Brisbane City is the central suburb and central business district of Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, Australia.[3] It is colloquially referred to as the "Brisbane CBD" or "the city". It is located on a point on the northern bank of the Brisbane River, historically known as Meanjin, Mianjin or Meeanjin in the local Aboriginal Australian dialect.[4] The triangular shaped area is bounded by the median of the Brisbane River to the east, south and west.[5] The point, known at its tip as Gardens Point, slopes upward to the north-west where the city is bounded by parkland and the inner city suburb of Spring Hill to the north. The CBD is bounded to the north-east by the suburb of Fortitude Valley. To the west the CBD is bounded by Petrie Terrace, which in 2010 was reinstated as a suburb (after being made a locality of Brisbane City in the 1970s).
In the 2016 census the suburb of Brisbane City had a population of 9,460 people.[1]
Geography
The Brisbane central business district is an area of densely concentrated skyscrapers and other buildings, interspersed by several parks such as Roma Street Parklands, City Botanic Gardens and Wickham Park. It occupies an area of 1.367 km2. The city is laid out according to a grid pattern surveyed during the city's early colonial days, a feature typical of most Australian street patterns.
The Brisbane central business district was built on a spur of the Taylor Range with the highest spot in the suburb being Wickham Terrace.[6]North Quay is an area in the CBD that was a landing point during the first European exploration of the Brisbane River.
Petrie Bight is a reach of the Brisbane River (27°27′49″S153°02′06″E / 27.4636°S 153.0351°E / -27.4636; 153.0351 (Petrie Bight)),[7] which gives its name to the small pocket of land centred on the area under the Story Bridge's northern point, around the Brisbane River to Admiralty Towers II. The location was originally known as Petrie Gardens and was an early settlement farm, one of two that provided food for the colony.[8] The site was named after Andrew Petrie and has been the base for water police and in earlier times wharves.[9] The location of Customs House and the preference for wharves was due to the site being directly downstream from the central business district.[9]
Wharf Street Baptist Church opened at 38 Wharf Street (corner of Adelaide Street, 27°27′55″S153°01′47″E / 27.4652°S 153.0296°E / -27.4652; 153.0296 (Baptist Church (1859))) on 6 February 1859. It was the first Baptist church to be built in Queensland, the Brisbane congregation having previously met in a range of public buildings since forming in 1855. It was designed in the Early Italianate style and was built by Andrew Petrie. The church was 57 by 34 feet (17 by 10 m) and could accommodate 250 people. The cost was £2000 for the land and building, but part of the cost was covered by donations, e.g. Thomas Blacket Stephens partially donated the land. In 1881, the church was enlarged, but the need for further growth resulted in a decision to build a new church, the City Tabernacle in Wickham Terrace. The Wharf Street church was sold, holding its last service on 5 October 1890 with the tabernacle being dedicated on 9 October 1890.[10][11][12][13] The building is no longer extant. On Tuesday 25 May 2021, a Baptist Historic plaque was placed at the site to commemorate the church.[14][15]
On 2 April 1860, the Queensland Government opened its first school, the Brisbane National School in Adelaide Street under headmaster John Rendall with an initial enrolment of 50 boys and 8 girls.[16]
Brisbane CBD and the Brisbane River, as seen from Kangaroo Point, 1989
Up until 1964, a Brisbane City Council regulation limited building heights to 132 ft (40 m).[23] Some of the first skyscrapers built in the CBD include the SGIO building (now Suncorp Plaza) in 1970 and AMP Place in 1977. Other notable openings included Comalco Place (1984), Riverside Place (1986), the two towers of Central Plaza (1988 and 1989), and Waterfront Place (1990).[24]
The Brisbane CBD is one of the major business hubs in Australia.[25] The City contains many tall office buildings occupied by organisations, businesses and all three levels of government that have emerged into a number of precincts. The areas around the Queen Street Mall and Adelaide Street is primarily a retail precinct. A legal precinct exists around the various court buildings located around the intersections of George Street and Adelaide and Ann Streets.
The government precinct was an area centred on the Executive Building that includes many Queensland Government offices. 111 George Street, Mineral House, and Education House are also located here. 1 William Street was completed in 2016, now serving the role of the former Executive Building. The Executive Building and Neville Bonner building were demolished for the state's largest infrastructure project. An urban renewal project based around the Queen's Wharf megaproject is under construction along the southern end of William Street, which includes a pedestrian bridge crossing the Riverside Expressway.[26]
Schools
The city is serviced by a number of schools in the surrounding suburbs including the Petrie Terrace State School in Paddington and The Albert Park Flexi School in Petrie Terrace.
Rental prices
High rise view of the CBD at night.
Like most other Australian capital cities, Brisbane has experienced dramatic rises in rental prices for residential and office space before the global financial crisis. At the beginning of 2008, the Brisbane central business district contained 1.7 million square metres of office space.[27]
High demand in the office market had pushed vacancy rates in the Brisbane CBD to 0.7% by January 2008, the lowest in Australia.[27] Premium grade office space was even less vacant with an occupancy rate of 99.9%. By the end of 2009 the situation had reversed. In mid 2013 the market for office space had declined to its worst position in two decades with a vacancy rate of just under 13%.[28]
In the 2021 Census, 47.0% of Brisbane City residents were born in Australia.[40]
In the 2016 Census, the most common countries of birth other than Australia were China 16.0%, South Korea 8.3%, England 3.7%, Taiwan 3.2% and Brazil 2.8%. 43.7% of people only spoke English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Mandarin 12.3%, Korean 7.7%, Cantonese 3.6%, Spanish 2.9% and Portuguese 2.7%. The most common responses for religion were No Religion 43.0% and Catholic 16.8%.[1]
By road, four road bridges connect the CBD with the southern bank of the Brisbane River: the Captain Cook Bridge, the Victoria Bridge, the William Jolly Bridge and the Go Between Bridge. The Story Bridge connects Fortitude Valley with Kangaroo Point and provides access to the city from the southern bank. The Captain Cook Bridge connects the Pacific Motorway, south of the river, with the Riverside Expressway which runs along the south western edge of the city. Heading under and bypassing the CBD is the Clem Jones Tunnel. Because on-street car parking is in high demand, parking meters are installed across the inner city.[41]
By bicycle and foot, the Goodwill Bridge allows cross river access to South Bank. The Kurilpa Bridge allows cross river access from North Quay to South Brisbane. Cyclists and pedestrians may also cross while using the Victoria, William Jolly, Go Between and Story road bridges. The Kangaroo Point Green Bridge is being built between the CBD and Kangaroo Point.
The Brisbane central business district is the central hub for all public transport services in Brisbane. Bus services are centred on the Queen Street bus station and King George Square busway station. Suburban train services pass through Central railway station, and Roma Street railway station. Roma Street also serves as the terminus for long distance and country services. The central business district is served by various city ferries. Brisbane's CityCat high speed ferry service, popular with tourists and commuters, operates services along the Brisbane River between the University of Queensland and Northshore Hamilton, stopping at several CBD wharves.
The Brisbane Riverwalk, a pedestrian and cyclist pathway adjoins the central business district along the river bank.[42]
King George Square Busway Station, an underground bus station
In popular culture
The Brisbane CBD has featured in a number of films, including:
The Marine, a film featuring John Cena, featured the Golden Triangle district of the CBD, during a scene in which an explosion occurred.
Fool's Gold, a 2008 film featured the CBD primarily the Botanic Gardens throughout the beginning of the film.
One of Jackie Chan's films, Jackie Chan's First Strike, featured the city in many scenes to the end of the film from Fortitude Valley, east of the CBD.
The Brisbane CBD was used in Powderfinger's 2009 music video "All of the Dreamers".
The 2009 vampire film Daybreakers was filmed in Brisbane.
^"1859 Wharf Street". Baptist Church Archives Queensland. Archived from the original on 26 November 2021. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
^"The Roster at Ipswich". The Moreton Bay Courier. Vol. XIII, no. 728. Queensland, Australia. 12 February 1859. p. 3. Archived from the original on 2 December 2021. Retrieved 29 November 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
^Haigh, George; Churches of Christ in Queensland (1983), Churches of Christ in Queensland : 100 years venturing in faith, Historical Committee, Conference of Churches of Christ in Queensland, p. 111, ISBN978-0-909116-38-5
^Marissa Calligeros (15 August 2013). "Brisbane office space overload". Brisbane Times. Fairfax Media. Archived from the original on 16 August 2013. Retrieved 15 August 2013.
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