Other interesting information about Brisbane

Answer 1

* The Brisbane River was discovered by three ticket-of-leave convicts, Parsons, Pamphlett and Finnegan on 14 June 1823. Oxley was later credited with the discovery. * Brisbane was started as a convict colony in 1825 after the penal settlement at Redcliffe failed. The settlement was named Brisbane on 10 September 1825. * Brisbane was opened up for free settlement in 1848 and there were calls to cease transportation of convicts the following year. * Brisbane was named the capital of Queensland on 6 June 1859, when the former Moreton Bay District was granted separation from New South Wales. * The first elected Queensland Parliament, or Legislative Assembly, consisted of 26 members and met on 22 May 1860 in Courthouse Building, which was formerly part of the convict barracks in Brisbane's Queen Street. * In 1861, the first electric telegraph in Queensland was transmitted between Brisbane and Ipswich. Then on 6 November 1861, Brisbane was linked by telegraph to New South Wales, allowing transmission of telegraphs also to Victoria and South Australia. * Brisbane aviator Charles Edward Kingsford Smith, nicknamed 'Smithy', made the first Trans-Pacific flight to Australia from the United States, arriving in Brisbane on 9 June 1928. * Australia's longest road bridge, the Hornibrook Highway, was opened on the northern outskirts of Brisbane on October 1935, allowing access to the Redcliffe Peninsula. At 2.8km long, it is still Australia's longest road bridge, and has a single central arch where the channel of the river runs, allowing for fishing craft to pass underneath. However, it is now used only for pedestrians, cyclists and fishermen after a duplicate bridge was built parallel to it, in 1979. * Brisbane is home to an unusual bridge, opened on 14 February 1936: the Walter Taylor, which is a suspension bridge crossing the Brisbane River between the suburbs of Indooroopilly and Chelmer. Its support cables were actually surplus support cables used to hold up the incomplete halves of the Sydney Harbour Bridge during its construction. It is also unique among Brisbane bridges in that the two towers of the bridge house residential accommodation, and are still occupied. * The last tram to operate in Brisbane completed its final run on 13 April 1969. A single disused tramline runs through the suburb of Carina, a final legacy of this once popular form of transport. * The Brisbane floods commenced on 25 January 1974 after the remnants of Cyclone Wanda, together with a monsoonal tropical depression, dumped over 300mm of rain within 24 hours. By the time the floods abated four days later, 16 people had died, 300 had been injured, and 9,000 people left homeless. Total cost of the damage, in 1974 values, was $200 million.

Some General information on Brisbane is available at the link below.