| Brisbane is the capital
city of Queensland
and is mid-way up the east coast of Australia - 27.5oS,
153oE. With the Gold Coast to the south and the Sunshine
Coast to the north, domestic and international airports,
Brisbane is an ideal headquarters for an Australian holiday.
Brisbane is the third largest city in Australia, with
a population of over 1.77 million. It is a city set close
to the Pacific Ocean, and is situated beside the Brisbane
River on plains between Moreton Bay and the Great Dividing
Range in south-eastern Queensland.
Queensland, operates on Eastern Standard
Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT all year round - Daylight
Saving is not practiced in Queensland.
Residents and visitors to Brisbane
enjoy a wide range of landscapes and lifestyles. The inner-city,
metropolitan Brisbane is surrounded by leafy, sometimes
hilly, suburbs. Further out in the suburbs, the traditional
Australian house on a large block or even small acreages
dominates the landscapes.
Named in honour of Sir Thomas
Brisbane, the city grew from a harsh penal colony established
by New South Wales at Redcliffe in 1824. It was chosen
as the capital of Queensland when it was proclaimed a
separate colony in 1859. The city developed slowly until
after World War II, when it played a central role in the
Allied campaign as the South West Pacific headquarters
for General Douglas MacArthur. Brisbane staged a successful
Commonwealth Games in 1982 and World's Fair in 1988. In
the new millennium, it is one of Australia's fastest growing
cities.
Brisbane has shed its reputation as
a backwater and emerged as one of the country's most progressive
and cosmopolitan centres. It has several interesting districts,
a thriving street cafe scene, a leafy riverside park,
a busy cultural calendar and a thriving nightlife catering
for all ages and tastes.
Known locally as Bris Vegas, the
city is renowned for its sun and beaches but it's also
a thriving arts capital with theatres, cinemas, concert
halls, galleries and a variety of museums.
Brisbane has a typical subtropical climate
with hot, humid summers and dry, mild winters. From late
Spring through to early Autumn, thunderstorms are common
over the greater Brisbane area, with the more severe events
accompanied by large damaging hailstones, torrential rain
and destructive winds.
The city's highest recorded temperature
was 43.2 °C (109.8 °F) on the 26 January 1940,
while the lowest temperature of 2.3 °C (36.1 °F)
was recorded on 12 July 1894 and 2 July 1896 [3]. Brisbane's
wettest day was 21 January 1887, when 465 mm (18.3 in)
of rain fell on the city, the highest maximum daily rainfall
of any of Australia's capital cities.
|
