Brisbane City real estate

A point on the river

The city occupies a triangular peninsula on the northern bank of the Brisbane River, bounded by the river's median to the east, south and west. Its tip is known as Gardens Point. From there the land slopes upward to the north-west, where parkland and the suburb of Spring Hill mark the northern edge. To the north-east the city meets Fortitude Valley, and to the west it meets Milton, Petrie Terrace and Kelvin Grove.

The point carries an older name. In the local Yuggera dialect it is known as Meanjin, also given as Mianjin or Meeanjin. North Quay, an area within the city, was a landing place when Europeans first explored the Brisbane River.

The suburb covers 1.367 square kilometres and is closely built up with skyscrapers and other buildings. Parks break up the blocks, among them Roma Street Parklands, the City Botanic Gardens and Wickham Park. The grid the city was laid out on was surveyed during its early colonial days, a pattern that is typical of most Australian street patterns.

Streets named for a royal house

Most of the central streets carry the names of members of the House of Hanover. Queen Street takes its name from Queen Victoria and is the traditional main street, holding the Queen Street Mall, the largest pedestrian mall in the city. Streets named for women of that family, among them Adelaide, Alice and Elizabeth, lie parallel to Queen Street, while streets named for men, among them Albert, Edward and William, cross them at right angles.

Among the city's squares are King George Square, ANZAC Square, which holds the central war memorial, and Post Office Square. The city lies across a spur of the Taylor Range, and Wickham Terrace marks the suburb's highest point.

A church, a school and a congregation

The Wharf Street Baptist Church, at number 38 and on the corner of Adelaide Street, opened on 6 February 1859. This was Queensland's first Baptist church, and the Brisbane congregation had met in public buildings since it formed in 1855. The building, in the Early Italianate style, was the work of Andrew Petrie. It measured 57 by 34 feet and could hold 250 people. Land and building together cost £2000, part of it covered by donations, and Thomas Blacket Stephens gave part of the land.

The church was enlarged in 1881, and when more room was needed the congregation decided to build a new church on Wickham Terrace, the City Tabernacle. The building on Wharf Street was sold, its last service was held on 5 October 1890, and the tabernacle was dedicated on 9 October 1890. The Wharf Street church building no longer stands. On 25 May 2021 a plaque commemorating the church was placed at the site.

Queensland's government opened its first school on 2 April 1860. The Brisbane National School stood in Adelaide Street, its headmaster was John Rendall, and 50 boys and 8 girls enrolled at the start. A Church of Christ congregation formed in Brisbane's central area on 23 September 1883. Late in the 1890s it bought 430 Ann Street for its first church. That church was still in use in 2021 as Your Church.

Wharves, floods and later years

Petrie Bight is a stretch of the Brisbane River, and it gives its name to a small pocket of land beneath the Story Bridge's northern point, near Admiralty Towers II. The spot was once called Petrie Gardens, and it was one of two early settlement farms that supplied food to the colony. It takes its name from Andrew Petrie, and it has been a base for water police and, in earlier times, for wharves. Because the site lies directly downstream of the central business district, Customs House was placed there and wharves were favoured.

The Brisbane City Library opened in 1965, and in 2006 it moved into Brisbane Square. The city centre was damaged by the floods of 2010 and 2011. Brisbane has many heritage-listed sites, including Howard Smith Wharves on Boundary Street, the Coronation Drive retaining wall, and Roma Street railway station on Countess Street.

Other heritage-listed places include the Mooney Memorial Fountain and the Eagle Street Fig Trees on Eagle Street, the Riverside Centre, Wenley House on Market Street, the First Brisbane Burial Ground and the William Jolly Bridge on Skew Street, the Brisbane Dental Hospital and College and the King Edward Park Air Raid Shelter on Turbot Street, and Hellesvere on Upper Roma Street.