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Brisbane

Brisbane is the state capital of Queensland and its most populous city. It is also the third most populous city in Australia, behind southern rivals Sydney and Melbourne. The city is situated on the Brisbane River on a low-lying floodplain between Moreton Bay and the Great Dividing Range in south-eastern Queensland. The local indigenous people knew the area as Mian-jin, meaning 'place shaped as a spike'.

The city is named after Sir Thomas Brisbane, the Governor of New South Wales from 1821 to 1825. Brisbane's demonym is a Brisbanite. The first European settlement in Queensland was a penal colony at Redcliffe, 28 kilometres (17 mi) north of Brisbane in 1824. That settlement was soon abandoned and moved to the now Brisbane central business district in 1825. Free settlers were permitted from 1842. Brisbane was chosen as the capital when Queensland was proclaimed a separate colony in 1859.

Brisbane is controlled by the Brisbane City Council. In 1925, the City of Brisbane Act was passed by the Queensland Government, abolishing 20 local government authorities in the city and forming the largest local authority in Australia,[5] with a population of over a million. The city played a central role in the Allied campaign during World War II as the South West Pacific headquarters for General Douglas MacArthur.

Popular Suburbs

Here is a list of some popular suburbs in Brisbane

Sunnybank

Sunnybank is both an area or district and a suburb in Brisbane,Queensland, Australia. The suburb of Sunnybank is only a small part of the area generally known as Sunnybank, which also includes Banoon, Nathan, Robertson, MacGregor, Runcorn, and Sunnybank Hills.[citation needed] Rolling hills and the headwaters for both Stable Swamp Creek and Bulimba Creek have drawn people and wildlife to the Sunnybank area.

Sunnybank includes shopping centres along Mains Rd, such as Sunnybank Plaza, which features a Kmart, Coles and an AMC cinema complex. Sunny Park shopping centre is located across the road from Sunnybank Plaza and features a Woolworths supermarket and Sam's Warehouse discount variety store.

The centre was previously anchored by a Big W discount department store, which is the only Big W store in Brisbane that has closed. Market Square, located across from these two centres, is a community-based centre that is Asian-focused, featuring numerous Asian shops and restaurants. Other shopping centres that are nearby to Sunnybank include Westfield Garden City, Sunnybank Hills Shoppingtown and Calamvale Central.

Sunnybank hills

Sunnybank Hills is an outer southern suburb of Brisbane about 15 kilometres from Brisbane CBD, in Queensland, Australia. It is a large suburb, and adjoins the suburbs of Calamvale, Coopers Plains, Sunnybank, Macgregor, Algester, Acacia Ridge and Runcorn.The suburb is serviced by several shopping centres. These include Shauna Downs on the corner of Wynne Street and Beenleigh Road, Pinelands Plaza on Mains Road, and the large Sunnybank Hills Shoppingtown on the corner of Compton & Calam Roads.

Sunnybank Hills Shoppingtown features a Woolworths supermarket and the southside's only Pick 'n Pay Hypermarket (formerly a Coles and Kmart as separate stores until the mid 1990s), Best & Less, Crazy Clarks, Lincraft, Aldi, library and a number of specialty stores.

Manly

It is located approximately 16km east of Brisbane CBD. Surrounding suburbs are Wynnum (to the north), Lota to the South and Manly West (to the west). To the east lies Moreton Bay.Over 43% of households in this area consist of couples without children and a further 37% are couples with children. Stand alone house account for 67% of all dwellings in this area, with townhouses accounting for a further 10%. Manly is a bayside suburb that has many wonderfully renovated, older-style homes, as well as more modern units and townhouse complexes. The median house price in Manly for the 2004 calendar year was $510,000. Federally, the people of Manly are represented by Kerry Rea MP (elected 2007) in the seat of Bonner.

Mount Gravatt

Mount Gravatt is the name of both a major suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia and a prominent hill in this suburb. The suburb is situated in the south-east of the city and was one of Brisbane's largest. This was before it was divided into Mount Gravatt East, Upper Mount Gravatt and Mount Gravatt South; the last being changed to Wishart in the early 1990s. Mt Gravatt hill was named in 1840 after Lieutenant George Gravatt who was the commander of the Moreton Bay Settlement for two months in 1839.

Gravatt was later transferred to India where he died in 1843.[2] Between 1953 and 1969 electric trams ran from the suburb into Brisbane's Central Business District (CBD) along Logan Road. As Mount Gravatt was the end of the line, part of the area was known locally as "The Terminus". Since then public transport has been provided by buses operated by Brisbane Transport and a local bus company the Mt Gravatt Bus Service.

The South East Busway is connected by a service from Mount Gravatt Central to the Busway terminal at Griffith University. The people of greater Mount Gravatt are represented by the State parliamentary seats of Mansfield and Mount Gravatt and the federal seats of Bonner, Griffith and Moreton. The Mt Gravatt Showgrounds are an important centre for cultural and community activities and the site of the annual Mt Gravatt Show, an agricultural fair.

The grounds are positioned on Logan Road, opposite the mega-church, Garden City Christian Church. Mt Gravatt Lookout is accessible via Shire Road which winds its way past water towers up to the lookout carpark and a communications tower. Furthermore, there is a large cave complex located on a walking trail on the southern slope of the mountain.

Milton

Milton is an inner suburb of Brisbane, Australia, located approximately two kilometres west of Brisbane's central business district. The suburb is a mixture of light industry, warehouses, commercial offices, retail and single and multiple occupancy residences. The main roads are Milton Road, which runs beside the main western rail line and Coronation Drive (formerly River Road), which runs along the Brisbane River.Notable landmarks in Milton include the Castlemaine Perkins brewery, known for the "Fourex" (XXXX) range of beers, the Suncorp Stadium (formerly Lang Park), and the Park Road strip of restaurants and cafés. The suburb also once was the site of Brisbane's major tennis courts where major international and national tournaments were held until the courts closed in the 1990s.[citation needed] The Milton Bowl, a small ten-pin bowling alley located at the Rosalie end of the suburb closed on 17 March 2008, after 45 years

Salisbury

It is 11 km south of the Brisbane central business district. Salisbury was named after the residence of William Coote, an early Brisbane journalist and political figure, who lived in the area. The name was selected by the railway department when the Sunnybank/South Coast Railway Line opened in 1885. The area remained predominantly rural until after the Second World War. Because of its comparative remoteness, a series of munition factories were built in the area, along what is now Evans Road. The tram line from the city to Moorooka was extended in 1941 to Evans Road to service these factories. The tram line finally closed on 13 April 1969.Salisbury railway station provides access to regular Citytrain services to Brisbane and Beenleigh.

Toowong

Toowong is an inner suburb of Brisbane, Australia which is located 5 km west from of the Brisbane CBD. At the centre of Toowong is a commercial precinct including Toowong Village and several office buildings. The remainder of the suburb is predominantly residential with a mix of medium density dwellings and detached houses.Toowong is situated between Mount Coot-tha and the Brisbane River and is made up of rolling hills with little true flat land. Since European Settlement most of the land has been cleared for residential and commercial use with the exception of some park land and bushland near the Western Freeway.

Oxley

Oxley is a south-western suburb of Brisbane named after the early Australian explorer John Oxley. The suburb supports a mix of residential and industrial land use as well as a small number of shops in two commercial districts. The suburb is bounded to the north by the Brisbane River and Oxley Creek flows along the eastern edge. The Ipswich Motorway traverses Oxley and the train from Brisbane to Ipswich has an station at Oxley, and is connected to a variety of suburbs via bus services. Oxley Road connects the Ipswich Motorway to the suburb of Indooroopilly.Oxley has a golf course (which has now been purchased by Brisbane Boys College as their playing fields) and golf driving range, a lawn bowls club, the state's police academy, a mosque and numerous churches. There are also parks, larger blocks of residential plots and a few landscaping material suppliers in the western parts of Oxley. The old Austral Bricks quarry site in Douglas Street, as well as two other plots of vacant land in the area have been converted to residental estates, providing significant housing to a region and growing city, where strong demand is not being met by supply.

Nathan

Nathan is a southern suburb of Brisbane. It was named in 1967 after Sir Matthew Nathan, Governor of Queensland from 1920 to 1926. Nathan is home to Toohey Forest Park, Griffith University's Nathan campus and the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre which hosted the opening ceremony of the 1982 Commonwealth Games. The Queensland Academy of Sport currently uses the facilities located at the stadium. The Mount Gravatt Cemetery is part of Nathan. It is a culturally diverse suburb, with nearly 30% more overseas-born residents (27.57%) than the Brisbane average (21.03%).[5] Although populated by local Aborigines until the 1940s[6], less than 1% of residents are indigenous Australians today.[5] With just 1,549 residents[7], Nathan remains sparsely populated, with much of the park and university campus being filled with eucalypt forest, grass trees, banksia and leptospermum. Local fauna include tawny frogmouths, powerful owl, hoary bats, sugar gliders, greater gliders, squirrel gliders, flying foxes and possums.[8] Surrounding suburbs include Macgregor, Robertson, Salisbury, Coopers Plains, Tarragindi, Holland Park and Upper Mount Gravatt.

Coopers Plains

Coopers Plains is an outer suburb of Brisbane, Australia. It is 13 km south-west of the CBD. Coopers Plains is named after Dr Henry Cowper.Coopers Plains railway station provides access to regular Citytrain services to Brisbane, Beenleigh and Gold Coast. There are many buses passing Coopers Plains, which are 120 (City - Garden City), 135 (City - Parkinson), 123 (Sunnybank), 598 and 599 (Great Circle Line), and 125. Coopers Plains is very cose to Griffith University, Nathan Campus. To transport to this university will only take 15-20 minutes walking.There are restaurants around Coopers Plains like the ones in Robertson (side by side with Coopers Plains) namedv7-8 (Chinese Restaurant), and other Japanese resstaurants. There is also a mini market in this place called the Convenience Store. There is also a gas station, mini market 7-11, and dvd rental in Coopers Plains.

Townsville

Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Australia, in the state of Queensland. Adjacent to the central section of the Great Barrier Reef, it is in the dry tropics region of Queensland. Townsville is Australia's largest urban centre north of the Sunshine Coast with the 2006 census recording the Townsville Statistical District (the urban centre) population to be 143,328 people. Townsville is seen as the unofficial capital of North Queensland as it hosts a significant number of governmental, community and major business administrative offices for the northern half of the state.

Popular attractions include 'The Strand', a long tropical beach and garden strip; Riverway, a riverfront parkland attraction located on the banks of Ross River; Reef HQ, a large tropical aquarium holding many of the Great Barrier Reef's native flora and fauna; the Museum of Tropical Queensland, built around a display of relics from the sunken British warship HMS Pandora; and Magnetic Island, a large neighbouring island, the vast majority of which is national park.Townsville lies approximately 1,300 km north of Brisbane, and 350 km south of Cairns. It lies on the shores of Cleveland Bay, protected to some degree from the predominately south-east weather. Cleveland Bay is mostly shallow inshore, with several large beaches and continually shifting sand bars. Magnetic Island lies 8 km offshore, to the north of the city centre. The Ross River flows through the city.

Three weirs, fish stocking and dredging of the river in these reaches has resulted in a deep, stable and clean waterway used for many recreational activities. Thirty kilometres from the mouth (at the junction of Five Head Creek) is the Ross River Dam, the major water storage for the urban areas. The historic waterfront on Ross Creek, site of the original wharves and port facilities, has some excellent old buildings mixed with the later modern skyline. However, the central city is dominated by the mass of red granite called Castle Hill, 292 metres high (just 8 metres short of being a mountain). There is a lookout at the summit giving panoramic views of the city and its suburbs, including Cleveland Bay and Magnetic Island. There are a number of parks scattered throughout the city, including three botanical gardens - Anderson Park, Queens Gardens and The Palmetum.

Fortitude Valley

Fortitude Valley (also known simply as "The Valley") is a suburb of central Brisbane. The suburb lies immediately northeast of the Brisbane central business district, and is one of the hubs of Brisbane's nightlife, renowned for its nightclubs, bars and adult entertainment. Together with the neighbouring suburb of New Farm, Fortitude Valley is known as a suburb popular with gay residents, and has a significant number of gay-orientated and gay-friendly venues and businesses.

This page has been sited from wikipedia.org