Viking World Cruise 2017-2018: February 13, 2018

We are located in a commercial port here, as we are in many of our stops. Brisbane is about a 30-45-minute ride from the port. They are offering a shuttle bus. We took the included tour, which showed the city and went up to a hill to overlook the city. Our guide, Jenny, and ex-school teacher, was excellent.

The capital of Queensland (a state in Australia), Brisbane is situated on its namesake river and spreads over picturesque hills rising from Moreton Bay. The name Brisbane means River City. One of the oldest cities in Australia, its first European settlers were the worst offenders from the Sydney penal colony. John Oxley was sent by Governor Brisbane of Sydney to find a place where they could put these prisoners as settlers were coming to Sydney and they needed a place for them to be. He came north and found Brisbane in 1824. It was perfect for a penal colony as it had water and land. The convicts stayed for fifteen years. In 1859, Queensland became a state. By the 1890s they had a population of 100,000. It was a time of prosperity as they had ship building and they exported cotton and beef. Just north of Brisbane, gold had been found.

One of the things that she explained to us were Queenslander homes, which were characterized by their terraces and raised living spaces. They also have tin roofs and the houses are made of wood. On top of the stilts, they have tin cups to keep the termites from coming up into the homes. Today, many of these homes have closed in the bottom of their homes. Here are two that are this type of home.

Our first stop was to Mt. Coot-tah. It is not really a mountain, but a hill. It stood 230 meters. We went up to get an overview of the city from above, but it was very hazy as you will see.

We passed by the Lyndon B. Johnson place. There is a stone column in front with an eagle on the top. He was the first American President to visit Brisbane. The home was built in the 1860s and from there you could see up and down the river. Which, is why the Americans seized during WWII.

Speaking of the war. By the time of WWII there were 300,000 people living in Brisbane. It served as one of Douglas MacArthur’s Pacific headquarters during World War II. We arrived there in 1942. They say that over 1 million American service man visited Brisbane during the war. They stayed in Brisbane because it was so close to the Coral Sea. It was a good time for the girls in Brisbane as all the men had gone away to war, and they were home be themselves. The saying was that the American soldiers were overpaid, oversexed and over here. Here are a couple of pictures of MacArthur’s headquarters building. His office was on the 8^th floor. The building was picked because it was made of steel and concerted. They also reinforced the 8^th floor.

As in some of these other cities, there was a lot of street art here also. The spheres in one of the photos are called steamers. During the war when they cooked vegetables they steamed them in a pot that looked like a sphere. The reproduced these in this park.

We then got out of our bus and did a short walking tour of the city. The first place we stopped was Anzak Square. Anzac stands for the Australian / New Zealand Army Corps, as the two countries fought together in wars. This is their war memorial and every April 25^th is Anzak Day. In the park below they have Bottle trees to commemorate the African War and palm trees to commemorate WWI. They also have statues commemorating the other wars.

Our next stop is to the City Hall. On the way there were some very outstanding buildings.

Brisbane City Hall is the civic seat of the city and is home to the Lord Mayor and Deputy Mayor. The construction of the building in the 1920s was a major Australian undertaking, ranking second only to the construction of the Sydney Harbor Bride. The site of City Hall was once a swampy waterhole know as “horse pond” during the 1900s.

Upon opening on April 8, 1930, it was the tallest building in Brisbane and remained that way for 37 years. From an architectural perspective, City Hall is a fine example of neo-classical architecture and is one of the finest civic building in Australia. The interior of the building features extensive use of grained Queensland timers and marble draw from Belgium, Italy and within Australia. The size of the building itself occupies nearly two acres.

On the way to our last stop we went through a shopping arcade. It is enclosed and it very ornately decorated. It includes many high-end stores.

We also stopped at an old movie theater.

Lastly, we visited St. Stephens Cathedral. It was built between 1864 and 1922, with extensions made in 1989. St Stephen's is a gothic revival cathedral with a cruciform shape in plan. While this is a plain cathedral by comparison it still has a selection of striking features such as the spire topped sandstone towers, imported stained glass windows from Munich, the organ, the altar and the newer Blessed Sacrament Chapel at the rear of the building. The first pictures are of the chapel and the last ones are of the cathedral.