Visit Brisvegas

Sightseeing

The city of Brisbane is hilly. The urban area, including the central business district, are partially elevated by spurs of the Herbert Taylor Range, such as the summit of Mount Coot-tha, reaching up to 300 metres (980 ft) and the smaller Enoggera Hill. Other prominent rises in Brisbane are Mount Gravatt and nearby Toohey Mountain. Mount Petrie at 170 metres (560 ft) and the lower rises of Highgate Hill, Mount Ommaney, Stephens Mountain and Whites Hill are dotted across the city. ¹²

Arts and Culture

Queensland Performing Arts Centre ¹⁴

Brisbane has a growing live music scene, both popular and classical. The Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), which is located at South Bank, consists of the Lyric Theatre, a Concert Hall, Cremorne Theatre and the Playhouse Theatre. The Queensland Ballet, Opera Queensland, Queensland Theatre Company and other performance art groups stage performances in the different venues. It is also the major performing venue for The Queensland Orchestra, Brisbane's only professional symphony orchestra and Queensland's largest performing arts company. The Queensland Conservatorium, in which professional companies and Conservatorium students also stage performances, is located within the South Bank Parklands.

The Queensland Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), opened in December 2006, is one of the latest additions to the South Bank precinct and houses some of the most well-known pieces of modern art from within and outside Australia. GOMA is the largest modern art gallery in Australia. GOMA holds the Asia Pacific Triennial (APT) which focuses on contemporary art from the Asia and Pacific in a variety of media from painting to video work. In Addition, its size enables the gallery to exhibit particularly large shows — the Andy Warhol exhibition being the largest survey of his work in Australia. GOMA also boasts Australia's largest purpose-built Cinémathèque. The Gallery of Modern Art is located next to the State Library of Queensland and the Queensland Art Gallery.

Along with Beijing, Berlin, Birmingham and Marseille, Brisbane was nominated as one of the Top 5 International Music Hotspots by Billboard in 2007. There are also popular entertainment pubs and clubs within both the City and Fortitude Valley. ¹³

Sport

Brisbane has hosted several major sporting events including the 1982 Commonwealth Games and the 2001 Goodwill Games. The city also hosted events during the 1987 Rugby World Cup, 1992 Cricket World Cup, 2000 Sydney Olympics, the 2003 Rugby World Cup and hosted the Final of the 2008 Rugby League World Cup. In 2005, then Premier Peter Beattie announced plans for Brisbane to bid to host the 2024 Olympic Games, which in August 2008 received in principle Australian Olympic Committee support, including that of the Queensland Premier Anna Bligh and Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman.

The city's major sporting venues include Brisbane Cricket Ground, Sleeman Centre at Chandler, Suncorp Stadium, Ballymore Stadium and the stadium facilities of the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre in Nathan. With the closure of the Milton Tennis grounds in 1994, Brisbane lacked a major tennis facility. In 2005, the State Government approved the State Tennis Centre a new A$65 million tennis stadium. The construction was completed in 2008. The Brisbane International is held here from January 2009.

Sport	Team Name	League	Stadium
Rugby League	Queensland	State of Origin	Suncorp Stadium
	Brisbane Broncos	National Rugby League
Rugby Union	Queensland Reds	Super 14
Association football	Brisbane Roar	A-League
Cricket	Queensland Bulls	Sheffield Shield Ford Ranger One Day Cup KFC Twenty20 Big Bash	The Gabba
Australian rules football	Brisbane Lions	Australian Football League
Netball	Queensland Firebirds	ANZ Championship	Chandler Arena

Brisbane has teams in all major interstate competitions, excluding the National Basketball League.

Brisbane is preparing to bid for the 2020 Olympic Games. ¹⁵

The Queen Street Mall has a vast array of cafés, restaurants, cinemas, gift shops and shopping centres.¹⁶

Photo

Southbank beach. Hard to believe this all used to be warehouses and docklands before being reborn first as the site of Expo88 and now Southbank.¹¹

Retail

Brisbane has a range of retail precincts, both in the Central Business District and in surrounding suburbs. The Queen Street Mall has a vast array of cafes, restaurants, cinemas, gift shops and shopping centres including: Wintergarden, Broadway on the Mall, QueensPlaza, Brisbane Arcade, Queen Adelaide Building, Tattersalls Arcade and The Myer Centre.

The majority of retail business is done within the suburbs of Brisbane in shopping centres which include major department store chains. There are 3 major Westfield shopping centres in Brisbane located in the suburbs of Chermside (Westfield Chermside), Mount Gravatt (Westfield Garden City) and Carindale (Westfield Carindale). Other large shopping centres exist at Indooroopilly (Indooroopilly Shopping Centre), Toombul (Centro Toombul) and Mitchelton (Brookside Shopping Centre). Other major shopping centres through-out the metropolitan area include North Lakes (Westfield North Lakes), Strathpine (Westfield Strathpine) and Loganholme (Logan Hyperdome). ¹⁷

Annual Events

Major cultural events in Brisbane include the Ekka (the Royal Queensland Show), held each August, and the Riverfestival, held each September at South Bank Parklands and surrounding areas. Warana, (meaning Blue Skies), was a former spring festival which began in 1961 and was held in September each year. Run as a celebration of Brisbane, Warana was similar to Melbourne's Moomba festival. In 1996 the annual festival was changed to a biennial Brisbane Festival.

The Brisbane International Film Festival (BIFF) is held in July/August in a variety of venues around Brisbane including the Regent Cinema in Queen Street Mall. BIFF features new films and retrospectives by domestic and international filmmakers along with seminars and awards.

The Paniyiri festival at Musgrave Park (corner of Russell and Edmondstone Streets, South Brisbane) is an annual Greek cultural festival held on the first weekend in May. The Brisbane Medieval Fayre and Tournament is held each June in Musgrave Park.

The Valley Fiesta is an annual three-day event organised by the Valley Chamber of Commerce. It was launched by Brisbane Marketing in 2002 to promote Fortitude Valley as a hub for arts and youth culture. It features free live music, market stalls, food and drink from many local restaurants and cafés, and other entertainment. ¹⁸