Above the city

Mt Cootha was home to Brisbane’s four original television towers hidden amongst the eucalyptus forest. But we had come for the view. It had been decades since I’d driven up to Mt Cootha to see Brisbane and the surrounding region spread out like a map.

By river bends

I was headed towards the Brisbane River, but on the way spotted The Brolgas by Lindsay Daen, stationed in the middle of the Brisbane Botanic Gardens. It stood before a bamboo grove. The inspiration for the work came from a shipwrecked sailor who once lived with Aborigines for seventeen years.

Where did it go?

Brisbane’s newer botanic gardens near Mt Cootha were no match for the city gardens with one boundary against the Brisbane River. I wandered under an old banyan fig tree planted in the 1870s, savouring the shade. It may have been a native of India, but its expansive foliage was perfect under Brisbane’s heat.

The old face of Brisbane

On a walk down George Street towards the Brisbane River, I kept my eye out for the city’s older buildings. There was the men’s club opposite the Botanic Gardens and Parliament House diagonally across from this graceful building.

A room with a view

Sometimes while I studied pieces of art in the Goma art gallery, I forgot where I was. But how could I be so engrossed that I overlooked peeking out the window at the amazing view of the Brisbane River and the city skyline?

Where once Expo had Brisbane enthralled

I lost count of how many times I visited Expo in the eighties. The excitement of displays from around the world was too much to resist. But all that remains along the stretch of the Brisbane River where the site was held, is a pagoda.

By the Brisbane River

Trams used to cross the Brisbane River to enter the city. But once the old Victoria Bridge was torn down and replaced with a new one, tram lines were excluded, causing the clanking contraptions to fade from Brisbane’s landscape leaving Melbourne the only tram city in Australia.