A Roundup of Brisbane’s G20 in Pictures

As you will know from Fridays post about the G20 Summit here in Brisbane, this city enjoyed a public holiday for the occasion. But what did I do with my extra day off?

If past G20 summits are anything to go by, I am thinking Toronto 2010, there would have been a not insignificant risk of my car being set on fire simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time if I were to drive into the heart of the city.

But the lure of a free parking space as offered by Brisbane Mayor Graham Quirk was too much for me to resist. After all, look how much money I could save from the normal city centre parking fees…

So on Friday afternoon I decided to go in and have a look around to see if the city really was going to be the ghost town, police presence and protesters aside, that most had predicted.

Police presence

Well yes, there were plenty of police about.

Police on the streets…

Police in helicopters…

Police on boats…

Police on motor bikes…

Police on pushbikes…

Police on horses…

Police on pushbikes and horses…

“Hey, you can’t park there!”

Oh yes we can, it’s…

Policemen in buses…

My clash with G20 police security

And of course, there were police guarding restricted areas and that’s where I had my very own brush with an officer of the law. Right outside the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre where all of our leaders were meeting, I noticed a sidewalk with an opening in the steel fencing and tried to sneak past the police officers on the gate.

“You can’t come through here without accreditation mate” said the policeman on guard.

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t realise.” I replied.

“No worries mate, you’re right.” Said the policeman as I was walking away.

(‘You’re right’, in this instance = you’re all right or ‘that’s OK’).

It wasn’t just me who had a run in with this particular policeman either, this old lady receive the same treatment…

The streets weren’t just full of police either; there were lots of SES around helping out as well…

Protesters

There were a few protests on the Friday and even more on the Saturday, but I didn’t see too much action as I walked around the city that afternoon. But I did see this particular protest in King George Square…

Police appeared to have this one all under control.

Ghost town

So, was it a ghost town? Not really…

As you can see, the city was quite busy, but many more people were over at South Bank Parklands which is just a rioter’s rock throw from the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. I don’t think many of these people were thinking too hard about the G20 summit though…

And yes, the police were there as well…

I thought the highlight of my visit was going to be inserting my parking ticket into the machine and seeing it say “Have a nice day!” instead of requesting $30 or so, but it wasn’t.

As I drove down Ann Street to leave the city, I stopped at some red lights. As I stared out of my driver’s side window, I saw a policeman talking to a couple of motorcycle cops and suddenly I realised that the guy doing all the talking was none other than Queensland Police Commissioner Ian Stewart.

I don’t think you can get any higher than “Commissioner”. This guy is always on the news being interviewed, that’s why I recognised him so easily.

There was I, stopped at lights, in charge of a motor vehicle and surrounded by police virtually everywhere. I grabbed my camera from my glove compartment, and as I was pulling it out of the camera bag I heard the Commissioner say “You take care of yourselves right and I’ll catch you later.”

And with that he marched off towards a police car further behind me parked by the side of the road and bent down to start chatting to them through their car window. I decided against reversing the wrong way up Ann Street to get a clear shot of him. Photo opportunity gone.

Easy come, easy go.

Two days later though, I got my highlight.

The President of the United States pops over my house

Yes, quite literally over my house…

He’s in one of them, we don’t know which, but that’s part of the plan.

Brisbane, Queensland, and I suspect all of Australia is glad this event is now behind us and that it went as smoothly as it did. Only 14 arrests, no property damage and not a single complaint against the police. Not bad eh?

And I still have my car.