Outback Queensland Trip 2024, Day 19-20: familiarising ourselves with Meanjin/Maganjin/Brisbane 

In Turrbal Country

Our Outback Spirit Tour might be over but our trip is continuing for a few more days, to enable us to explore Brisbane and enjoy some warmth before returning south.

We had some ideas about how to spend our time, but for fun I thought I’d ask Chat GPT again for a 3-day itinerary for Brisbane. Here are its suggestions for Day 1:

Day 1: Explore Brisbane City

Morning:

• South Bank Parklands: Start your day at South Bank, a vibrant riverside precinct. Walk along the lush promenades, explore Streets Beach (a man-made beach), and enjoy the public art scattered around.

• Brisbane River Cruise: Hop on a CityCat ferry or take a guided river cruise to see the city from the water. You’ll pass landmarks like the Story Bridge and Kangaroo Point Cliffs.

Lunch:

• Have lunch at one of the many cafés along Grey Street or Little Stanley Street in South Bank, or grab something fresh at the nearby River Quay Green.

Afternoon:

• Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA): Check out the impressive collection of contemporary art at QAGOMA, located right in the South Bank precinct.

• Brisbane Botanic Gardens at Mt Coot-tha: Take a quick trip to the beautiful gardens. You can enjoy peaceful walks and explore various themed gardens.

Evening:

• Dinner at Eagle Street Pier: Head back to the CBD and have dinner at one of the riverside restaurants here, with beautiful views of the Brisbane River and Story Bridge lit up at night.

• Kangaroo Point Cliffs Night Walk: If you’re up for it, take a short walk along the Kangaroo Point Cliffs for panoramic views of the city skyline.

This roughly approximated our thoughts for the first day or two. Its later-day suggestions were less interesting to us – like Lone Pine Sanctuary (which we’ve been to before and which is probably more appropriate for overseas visitors) and Moreton Island, to enjoy snorkelling and beach activities. Most of you will know what I think of that – and Len concurs.

So, here is what we did…

Day 19 (first full day in Maganjin)

We had been recommended the City Botanic Gardens and as these are a block from our accommodation, that’s where we headed first. These are Brisbane’s original botanic gardens, and encompass special attractions, including Bamboo Grove, Weeping Fig Avenue, ornamental ponds, and a Rainforest Walk. Because this is Brisbane Festival time, which includes its major “Lightscape” event centred in the gardens, several areas were off limits. However, we still enjoyed our stroll – seeing some interesting trees (such as what an employee called the Indian funeral tree, or Monoon longifolium), the Weeping Fig Avenue, some sculptures, and walking along the river for a while.

We then walked across the new Neville Bonner pedestrian bridge to South Bank, and walked through there to a restaurant called Sage Yellowfin, where we sat outside, shared a tasty grilled prawn entree, followed by a nicely cooked Chicken Supreme main course (for me) and a Lamb Ribs entree (for Len). Just as our mains arrived, we saw the lovely Derbyshire couple from our tour, standing across the road, and managed to lure them over for a drink and a snack. They are friendly, natural people, and it was special having this little time with them. This is their seventh trip to Australia – but they haven’t been to Canberra. We are trying to encourage them to give us a thought.

After lunch, we decided to focus our sights on the cultural precinct of South Bank and headed to the Queensland Art Gallery (QAG). As time and energy were limited, we chose two of their current exhibitions:

• Birds of Passage, two separate exhibitions, featuring Ian Fairweather (with whom I’m a little familiar) and Paul Jacoulet (who’s completely new to both of us), but linked by the idea that both were “birds of passage”. The works were chosen to illustrate “the influence of travel and cross-cultural experience on their respective works”. Each exhibition space included a context-setting biographical video (still images with subtitled text) and the selected art works. We learnt about how Fairweather, who had left art school saying he was “not going to paint as through the lens of a camera”, moved increasingly into abstraction.
• Suburban Sublime, one large exhibition space, focusing on “how artists have used photography to interpret the Australian suburbs”. I love photographic exhibitions. This one included new and known artists to me. The known included one work by Carol Jerrems, some Bill Henson photos, and a provocative set by Tracy Moffatt. I was intrigued by a set of photos called “Spaces between houses” (1977) by Virginia Coventry, in which she photographed the spaces between houses, and photo sets by Robert Rooney showing Holdens parked outside suburban houses (‘Holden Park 1, March 1970 & Holden Park 2, May 1970’). I would have liked more time with these, but we were flagging a bit.

For dinner we walked a block to a gastro pub called Port Office Hotel. What a treat that was, partly because of our delightful server. Having had a decent lunch, we thought we’d like two or three entrees/sides and then dessert. She thought that was the perfect way to dine, and smiled every time she came to our table. It was lovely to be treated with such friendliness and respect for what we wanted to do. We shared kingfish ceviche, scallops on the shell, and some chips with aioli, followed by a g-f tart for me, and a pear and apple tart tatin for Len.

Day 20 (second full day in Maganjin)

Today we walked into the CBD and did postal and shopping errands, while also getting a sense of Brisbane’s CBD. Like other city CBDs, there are more pedestrian plazas, public art pieces, and a mix of modern and old buildings. We ran into another of our tour co-passengers just as we were walking past the Brisbane Arcade. She told us it was heritage-listed (opened in 1924), so in we went and had our morning cuppa! It is gorgeous, and reminded me of Sydney’s Strand Arcade, which I love to visit.

After a little rest at our apartment, we headed out to ride the CityCat up and down the river (for the exorbitant sum of 50 cents!) We left it, in view of the Story Bridge. It was 3pm by now, and we hadn’t had lunch, so we treated ourselves to a couple of entrees at an Italian restaurant and bar while overlooking the Story Bridge. Just loving the mild, balmy weather. While sitting there, we were joined by a retired-age Swiss Couple. Turned out they had arrived this morning and plan to drive to Sydney over 10 days, then fly to Melbourne. We had an enjoyable little chat, with Len getting to practise some German.

We returned to our apartment for a light meal, and at 7.45pm walked out again to check out the 8.15pm time slot for the Brisbane Festival’s drone show: Skylore — The Rainbow Serpent. It is a “First Nations creation story for Brisbane River as told by Traditional Owner and Tribal Experiences Managing Director Shannon Ruska”. It was beautiful, though we didn’t have the best position and we couldn’t really hear the commentary. But I did get to explain to three young women international students standing next to me what “Always Was / Always Will Be” meant. They were sweet young women.

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