At first it was a mystery to me how I missed this. Here we are almost halfway through 2015 and I never knew. It was only when I was reading a magazine just yesterday that I discovered the news.
In the 2014 edition of their Australian guidebook, Lonely Planet named Brisbane as Australia’s ‘coolest city”.
Looking into it further, it would appear that this announcement hit the media very early in January 2014; at the time I was having A Christmas Summer Holiday in Yamba and had clearly not been keeping up to date with the news. Better late than never, as they say.
Brisbane; Australia’s coolest city
This truly is a big achievement for Brisbane and I’m going to repeat an old joke I’ve mentioned elsewhere on this website to explain why.
The first time I ever visited Brisbane would have been in 2001, at that time there were no direct flights into the city from London, so we would have to fly to Sydney first and then onward to Brisbane. As we taxied for landing, the pilot announcement was…
“This is your captain speaking, we will be touching down in Brisbane City in about 20 minutes from now, please be sure to put your watches back by one hour and 15 years to adjust for local time.”
Ha ha ha, very funny.
At that time though, Brisbane was thought of as nothing more than a big country town, way behind the cosmopolitan cities of Sydney and Melbourne.
Look at us now, almost 15 years later.
Lonely Planet, the Bible of travel, describing Brisbane as Australia’s coolest city. Take that Sydney and Melbourne.
Of course, I have known it for a while, I’ve written several articles…
- Brisbane’s Music Scene; Getting Better Every Year
- Eat Street Markets: Brisbane’s Hip New Food and Fun Court
- Entertainment in Brisbane: South Bank Parklands
- Live Music in the West End
…describing how Brisbane has changed so much since my first ever visit and even substantially during the seven years or so I’ve lived here. I’ve now visited every other state capital bar Canberra and I wouldn’t swap Brisbane for any of them.
So let us celebrate this fantastic news, even though it is now quite old news for some people. Not for me though, this news is as fresh as if I only heard it yesterday, which of course, I did.
Let’s all enjoy Brisbane together with this fantastic time-lapse video…
Yes, I first heard that pilots joke about 15 years ago, I haven’t heard it for a long while now though. He who laughs last…
bob could u please write an article about why u choose Brisbane specifiably for living rather than other ausy cities. am coming soon to ausy but still confused to choose my city.
i was lived in London , wales and German but i like the London infrastructure except the crowd could u please advice me which ausy city is most likely to London .
This will help you… A Quick Guide to Choosing a City in Australia.
Hi Bob,
Your website is so helpful, thank you.
My fella, me and our 2 children 8 and 9 yrs old are hoping to visit Australia for 1-2 months next year. We are hoping to see and learn as much as we can about Australia but need to do this on a tight budget. Do you have any tips and advice on how to do this in Australia. Such as transport and accommodation.
Thank you and kind regards
Sadie ?
It’s difficult with young children, you won’t be able to stay at backpackers, for example. I think you will need your own transport, car rentals are not cheap so if you’re coming for a couple of months it may be better to buy a cheap car and sell it before you go.
As for cheap accommodation, camping would be the best bet otherwise I’m afraid holiday accommodation is quite expensive.
Good luck, Bob
Glad to hear I’ve just moved to Australia’s ‘coolest city’! Great stuff!
Yes, welcome to Hipsville 🙂