Year 2 – 25 February 2025 -Brisbane

If anyone reading this and is free in June- mid July 2025 to come to Australia then do contact me as I am short of crew for that month fully at present.

It was another nice morning and Malcolm’s last full day before he flies home. We decided to head into town after breakfast and to get out at Howard Smith Wharves stop which was a few stops before South Bank. It was interesting as around this area there are 100-foot rock cliffs with properties above and lifts and stairs down to the edge of the river. We had seen this when coming past yesterday and references on roofs to a brewery. The river journey took us again past some lovely houses with private moorings.

When we got off the ferry you could walk along the edge of the river and we started to come across a warehouse type building called Felons. This was a huge place which seemed to accommodate bands and the audience had lots of bean bags to sit on with little tables. We walked on and came to about 5 more Felons bars and restaurants along the river one after the other. It was a huge area with some of it clearly the brewery part with large stainless-steel vats. We stopped and had a coffee and wondered how they would ever fill these places and they all had their own staff. We guessed it got busy in the evenings.

We walked along further and there were some other restaurants not part of Felons which had lots of tables and we again wondered could they really fill them. This was all before the Brisbane Bridge which was part of yesterday’s picture for the blog. The next section along was called Riverside and it was basically the downtime business district with its shiny skyscrapers and it had a load of bars and restaurants along the front and it looked very inviting. We came across an old stone building surrounded by tower blocks which was the Old Custom House from 1886. Customs controlled the river since 1850. It had a cell block with bars on the windows just above the river and must have been for those who fell fowl of customs. It is good it has been preserved and not turned into another office block and it is now a restaurant.

We walked on and came to another old stone building sitting amongst the office blocks called Naldham House. It was built in 1864 and extended in the 1870’s for the Australian United Steam Navigation Company and served as a shipping office for a century. In 1994 it was bought and became the Brisbane Polo Club until that went bust. It is now a bar and restaurant and contains the nice old wood panelling and columns from its former days which gives it some style. We carried on walking and came to the Botanical Gardens which borders the river and we walked right round what is called Kangaroo Point which used to be a naval area. There were lots of lovely trees and shrubs and how good it is to have this in the centre of town. We then went on to the Mangrove Walkway and there is still quite a bit of mangroves along the river. We could see opposite the town beach with its own lido pool and we then came round to Queens Wharf again. We decided to take Malcolm up to the 23rd floor to show him the views and we had a quick beer whilst there. We decided that we liked the look of the restaurants in Riverside so after our drink we waked back through the city – cutting off the corner the Botanical Gardens took.

We found an Italian restaurant called Massimo and had a good meal which we enjoyed served by a man who used to be in Scotland. We then walked back toward Howard Smith Wharves and had a quick drink at Felons. It was lovely sitting there with a nice breeze and we all agreed what a nice feel this city has. We the caught the ferry back to Bulimba and walked up Oxford Street (yes in Brisbane) and then caught a cab back to Stormbird. It gets darker here earlier as Queensland is an hour behind New South Wales. We had had a good day and seen more of the city.

The picture of the day is looking west down the river from the 23rd floor viewing platform.

Need/Opportunity Year Two

I am in need of more crew from late April to Mid-July so if of interest do email me at  hine.nick9@gmail.com  

In year two I will be going from New Zealand to Sydney and hen up the Eastern Australian Coast, Indonesia and then through Bali, Singapore and on to Thailand to end year two about the end of November 2025.

The blog will continue as we continue the journey. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com