A ferry ride into the past

I crossed the sparkling waters of Moreton Bay from Redland Bay Pier to Russell Island. The journey was once a long haul in a slow wooden boat. Now the crossing took no time.

A galah spotting hike

The Whites Hill to Carindale Bikeway started opposite Brisbane’s Carindale Shopping Centre, but I avoided that starting point because of the noise of the traffic along Creek Road.

Brisbane’s Regent

When I entered the Regent Theatre as a child to see a Disney movie and later an Elvis movie as a teenager, I was enthralled as I still am, by the ostentatious design of the building’s interior.

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.

From government workers to casino

The treasury building marked the entrance into Brisbane’s city centre. It once housed state government workers. While I past the building on many a day, I never knew that offices skirted the outside of the structure, while the inner courtyard opened to the sky.