Brisbane, Australia

Arriving in Brisbane, the enthusiastic gastronome faces a Herculean challenge when narrowing down dining options. The city's rich vein of cultural diversity creates a more assimilated food style and a genuine sense of the geography and culture. The term "Asian" has never been so all encompassing with many restaurants sampling a variety of styles with wondrous results. The city's location upon the rich waters of Moreton Bay creates a haven for seafood connoisseurs, and the fertile soils contribute to the supply of succulent meats and vegetables. The Queensland harvest is truly mouth-watering.

Central Business District

You can find just about anything you'd like downtown. Tudor England can be explored at the Shingle Inn. Many of the local pubs supply excellent food to accompany your choice of drink, including Friday's and Gilhooley's. The same locations offer regular, late night entertainment, including live bands and drink discounts. For the traveler on a tight budget, the Down Under Bar and Grill offers food and drink at prices that help guard your finances without spoiling your evening. Pane e Vino and Picasso's are two places where you can indulge in pizza and pasta. Gianni's Restaurant serves authentic Australian fare, like Oven Roasted Guinea Fowl.

South Bank Parklands

The impressive South Bank is a place to escape the hustle and bustle of the city, but offers no less in the way of food and drink. Many of Brisbane's finest restaurants, including the Parklands Bar and Grill, can be found here with a range of styles from traditional Australian to Indian. To enjoy a pint of beer and watch the world go by, the Plough Inn is an ideal spot. Tasty, traditional fare can be found at the River Canteen and Stone Restaurant & Bar. Dine with a view at Cafe San Marco or grab some fish and chips at Capt'n Snapper.

Fortitude Valley & Chinatown

Fortitude Valley is Brisbane's one-stop entertainment district with a bewildering array of dining sideshows and bar offerings. Perhaps the most famous meeting place is the sprawling Dooley's Hotel, which seems to adopt a different personality on each visit. Live music, good food and some genuine Irish craig make this a hard place to leave. Also try out sensational cuisine at the Tibetan Kitchen and Taj Mahal. Go Greek at Purple Olive or grab some tapas at Gertie's Bar & Lounge.

A city would not be complete without its own Chinatown, and Brisbane can proudly boast one of the most traditional such areas in Australia. Situated at the heart of the Valley, this is not a purpose-built or newly developed center for the benefit of travelers, but more a complete Asian community, going about its daily business. Garuva Hidden Tranquility Restaurant & Bar, Asian House and Chinahouse Seafood Restaurant are some of the best culinary options in this community.

Milton, Paddington & Rosalie

To the west of downtown, and under the shadow of Milton's imposing Ale House Brewery, Park Road's fashionable café precinct is the place to be seen. The cuisine is largely Italian, despite the miniature Eiffel Tower. Sample an award winning pizza at Arrivederci Pizza Al Metro, dine by candle light at Alberto's Italian Restaurant or alfresco with the local Ferrari owners at Rue De Paris. Bamboo Shoot is a popular spot for Chinese cuisine, while Oz Sushi features all you can eat buffets every night of the week.

Brisbane is very much a river city, where life developed, and still pivots, on the Brisbane River. Its weather is "beautiful one day, perfect the next." However, life was not so heavenly for the first settlers.

The cat-o-nine-tails ruled and mosquitoes plagued the very first settlers in the Brisbane area. In 1824, the Moreton Bay penal settlement was established on the coast at Redcliffe but, after three months, a new site 12 miles up the Brisbane River (now called North Quay) was chosen. The reliable water supply made this a perfect place to establish a penal colony, not to mention the security provided by its upstream position on a natural bend in the river.

In 1828, with only ten cottages in the settlement, hundreds of convicts started to build the first stone buildings: the Colonial Stores Building and Old Windmill (now known as the Wickham Terrace Observatory Tower).

This convict time ended in 1839 and, in 1841, Brisbane began again in three separate settlements: North Brisbane, Kangaroo Point and South Brisbane. A long battle for funds from the then Governor in Sydney, Sir George Gipps, commenced. In 1846, there were less than a thousand people living in these three areas.

Eventually, a separate colony, Queensland, sprung up in 1859; its name being in honor of the Queen of England at the time, Queen Victoria. The Moreton Bay settlement became the capital, as it was now a thriving port and commercial center of 6,000 people. There were still financial problems. When the first Governor of the new colony, Sir George Ferguson Bowen, commenced office, he found seven and a halfpence in the Treasury! Brisbane began to flourish and, by 1888, the main thoroughfare, Queen Street, sported some large well-designed buildings, many of which are still here today (or the facades at least). George Street boasts the Parliament House and the Queensland Club, still used by country politicians and public servants as a city base. The City Botanic Gardens is the site of the original gardens that provided food for the convict settlement. Today, many rare native and exotic plants thrive here in the sub-tropical climate beside the river.

In the 1890s, a series of disastrous floods and more financial worries beset the city, but it fought back and again prospered.

During World War II, General Douglas MacArthur directed the Pacific campaign from the AMP building (now MacArthur Chambers) on Queen Street. Hundreds of thousands of American servicemen and women poured through Brisbane, enhancing development in many ways. They introduced the swing and the jitterbug, and gave the city a much needed financial boost.

Migrants, refugees and displaced persons added greatly to the population in the 1950s, with many British immigrants receiving assisted passage. Despite less than 25 percent of those from other parts of Europe being financially assisted, migrants from all over Europe very quickly became central to the cultural, academic and business life of Brisbane.

Consumer culture started in May 1957 with the opening of Australia's first drive-in shopping center at Chermside. In August 1959, commercial television started transmission. However, the story of television in Australia really began in Brisbane 25 years earlier with the first experimental television broadcast from the Old Windmill in Wickham Terrace. Brisbane's wide river was utilized well for the subsequent increase in trade, with produce coming down the river from Ipswich, as well as from the nearby islands of Moreton Bay. The fruit and vegetable markets were near the river between Mary and Charlotte Streets, close to the wharves. With a successful shipbuilding industry also in place by this time, Brisbane was thriving.

In 1967, the city saw an important cultural progression, when Australian Aborigines achieved the same democratic rights as all other Australians. Brisbane was also maturing.

However, more troubles were to come. Cyclone Wanda wreaked havoc in 1974, when 14,000 houses were flooded and 14 people died. Increased dams prevented major floods, and there was a steady growth in population in the now-safer southeast corner of Queensland. Hosting the Commonwealth Games in 1982 heralded Brisbane's true coming of age. Expo 88 followed on the same site six years later and, a few years after that, the site became South Bank Parklands a wonderful area for visitors right across the river from Brisbane's central business district.

Today, you can walk along from South Bank to see the Queensland Performing Arts Complex, opened in 1985, with its three theaters, a concert hall and a conservatory next door. Although these buildings are all of modern architecture, Brisbane still has many distinctive 19th century buildings, sited to take in prime river views and parkland. Historical Walking Tours and River Cruises allow the visitor to see all this in beautiful weather (usually!) throughout the year.

Icons of today's Brisbane are the older-style houses on stilts, designed for cool breezes to flow underneath in warmer weather. These are called Queenslanders, and the even more grand ones are called Grand Colonials.