Exploring Brissie

Saturday morning in Brisbane, fine weather, low 20s again. I could scarcely believe it was winter.

We headed out to explore South Bank and the Cultural Centre. The Cultural Centre does what it says on the tin – it’s got the State Library, Art Gallery, Gallery of Modern Art, Museum, Performing Arts Centre… and an observation wheel and maritime museum thrown in for good measure.

And, at the moment, it also has a weird Bluey Lego Ice-cream mash-up – three things for kids in one go. They seemed to be just setting up for the day. A street market was also opening, and there was a model Eiffel Tower, for reasons I have not yet determined. They also have a working observation wheel.

These fine institutions (I’m thinking more of the Library, Galleries, Museum etc, than the Bluey Lego Ice-cream thing) are excellent – I’ve explored them before and no doubt will again.

But as my sister went off to have a coffee with a friend, I was more intrigued by the Cultural Centre bus station, which I’ll post about soon.

Exploring

Anyway I walked across Victoria Bridge into the CBD, and explored, taking in the main pedestrianised mall in Queen Street.

I walked alongside the separated bike lanes in Edward Street – which seem to have some of the most poorly timed traffic lights I’ve ever seen – I saw cyclists heading north west catching a red light at every intersection.

Eventually I made my way to Central station.

I tried to see if I could find the spot my uncle Ken had his picture taken near here, circa 1950s. I found a reference point with the old building, but the streetscape seems to have changed a lot, so I had to make do.

(Note the typo on the top right screen above. “four Your bus connection”)

A contact had recommended catching a train to Exhibition station, as it’s just been rebuilt for the Cross River Rail project (Brisbane’s Metro Tunnel equivalent). But – even with an event on, those trains only run every half-hour, which seems very substandard.

Not that Melbourne’s Showgrounds trains are necessarily any better – but with all of Brisbane’s connecting lines also running every half-hour on weekends, on some lines I assume it’s a real pain to get to the Exhibition station. Hopefully they do better when the Ekka, their big Royal Show equivalent, is on.

I didn’t feel like I had half an hour to burn, so instead I took a quick joyride a couple of stops north – along the section with multiple lines and thus high frequencies, so minimal waiting. I hopped off at Bowen Hills (of course!)

Then back south to Roma Street, which always intrigues me as it still looks like a old school tropical city station. It’s also being redeveloped for Cross River Rail though, which may change the look.

After finding a bite to eat, I caught a bus back south from the Roma Street bus station, via the CBD bus tunnel.

I met up with my sister again, and we set off on our afternoon journey: out east to our cousin’s place at Tingalpa. There’s a direct bus (one of many from the Cultural Centre station) but it only runs once an hour on weekends.

But this almost worked… you can easily track your progress through the unfamiliar streets on Google Maps. But I had fed in the wrong street number for our destination, so we hopped off the bus a stop early, resulting in a longer walk than necessary.

Not to worry – we made it, and had some time with our cousin’s family. They took us to nearby Lota beach to a cafe, then we had a walk along the foreshore. It was very civilised for a winter’s day.

They were heading into the CBD by car and gave us a lift back to our apartment, then we walked back to West End for a kebab for dinner.

All in all, a great day’s exploring, and I was loving the winter warmth.