Facts for Kids

Brisbane is the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland and one of the country's biggest cities. About 2.8 million people live in the wider city area, and more than 4 million live in the larger region around it. Because the Brisbane River flows through the center, people often call the city the "River City."

Brisbane sits near the middle of Australia's long eastern coast in a region called South East Queensland. Its location, warm climate, and the river have shaped how the city grew, how people travel, and where homes and parks are placed.

City of Brisbane grew and changed a lot during the 20th and 21st centuries. In 1925 the city joined many areas together to make a single, larger local government. Big buildings and bridges were built, like Brisbane City Hall in 1930 and the Story Bridge in 1940, which helped people and goods move around the river city.

During later decades Brisbane became a place for festivals and new ideas. Expo 88 brought people to the river and led to the South Bank Parklands. The city also faced strong storms and big floods in years like 2011 and 2022. Recently Brisbane was chosen to host the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, a huge event that will bring visitors from around the world.

The city is named after the Brisbane River, which was itself named for Sir Thomas Brisbane. He was a governor of the colony of New South Wales in the 1820s. People later gave the city shorter nicknames like Brissie, Brizzie, and Brisvegas.

Before European names arrived, the place had Indigenous names. The central city area is known by many spellings of Meanjin, which comes from local Indigenous languages. There are also older suggestions about the name coming from words in Scottish or Old English, but the river and Sir Thomas Brisbane are the direct sources for the city's modern name.

Brisbane has a subtropical climate. That means summers are warm to hot and humid, and winters are usually mild and pleasant. Most of the rain falls in the summer months, which is called the wet season, while winters are drier and cooler.

Sometimes strong storms or tropical cyclones happen in the warmer months. These can bring heavy rain that causes flooding. Because of this, the city plans for floods and weather events so people, homes and wildlife are safer when big storms arrive.

City Botanic Gardens sits beside the river at Gardens Point and is one of the oldest green places in Brisbane. It has shady trees, paths and places for school visits. Nearby, the South Bank Parklands were rebuilt after Expo 88 and now have lawns, playgrounds and a man-made lagoon for families.

Other great parks include Roma Street Parkland, Victoria Park, Brisbane Botanic Gardens at Mount Coot-tha and New Farm Park. These spots are used for picnics, walking and watching birds. Outside the city there are national parks with bushland and trails where people can discover native plants and animals.

After World War II many people moved to Brisbane and new suburbs spread out from the centre. This growth changed where plants and animals lived, but people also worked to protect nature by creating parks and gardens along the river. Heavy floods in the past showed how important managing water and habitats is for both animals and people.

To help the river and wildlife, Queensland built projects like the Wivenhoe Dam for water storage and flood control. As the city renewed inner areas and built new cultural places, green spaces were kept and new ones made so birds, insects and small animals could still find homes close to the city.

Brisbane is full of green spaces called parklands where families can play, picnic, and explore. The City Botanic Gardens and the Brisbane Botanic Gardens at Mount Coot-tha show many kinds of plants and have quiet paths. Roma Street Parkland, Victoria Park, South Bank Parklands and New Farm Park have playgrounds, open lawns and festivals, so there is often something fun happening for kids and adults.

Just outside the city, the Boondall Wetlands protect about 1,100 hectares of low, wet land with mangroves and many shorebirds. A wetland is a place that stays damp and is home to special plants and birds. Along the east, Moreton Bay Marine Park protects the bay and its islands, where people can watch birds, dolphins and boats, walk on tracks, or enjoy the beaches and island trips in a careful, nature-friendly way.

For at least 22,000 years, the area around the river was home to Aboriginal people such as the Yagara (Yuggera), Turrbal and Quandamooka groups. The river—known in some local languages as Maiwar—was central to life. Families fished, collected food, and held important ceremonies along its banks.

There were several big camps where people met and lived, with places now called Barambin (York's Hollow), Kurilpa, and Musgrave Park among them. Many words and spellings, like Meanjin or Meeanjin, show how Indigenous people named and remembered this land and its water.

European explorers first mapped parts of the area at the end of the 1700s. Matthew Flinders charted Moreton Bay in 1799, and in 1823 explorer John Oxley found the river and suggested a settlement there. The first small outpost began at Redcliffe in 1824 and moved to the river's north bank at North Quay the next year. This settlement was set up as a penal station, and life there was very hard for many prisoners under leaders like Captain Patrick Logan.

After the penal era, free settlers arrived. German Lutherans set up Zion Hill in 1838, and a ship named Fortitude gave its name to Fortitude Valley. Brisbane became the capital of Queensland in 1859, built government buildings, and linked to other places by rail. The late 1800s brought many different communities—German, Scottish, Irish, Chinese, Jewish, and others—and also tough events such as big fires, a major flood in 1893, and other accidents that helped shape how the city changed.