caused. See for example Decade-long Drift restaurant debate (2022). Oddly I don't recall the flood of 2022 (that would have been during the pandemic) but should:

 "Thirteen people in total lost their lives in the 2022 floods, with 23,400 properties flood-affected in all but 11 of Brisbane’s 188 suburbs." — from Why was Brisbane’s 2022 flood different? (Griffith University)

From the CityCat there are many very posh homes along the river front especially from Kangaroo Point on down the river. I wonder how they survived past floods and what will happen to them at the next.

However, enough about flooding and catastrophes; the city is resilient and seems to take these in stride. The point here is the CityCat is an excellent way to see the city. There's lots of interesting places to jump off along the way. We enjoyed the trip, the captain was a treat, the weather was great and we would highly recommend the CityCat to anyone visiting Brisbane.

Ps. as well as the large CityCats which run the entire length of the ferry system there are also smaller "KittyCats" which provide a free shuttle service within the city core! See CityCat and ferry services.

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Notes composed Nov 21, '24