About Brisbane our first port of call

Our first port of call was Brisbane, so I am just going to tell you a bit about the place, it became a municipality in 1859 and in 1924 it was consolidated into a metropolitan area. It is situated on the Brisbane river in the southeast corner of Queensland, Brisbane is the capital of the state of Queensland and has a population of around 2.5 million.

Brisbane has a subtropical climate so it is usually hot and humid during the summer months which is between December and February with the temperature being around 40°c during the day and nights around the mid to high 20's.

Of course the main language spoken is English but there are many different cultures and nationalities in Australia so many other languages spoken as well but for the most part we speak English or as Tim would say we speak Australian here in Australia.

Of course the currency in the Australian dollar, our money consists of coins ranging from 5cents to $2, our silver coins are 5cents, 10cents, 20cents & 50cents and we have two gold coins being $1 & $2. Then we have our notes which consist of $5, $10, $20, $50 & $100, $5 is a purplish colour, the $10 is blue the $20 is orange, the $50 is yellow and the $100 is green, Tim and I rarely have $100 notes in our wallets most we have 5, 10 or 20's.

Queensland is also home to the famous Gold Coast with 26 miles of beaches and many resort hotels and Queensland's casino, also around the Gold Coast you will find Movieworld and Dreamworld both are theme parks and both are popular and expensive.

Queensland is known as the sunshine state because it is suppose to have around 300 days of sunshine each year, since I don't live in the state I have no idea if this is the case or not.

The state of Queensland was named in honour of Queen Victoria who signed the proclamation separating the state from the state of New South Wales in 1859.

The Koala is the official state animal, the official state gem is the sapphire, maroon is the state colour worn by the Queensland footy team in the State of Origin footy games which is NRL. The states bird is a large grey crane known as the brolga and the state flower is a lovely Cooktown orchid.

There are over 200 national parks in Queensland covering around 16 million acres.

One of Brisbane's most recognisable attractions in the historic Newstead House, it dates back to 1846 and is the oldest surviving home in Brisbane, it was originally a simple colonial Georgian cottage but if you ask me back then most homes were pretty simple, anyway it has been transformed over the years into a huge homestead with a sprawling verandah featuring panoramic vista (whatever that is). In 1939 it became the first Australian house to be preserved by its very own at of parliament.