By far the largest city in Queensland, BRISBANE is not quite what you’d expect from a state capital with almost one-and-a-half million residents. Although there is urban sprawl, and high-rise buildings, slow-moving traffic, crowded streets and the other trappings of a business and trade centre, there’s little of the pushiness that usually accompanies them. To urbanites used to a more aggressive approach, the atmosphere is slow, even backward (a reputation the city would be pleased to lose), but to others the languid pace is a welcome change and reflects relaxed rather than regressive attitudes.
In the early 1990s, economic malaise in Australia’s southern states resulted in a steady northward migration of people seeking work – or at least finding Queensland a better place to be unemployed – and Brisbane was the obvious first stop. It’s still a fairly easy place to find casual, short-term employment, and there’s a healthy, unpredictable social scene, tempting many travellers to spend longer here than they had planned. Meeting people is easy, too, and whether you enjoy yarning over a beer in a downtown hotel or tracking down an ever-changing nightlife, you’ve missed out if you don’t make a few local contacts.
Outer Brisbane and Moreton Bay
In the opposite direction, coastal suburbs provide access to the shallow waters of Moreton Bay, famous throughout Australia as the home of the unfortunately named Moreton Bay Bug, which is actually a small, delicious lobster-like crustacean. While Brisbane is hardly noted for its beach life, with muddy shorelines attracting mangroves rather than sun worshippers, the largest of the bay’s islands, Moreton and North Stradbroke, are generously endowed with sand, and are just the right distance from the city to make their beaches accessible but seldom crowded. The island of St Helena is not somewhere you’d visit for sun and surf, but its prison ruins recall the convict era and can be an interesting day-trip. In the bay itself, look for dolphins, dugong (sea cows) and humpbacked whales, which pass by in winter en route to their calving grounds up north.
Climate
| Month | MAX | MIN | RAINFALL |
| January | 30C | 22C | 175mm |
| February | 30C | 22C | 175mm |
| March | 28C | 20C | 150mm |
| April | 26C | 18C | 100mm |
| May | 26C | 16C | 75mm |
| June | 22C | 12C | 75mm |
| July | 22C | 12C | 75mm |
| August | 24C | 12C | 50mm |
| September | 26C | 14C | 25mm |
| October | 28C | 18C | 100mm |
| November | 30C | 20C | 100m |
| December | 30C | 22C | 150mm |
