Brisbane, Australia

Highlights

Wet ‘n’ Wild, Gold Coast
The Cube at QUT
Botanical Gardens
Brisbane CBD
South Bank Parklands
Queensland Museum

Why visit Brisbane?

For a buzzing city with lush green spaces and interesting galleries and museums.

Getting there and around

We drove 280km from Yamba for 3 hours up the coast to Brisbane (stopping at Gold Coast on the way). This completed our 1460km (907 mile) 2 and a half week road trip from Brisbane to Sydney.

When we arrived in Brisbane we dropped off our hire car at Avis Brisbane South as we wouldn’t be needing it in the city. Our accommodation was one block from the car hire drop off.

To get around Brisbane we mostly walked. On our first day we purchased Go Cards at South Brisbane station which could be used on trains, buses and ferries.

The go cards cost £8 each (a refundable deposit on return of the cards) and then we loaded credit on to each card. At the end of our stay we returned the cards to the ticket office where we bought them and got a refund for the card deposit and the remaining credit on the cards.

Accommodation

We stayed for 5 nights (giving us 4 full days in the city) in a 2 bedroom Airbnb apartment which cost £118 per night. The apartment was spacious but the dishwasher didn’t work and the hot water supply was temperamental.

The apartment building had a roof terrace with great views over the river to the CBD, and a warm rooftop pool.

The apartment was in a great location on Cordelia Street in Brisbane’s South Bank, just 5 minutes walk from South Brisbane station and the river. The CBD was a 15 minute walk over the bridge or a quick ferry ride across the river. Our balcony looked out over the Skyneedle which was originally constructed as part of the 88 Expo.

Our star rating: 3

Our cost rating: 4

South Brisbane Airbnb

Wet ‘n’ Wild, Gold Coast

On our way from Yamba to Brisbane we stopped at this gigantic water park for the day. We paid £200 on arrival at the park for 2 adult tickets and 2 child tickets. Unfortunately Mal was suffering from a migraine and in hindsight we should have skipped the park, but the kids were excited and we wanted them to have fun.

Wet ‘n’ Wild had a mixture of very big scary looking thrill rides, and smaller family rides and areas for kids. We loved the Junior area which had a wet play structure with tipping bucket and an assortment of slides just for kids. Our other favourite areas were the huge wave pool which had big waves but was nice and shallow; and the Calypso lazy river which was relaxing and gentle.

We also enjoyed Mammoth Falls (fast and somewhat out of control river rafting) and Super 8 Aqua Racer (going down over fast bumps front facing) but they were rather scary for us!

The Cube at QUT

On our first day in Brisbane we walked from our apartment down to the river and took the ferry from South Bank to Queensland University of Technology (QUT). The ferry ride cost £2 each with our Go Cards which we tapped when we got on and off the ferry.

The purpose of our visit to QUT was to go to the University’s Science and Engineering Centre which is home to the Cube.

The Cube is open to the public and consists of giant interactive screens that are 2 storeys high. All around the Cube are open plan meeting spaces and desks with students busying away on their assignments.

On the day of our visit, one side of the Cube had the ‘Boldly Go’ exhibit which provided interactive displays of deep space imagery.

The Physics Observatory side of the Cube allowed us to play with the effects of different gravity fields, interact with Tesla Coils, and find out more the scientific minds behind key principles.

Finally, the Living Reef side of the Cube was all about the creatures that live on the Great Barrier Reef, their ecosystem and the different food chains.

We spent a fun hour at the Cube and in that time easily filled the kids’ brains with lots of important science knowledge! It was an inspiring visit for our kids, who are both drawn to STEM subjects but had never visited a University campus before. They loved the ambience of the campus with its cool buildings full of intelligent people.

Botanical Gardens

After visiting QUT we strolled through the Botanical Gardens which are right next door. It was lightly raining that day but still hot and humid and the weather really brought to life the lush tropical planting. This was a lovely green space right in the centre of Brisbane and a wonderful asset to the city.

Central Business District

We continued on from the Botanical Gardens towards the heart of the commercial downtown area - the Central Business District (CBD). The retail offer of the city, which has a population about twice the size of Birmingham, was impressive.

We ate lunch at Lucha Black, a Chinese restaurant in the pretty Albert Lane shopping arcade. This was standard bao bun and veggie rice plates, but it was a good quality and reasonably priced for lunch at about £10 per head.

We concluded our first day in Brisbane by walking through the market (picking up some fruit along the way) at Brisbane Square (open Wednesdays and Thursdays) and then we walked over the bridge back across the river to our apartment.

South Bank Parklands

On our second day in Brisbane we spent the day at the South Bank Parklands close to our apartment.

South Brisbane’s cultural and leisure facilities were created on derelict industrial land as part of the World Expo 88. Much of the regenerated space is given over to high quality and free to access public green spaces. There are numerous museums, galleries, restaurants and cafes too.

The Parklands included a beautiful arbour walkway full of blooming purple flowers that led us along the river and linked the different spaces together. We loved the rainforest walk and riverside green playground.

Brisbane is the setting for one of the kids’ favourite TV shows (Bluey) and it was fun spotting locations that are featured in the animation, such as the big ferris wheel and the splash play area.

There was also a fantastic outdoor pool edged by an artificial sandy beach. How great it is for the people of Brisbane to have such wonderful facilities right in the city centre!

On our last day in Brisbane we met up with some friends who live in the city and have kids the same age as us. It was so lovely to see them! We ended up visiting the Parklands with them and numerous times during our stay in Brisbane as it was such a great space and close to our apartment.

Queensland Museum

On our third day in Brisbane we visited the Queensland Museum. This museum on the south bank is free to enter but has special paid for exhibitions and sections.

The museum had thousands of natural history specimens and geological artefacts. The museum was also full of hundreds of school kids on school trips and was very noisy and busy.

The Spark Lab gallery is a partnership with London’s Science Museum and its 40 exhibits are almost identical to those at London’s Wonderlab Gallery. We had a fun morning learning about space, sound, forces, design, shapes, light and energy.

Final thoughts

We particularly enjoyed Brisbane’s outdoor spaces. Brisbane has a great climate which allows for an outdoor lifestyle, and it’s public realm was amazing quality. The spaces were clean, well maintained, safe, free and accessible to all.

In our view Brisbane’s leisure and cultural facilities shone an unfavourable light on the comparable offer in UK cities - where open spaces and play facilities are often privatised, fee charging or ticketed, and overly policed by contracted security firms.

Brisbane felt buzzing, vibrant and extremely liveable. It was an easy and pleasant city to navigate and walk around. Every activity we did was free and open to everyone.

We loved Brisbane!