Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, a seaport and chief seat of trade in the colony, is situated about 500 miles N. of Sydney, in Moreton district. It stands about 25 miles from the mouth of a river of its own name, which falls into Moreton Bay, and it is divided into the four divisions of North Brisbane, South Brisbane, Kangaroo Point, and Fortitude Valley. Pop. (1876) 26,911; (1881) 31,109; (1891) 48,738, or within a five-mile radius, 93,657. The Victoria lattice-girder bridge (1080 feet long), connecting North and South Brisbane, was destroyed by the disastrous flood of February 1893, which laid half of South Brisbane in ruins. Brisbane possesses broad and handsome streets, and some fine buildings, among the chief of which are the Houses of Legislature, which cost £100,000, the post-office, telegraph-office, the viceregal lodge, and the Queensland National Bank. The other buildings of importance are the new offices for the colonial secretary's department, town-hall, masonic hall, custom-house, Queensland club, school of arts, museum, central market, and schools, banks, rail-road depot, and insurance offices. It is the seat of an Anglican and of a Roman Catholic bishop.
There are some forty churches, the chief being the two cathedrals; and several daily and weekly newspapers are published. There are four parks and well laid-out botanic gardens. Brisbane is very well lighted, and part of the water-supply is drawn from the Enoggera watershed, about 7 miles distant. The export trade, which is large, includes gold, wool, cotton, sugar, tallow, and hides; and the imports, most of the articles in use among a thriving community. Regular steam communication is kept up with the other Australian ports, as well as with London (11,295 miles), and there is an extensive system of wharfs on both sides of the river. The channel of the river has been deepened, and admits of large vessels coming up to Brisbane. South Brisbane, on the south side of the Brisbane River, is a favourite place of residence, has good wharfs, and a spacious dry-dock, opened in 1881. Brisbane is the terminus of several local railways, and since 1888 it has had through railway connection with Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide—the last link to be made being the bridge over the Hawkesbury River. A transcontinental line from Brisbane to the Gulf of Carpentaria has also been surveyed. A movement has been set afoot for the establishment of a university here.
Brisbane was settled as a penal station in 1825 by Sir T. Brisbane (q.v.), governor of New South Wales, when a batch of desperate and incorrigible characters were landed at Eagle Farm, near the present town of Brisbane. At first they were employed in clearing the land, making roads, and building; and as might be expected, the early history of the colony was not entirely satisfactory. In 1836 the town comprised the houses of the commandant and other officers, barracks, a tread-mill, stores, &c. Three years later the convict settlement was broken up. The era of progress began in 1842, when the colony was opened to free settlers. At first an appanage of New South Wales, the Moreton Bay district was erected into an independent colony in 1859, when the city was incorporated, and the prosperity of the town and district became more steady and rapid. The climate on the whole is dry and healthy, with a high summer temperature, the mean temperature in the shade being 70° F. Race meetings are held at the Eagle Farm course in the neighbourhood.—The Brisbane River rises in the Burnett Range, and receives the Bremer and other rivers before its entrance into Moreton Bay, below the town of Brisbane.