First Night In Brisbane

In the two years we have lived in South East Queensland I have been secretly quite proud that I have never been to central Brisbane, Queenslands only proper city, even though I am an urban designer and I am interested in how cities work.  It just seems a long way away and it is too hard to get home at night.

My friend Pete turned up in Brissie yesterday so I was forced to make the long trip there and back (2 hours in all from Caloundra).  I tried to take public transport in order that I could get tanked up for the evening but there are no buses to Caloundra after 8.30 so I had to take the bike and remain sober.

I was quite impressed with Brisbane.  They have some huge buildings and on Queen Street there are lots of interesting old places.  There are people on the streets and bars and eateries and there was a book shop open late.  Walking through Queen Street there is a real sense that it is a place where things sometimes might happen from time to time. It's not a twenty four hour city though as it's Queensland and everyone is in bed by nine.

One thing spoiled it for me.  You have to wait at every intersection for the cars to go by.  This means you have to stop every sixty metres for about two minutes.  It was interesting to watch dozens of people spill out onto the road when the traffic stops but you have to think, why inconvenience hundreds of people so a few cars can get through?  It takes about ten minutes to walk 300m in Brissie.  The people in the CBD need to reclaim the streets.  Until they do, I won't be going back.