Brisbane

Known as Meean-jin to the local Turrbal people, Brisbane is about halfway along the Eastern Coast of Australia and is the capital city of its state, Queensland. It is the third most populous city in Australia and one of the fastest growing areas.

There are roughly 2000 Couchsurfing members here and this is also growing quickly. We've set this page up to provide a bit of general info about Brisbane things and to provide a 'local knowledge' resource of things that Brissy CSers like to do, see and recommend.

A few things to tell you about are -
 * Markets
 * Our favourite day trips and adventures in and around Brisbane
 * Good places to eat
 * Good places to drink, dance, listen to music etc
 * Moving to Brisbane type information
 * Brisbane Cinema

Also while in Australia here's some info on CS safety

WARNING - DROPBEARS

Below is a bit of general info about Brisbane, and the Brissy CS community.

Enjoy and WELCOME!!

Couchsurfing community
The Brisbane CS community is very active and any CS visitors should join the Brisbane group if they are planning to stay in the area for any length of time. People who live here and want to get involved should also consider joining The Great South East Collective.

We will continue to develop this wiki page and also have a google account with photos, maps and a calendar. If you get some good pics of Brissy while you're here feel free to send us a link. We appreciate it. We've made a page to tell our stories too. They're just a selection of some of our favourite things to do and bits of advice from us, the CS locals of Brisbane, Australia. Hope they help.

For any questions you might have, or any contribution you would like to offer, feel free to contact the moderators of the Brisbane group.

Here's some other links as well - Welcome to Brisbane!!

General information-
 * Our Brisbane
 * Queensland Public Transport information, journey planner, timetables etc.
 * Wikivoyage
 * Wikipedia

Moreton Bay Islands information-
 * - Moreton Bay Islands

Ride-sharing in Australia-
 * - Need a Ride

Weekly live entertainment magazines-
 * - Rave
 * - Time Off
 * - Scene

Location


The city is built along the winding Brisbane River which empties into Moreton Bay. The islands of the bay (Bribie Island, Moreton Island and North and South Stradbroke Islands) shelter this bay and beyond these islands begin the surf beaches; the Sunshine Coast (Caloundra to Noosa) to the North of Bribie Island and the Gold Coast (The Spit to Coolangatta) to the South beyond Straddie.

Further North is Fraser Island and the rest of Queensland including the towns of Gympie, Maryborough, Bundaberg, Rockhampton, Townsville, Mackay, Cairns and Mt. Isa as well as countless islands, The Great Barrier Reef, The Gulf of Carpentaria and Cape York Peninsula.

Further South is the border into New South Wales and the Tweed River and beyond that the Northern Rivers region including Byron Bay, Mt. Warning, Nimbin and Lismore.

There are lots of different areas to inner and outer city Brisbane, here are a few Interesting suburbs that we live in/like to hang out in, or just think are interesting.

Climate
Brisbane’s Spring begins in September but really takes off in late October when the Jacarandas, followed closely by the Frangipanis, flower. Summer is December/January/February which means Christmas and New Year's is usually hot, humid and sometimes stormy! Spring and Summer are also the wet season though Brisbane is currently in drought and heavy water restrictions should be respected by all. The months of March, April and May are Autumn and though most trees in Brisbane are evergreen many do lose their leaves. Brisbane's Winter is kind of hard to notice with clear skies and mild temperatures but we get dry, cold Westerly winds towards the end of the season.



CS History so far
''This rather selective history is just meant as a way to record our major events, big stories and organisation as a CS community in Brisbane and the greater South East Queensland area - it's not an elaborate diary of events. For that, check out the Brisbane group calendar or some of the archived issues of the monthly Aussie CS Newsletter (started by Leimondo in Feb 2008) here.''

2007

 * Estonian traveller Lylian emails most Brisbane profiles to organise a BBQ at the South Bank Parklands on May 20th.
 * First 'official' meeting on the 17th November at Beni MC's. About 20 members attended.
 * December - Beni MC becomes Brisbane's first City Ambassador for CS.
 * Brisbane - Toowoomba bilateral gathering on the 12 December at Adrian's flat in the Valley

2008

 * Meeting hosted by Gayle on January 20th. About 10 members.
 * A camping trip to Dan's property just West of Brisbane in Marburg on the 23/24th of February. HUGE, brilliant.
 * March - Darren becomes a City Ambassador for Surfer's Paradise on the Gold Coast and Geoff becomes a City Ambassador for Toowoomba.
 * May - Ninja and Skye become Nomadic Ambassadors.
 * Meeting at Beni MC's on 17th May. About 15 of us.
 * Meeting at Kangaroo Point cliffs on June 21st before Fete de la Musique. About 10 of us.
 * June - Sally becomes a City Ambassador for Maleny on the Sunshine Coast.
 * Meeting at Nicole's on July 27th. About 15 members and guests in attendance.
 * On September 21st Brissy CS had its first attempt at representing CS within the local community by entering a team in the Brisbane City Romp.
 * In December, our Aussie CS mascot, Macalla Koala, came to town for a visit. Check out her pics here.

2009

 * January - Brissy CS Zone established at the Plough Inn at South Bank every 2nd Thurs from January 22nd.
 * On March 1st members of the Brissy CS community get together with the 4ZzZfm mob to help clean the creek around the Northey Street community farm for Clean Up Australia Day.
 * April - Beni MC steps down as City Ambassador.

Queensland Wiki index
Pages of Brisbane and the greater South East region
 * Brissy Couchsurfer's stories
 * Brisbane Suburbs Blurb
 * Sunshine Coast
 * Toowoomba

Pages of regional Queensland
 * Townsville
 * Cairns

isin: Queensland trash:Brisbane hitch:Brisbane