Brisbane was our last stop before coming back to the US. It is the second largest city in Australia, I believe. The city is built around a curving river that zig zags through the city. They have made good use of that geographical feature, though, better than I've seen anywhere.
They have a river ferry that you can use for free. It acts like a bus along the river. There are other boat/ferries that cost and don't make as many stops, but if you don't mind a few extra stops, you can use the one for free and have a lovely trip down the river. We saw lots of tourists using it as well as locals. Since it was a weekday when we used it, we saw mothers with small children and strollers as well as shoppers and tourists. It was really fun and we actually used it twice. The first day we rode it the whole route, you just don't get off, and got a good look at the downtown city area. It was cloudy that day. The second day we used it to get across downtown and it was a beautiful, sunny day. We were able to get on the top that day and found people just riding it to enjoy the sun and scenery.
Along one section of the river is a long park called Parklands. It goes for quite a distance and is done in sections. There is a pool area right next to a beach area that was full of people. There is a Japanese garden type section, lots of walking paths, eateries, a civic center, and a beautiful modernistic arbor that was partially in bloom that you walked under to go along the park. It is popular with the locals and for good reason. It was really quite something, well done, and very unique.
We also went to a viewing point called Mt. Coot-tha Summit Lookout. That really showed you how big and sprawled out Brisbane is.
The city was originally a convict town that grew around the river. One original bridge was replaced with many all up and down the river.
We also went through QueenStreet Mall which is about 4 blocks of shops with inner pedestrian streets. It was interesting and crowded. All in all, an active, diverse city.
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