The Brisbane River walk and a bunch of bridges

Perhaps the greatest change for Brisbane since I lived there back in the early 80's has been the increased access to the river banks. Walkways extend for miles on both banks and they are getting lots of use. Here I walk from the point on the river where the word 'Brisbane' is on the map and head south.

Fortunately it was a lovely sunny day. This is not a walk to do when it is cold, wet and windy.

The river is fairly wide at this point and tidal. In the distance is the Story Bridge.

One of the small older ferries that do the short cross river trips.

This is the heart of Brisbane's financial district with the new, the old and the under construction.

One of two paddle wheel vessels that presumably can be used for parties and such events.

The city welcomes boat visitors and provides mooring points.

After a few hundred yards, you reach the City Botanic Gardens that come right to the river edge. It was now lunch time and there were quite a few people running and walking along the path.

A couple of the visiting boats. The rock face in the background is used to teach people how to abseil and rock climb. Back in the late 80's, for some reason we decided to watch the revival series of Mission Impossible. To our great surprise, in the opening episode, we saw this rock face in the background. Yes, the whole series was shot in Australia and mostly in Brisbane. It was fun to work out the actual locations that had been used to simulate London, Paris, New York etc. 

Some of the more picturesque boats in the river.

The river is tidal and in a subtropical area, so there are mangroves.

A walkway takes you out into the mangroves so that you can get a closer look at them.

And now for a spot of colour. I have no idea what it is.

The Goodwill Bridge, for pedestrians and bicyclists only.

Looking upstream with a high speed catamaran approaching. On the right hand side is the freeway that joins the east and west sides of Brisbane and feeds traffic into and out of the city. The sun in Australia can be very bright, even in winter. Sun glasses are needed when you drive.

One of Australia's old naval vessels, the Diamantina, in an old dry dock. The ship was built in Maryborough.

In 1988, Brisbane hosted an Expo on the South Bank of the river. A large area of mostly derelict buildings was cleared except for significant old hotels and the Expo exhibit buildings were constructed. The Expo was very successful and absolutely transformed Brisbane not only physically, but mentally. Brisbane had always been a large country town and overnight became a city.

Most of the Expo buildings were demolished at the end of the Expo and the3 area was transformed into a huge park with a bunch of public buildings including a Performing Arts Center, Museums, a new State Library, restaurants, walks etc.

Here we are at one end of the park with one of the old hotels that survived the bulldozer.

One of the walkways through the park. These are bougainvilleas.

In places the walk has a roof like structure where you can shelter when it rains. At times, rain in Brisbane can be a real downpour, much heavier than anything I have experienced in the US.

I loved the name of the company.

There is even a beach as well as numerous fountains.

Wharves for the City Cat catamarans which travel up and down the river at approximately 40 mph.

Of course there has to be a Ferris wheel. You'll never get me up there.

All that remains of the old Victoria Bridge.

In 1969, this new Victoria Bridge was opened.

Where the express way enters the bowels of the city.

Images of the new library and museum buildings.

The Kurilpa Bridge for pedestrians and cyclists. It's a wonderful bridge for photographers, so here are a few of mine.

It's just so much fun getting interesting angles with this bridge. In the background is the next bridge. Incidentally, this was the first time I had walked over this bridge.

There used to be just three bridges in the city area and this was the third, the Grey Street or William Jolly Bridge. I've always liked the look of this bridge though I didn't travel over it too often.

An interesting mural between the arches.

The Merivale Bridge only carries trains from the south side to the north side of the river. In addition to the narrow 3'6" gauge trains used in Queensland, the bridge also carries trains from New South Wales that use the standard gauge 4'8" (and 1/2) used in most of the world. Until the bridge was built in 1978, the train from NSW used to stop at the South Brisbane Station.

A suburban Queensland train going over the bridge.

The pedestrian entrance to Brisbane's newest bridge, the Go Between, that was opened only a couple of days before we arrived.

Increasingly, new construction is being funded by tolls, though of course, this was quite common in the past. Toll booths have disappeared however and you need to have an electronic tag or log on to a website to pay the toll. It's a real pain for visitors. A toll is charged to use this bridge and so far, motorists aren't using it much even though you are supposed to save 15 minutes in rush hour.

No cars, no pedestrians and it is about 2pm.

And finally, a plaque honouring John Oxley who first explored the Brisbane River. Supposedly he first landed close to the Kurilpa bridge, but there are some who reckon he landed elsewhere. He was one of the great explorers in Australian history.

Swann Road, Taringa, Brisbane

We used to live on Swann Road, Taringa towards the left hand end of the photo at the corner of Clarence Road. Our friends in Brisbane live close by on the other side of the railway line and we usually take a walk over there to check out our old house.

Swann Road is a road that was built on the top of a ridge coming down from the nearby mountain, Mount Cootha. It is somewhat busy in that there is on a bus route, but not that busy that there is constant traffic. Here we are at the start of Swann Road on the corner of Moggill Road which is a major road and very busy.

First we come to the bridge over the railway line. In the foreground is the local station, Taringa and for several years I caught the train into the city. The gauge of the track is 3'6" which is narrow but the suburban trains are electrified, air conditioned, quiet, comfortable and usually clean. The history of why railways were created in Australia using different gauges in the different states is interesting and a monument to parochial thinking.

Off in the distance about four miles away is the Brisbane city skyline and this view has become a problem. 

The northern side of the road has become very desirable for property developers with multi story units replacing the old houses. This site would have been very desirable because of the view and the location close to transport and shopping.

The now empty block, ready for development.

These tower blocks of units were built on top of the hill right across the road from our house.

I would walk up this hill on my way home from the train station. On a very hot afternoon after a boozy lunch, it could be a bit of a struggle.

A side street going down from ridge. Some of the streets leading away from Swann Road are very steep. Notice how the streets are lined with very shady trees, often jacaranda or poinciana along with the usual eucalyptus trees.

Both sides of the street are lined with footpaths. At this point, the footpath is totally covered. Shade is very desirable in the hot Brisbane climate and the older suburbs have many trees to help cool things down. Brisbane lies at 27 degrees south, about the same distance from the equator as Palm Beach, Florida.

Since we were here at the start of June, it was winter in Brisbane and consequently there were not so many flowers in bloom. The temperature would have been in the low 70s that day. No jacket required.

Eucalyptus tree trunk.

Ferns abound along the footpath. Because of the recent long drought, very severe water restrictions were introduced to Brisbane and watering of gardens and lawns was prohibited. Many plants suffered from the lack of water and most gardeners replaced these plants with native plants that could survive long periods without water. The drought became so bad that the combined capacity in August 2007 of the three major dams that provide Brisbane with water was down to 16%. Fortunately, there were two periods of heavy rain in the catchment area which filled the dams.

A bus stop and shelter. Protection from the sun is one reason for the shelter. Probably the more important reason is protection from the rain when it pours. Rain can be incredibly heavy at times.

Pedestrians have right of way at officially marked crossings. You might note the direction of the cars parked on the other side of the road. Yes, we do drive on the other side of the road. The correct side.

An official Post Box. I was quite puzzled by the blue colour when I first arrived in the USA and wondered why they had got it wrong. Click here or an interesting history of post boxes and their various colours.

Seeing we are on the subject of letters, here is a postman delivering the mail. They use little motor bikes and zip along the footpaths. This bloke has his high visibility uniform on and the yellow is a flap that protects his neck from the sun. Back when I was at University in the late sixties, I got a temporary job just before Xmas delivering mail. We used push bikes back then and even though I used plenty of sun burn cream,  I got well and truly burned. Queensland is the sunburn capital of the world. If you are contemplating visiting Oz, read this.

Now we get to the interesting bit where we look at some houses. This one is in the typical Queenslander 'colonial' style with wide verandas and a galvanized iron roof. Because the front of the house faces north, they have enclosed the veranda with blinds and lattice work to help protect the house from the heat of the sun. The architecture of these older Queensland houses is quite distinctive and these houses are very desirable.

Not all the properties along the street are as well kept as they could be.

The lattice also helps security.

Here is a typical layout. The veranda is quite wide, the house is on stilts with the underside concreted with room for the car.The stilts were supposed to make the house cooler as well as cope with the slope of the land. I grew up in a house very much like this one.

Not all houses are well cared for. This one needs a coat of paint, particularly the roof. It has also had the sides enclosed to create more living room, probably extra bedrooms.

Most houses in Brisbane have fences and they come in all different styles.

An older style. The wood can be extremely hard and a hole needs to be drilled to accommodate the nail before hitting it with a hammer. Seriously.

The sign on the gate about the dog makes interesting reading. Click on the photo to see a larger version.

Not to be outdone, the neighbour installed this sign.

Of course, this being Australia, there are plenty of spiders. This one was not too big with a total length of only three inches. I have no idea whether it's poisonous or not but I wouldn't worry about it.

Window shades protecting against the late afternoon sun from the west.

And so we are back looking at the front fence of our former house. Numerous trees helped shade the house.

To our great surprise and pleasure, the house had been painted. When we lived there back in the early 80's, the house was already over 100 years old so we were concerned that the house would be pulled down and replaced by a block of units. Fortunately, the City Council has made it much more difficult to get a permit to remove these old houses because of their age and architectural significance. It looks like the current owners have decided to preserve the house.

This would have been one of the oldest houses in the street and is not as grand as some of the others. The roof style is a little different with the veranda covered by curved galvanized iron.

It even had a name but I have no idea what it means.

The back of our house. The back veranda was where we lived most of the year. We bought a round table from the local Goodwill and hosted many dinners for friends and family. Because it was high up on top of the hill, we had marvellous views where we could see probably 50 miles. At night, the temperature goes down and it becomes very pleasant sitting outside for most of the year. Only during July and August would we eat indoors. For some reason or other, the current owners have planted a tree that would block a lot of the view.

Finally, a bit of fun. Yes, it is a dog washer.

So I hope you enjoyed this more detailed look at an interesting street in Brisbane. we certainly enjoyed living there and we always enjoy going back there to visit.