History of Brisbane

Long before European settlers arrived, the Jagera and Turrbal Aboriginal clans had lived around the Brisbane River, but it’s hard to say for exactly how long. According to most scholars, Aboriginal occupation of Australia dates back around 40,000 years.  The river’s abundant supply of food included fish, shellfish, crabs and shrimps. The good fishing places became campsites and the focus of group activities.

Convicts and jail

Brisbane River was ‘discovered’ by surveyor General John Oxley in 1823, following a tip-off from some ex-convicts who had wandered into the region and had been mixing with the local Aborigines. He named it after Thomas Brisbane, the Governor of New South Wales at the time.

No Europeans settled the region until 1824, when the first convict jail was built at Redclliffe, but that too was swiftly moved to the site of present-day Brisbane CBD in 1825, after officials realised the natural bend in the river presented a rather good obstacle against escape.

Populating the city

The Brisbane region didn’t see any free settlement until 1842, as the government initially wanted to keep the jail cut off from the wider community. An assortment of entrepreneurs and ex-convicts quickly followed and a town began to grow around the river. By the late 1880s, Brisbane had become the main hub of commerce and the capital of the colony of Queensland, and a distinctive architecture and culture began to develop in the city.

The city saw steady growth until WWII, when it became the main allied headquarters in the South Pacific, with the arrival of scores of Australian and American servicemen boosting the population to 75,000. Industry boomed and continued to thrive after the war, and Brisbane firmly laid claim to its position as the country’s third largest city.

Modern times

In 1974, floods devastated Brisbane. Sixteen people lost their lives and an estimated AU$300 million damage was caused. But the city soon recovered to host two major world events. The 1982 Commonwealth Games resulted in the city undergoing a huge infrastructure and sporting facilities development, while the World Expo was hosted in 1988 at Southbank (across the river from the CBD), an event which also helped to put Brisbane on the map.

Culturally, Brisbane has always struggled behind Sydney and Melbourne, but the city is now home to a thriving arts scene, and some of the best live music and bands in the country have started their careers here.