Australian Adventure, Week 3: August 7-13

Week 3 has come and gone already! This week we continued to explore Brisbane while planning for our upcoming Australian travels.

On Sunday, we did the Brisbane City Hall Tour. City Hall is a heritage listed building, built in 1920. The tour took us throughout the building, into offices, auditoriums, and meeting rooms. We were also able to see historical landmarks and pieces of the building that had been maintained from the 1900’s.

Brisbane City Hall

With its impressive neo-classical façade, mosaic tiles, stained-glass windows and soaring ceilings, Brisbane’s heritage-listed City Hall is at the heart of our city. Discover the secrets of this magnificent building which has been the setting for many cultural, social and civic events in our city’s history.

Known as the ‘People’s Place’, City Hall is a working civic building built between 1920 and 1930 at a cost of almost one million pounds. At the time it was the second largest construction project in Australia, second only to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. A highlight is the stunning auditorium, inspired by Rome’s Pantheon, which has hosted rock stars and royalty and is home to the Father Henry Willis & Sons Pipe Organ, made up of nearly 4,400 pipes. This instrument is one of only two of its kind in the world, and the auditorium continues to be integral to events that reflect our creative and connected city.

On Monday, we spent the day at the beach! We drove down to the Gold Coast for some sun, sand, and relaxation. First, we spent some time at Coolangatta Beach then headed down to see the surfers at Point Danger on the NSW border.

On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, we were busy with school and work.

On Tuesday afternoon we explored our local neighbourhood for lunch and went to Andy's for meat pies and sausage rolls. Australia was once a British colony so the British influence is still evident in the food they eat.

On Wednesday morning Clark and I met on FaceTime for our weekly games. He didn't want his photo shared on the blog but I had to share the fact that I won in one of our weekly games, for the first time ever! On Wednesday afternoon, I met some people from the double degree program for lunch! We had burgers on Southbank. It was neat to meet people who were doing degrees with other partner universities. I also met a few students who are going to Queen’s for their second degree next year.

On Thursday evening, we did a Twilight Tour with Brisbane Greeters. These are free tours provided by the city to new Brisbane residents. This tour focused on heritage buildings, street art, and introduced the group to unique restaurants and bars. Our tour guide Tina was fantastic! She was 70 years old and extremely knowledgable about the city and its hidden gems.

On Friday, we spent some time at the Botanical Garden in memory of Grandma Mary. Webster’s Grandma loved gardening and we knew she would have loved it! The Botanical Gardens span 140 acres and feature native and international plants. It is a free garden, open 365 days of the year.

Then, later in the afternoon we drove up Mount Coot-Tha. Mt Coot-tha Reserve (also known as Mt Coot-tha Forest) is a 15-minute drive from Brisbane. Mt Coot-tha contains more than 1600 hectares (4000 acres)of open eucalypt forest, rainforest gullies and creek lines. At the top of the mountain there is a scenic lookout point with great views of the city! We got some maps to plan a few hikes in the National Park later this month.

On Saturday, we treated ourselves to a yummy breakfast from Christian Jacques Bakery. We found out about Christian Jacques from a Top 10 Restaurants list in Brisbane. It is known for having gourmet croissants. We tried three croissants over the course of the weekend: a bacon, goat cheese & honey croissant and a Kouign Amann - they were all delicious!

In the evening we went to another Meet-Up in the city centre. This meet-up was for new international people living in Brisbane who wanted to improve their English skills. We met some cool people from Japan and South Korea.

This week we are planning on visiting a local zoo, finishing up some school assignments, and heading back to the beach. Thanks for following along on our adventures!