The first settlement in the region was the notorious Moreton Bay Penal Colony, which was established in 1824 by John Oxley. When Oxley first put ashore here he found three shipwrecked ex-convicts living amongst the local Aborigines, and they helped him to explore the shoreline, showing him an extensive river which flowed into the bay. This had not previously been marked on the maps, and Oxley named the river after Sir Thomas Brisbane, the governor of New South Wales. Brisbane had sent Oxley on this mission to establish a prison settlement for ‘the worst type of offenders’. The initial colony at Redcliffe on Moreton Bay was shifted a year later to the banks of the Brisbane River, some 15 km inland.

For the next 15 years, it was living hell for the convicts of the Moreton Bay Penal Colony, and not much better for their disgruntled guards. The convict population rose to almost 1,000, despite disease and the vicious brutality of their keepers. Few managed to escape – the sea was full of sharks, and inland were hostile Aborigines.

In 1839 the notorious colony was at last dispersed, and Moreton Bay was opened up for land-hungry settlers from the south. Yet as the settlers spread inland they encountered fierce resistance from the local Aborigine tribes. In an effort to halt increasing dispossession, the Aborigine tribes united. For almost a decade their leader Dundalli and his warriors harassed the encroaching white pioneers. But it was an uneven struggle. After the pioneer settlers came the cattlemen, driving huge herds north on to the grazing lands of the plateau. In 1859 the Moreton Bay District (the early name for Queensland) became a separate state, and Brisbane was chosen as its capital.

Sugar plantations were soon being established in the north, with Solomon Islanders shipped in to harvest the cane under conditions of virtual slavery. Then came the discovery of gold. Later came the discovery of minerals, and Queensland gradually began to establish itself as a thriving state. Yet Brisbane remained very much a country backwater. This changed somewhat during the Second World War. The US commander General MacArthur established Brisbane as his headquarters during his Pacific campaign against the Japanese. But after the war the Americans left, and life in Brisbane resumed its provincial pace.

In the 1970s the ultra-conservative National Party took over the state government, under the leadership of the maverick Johannes Bjelke-Petersen – known locally as ‘Joh’. During the next two decades Joh ran Queensland in his own heavy-handed fashion from the state capital (which became known as ‘Johburg’). The police were given a virtual  carte  blanche,  with widespread abuse  of civil liberties; nepotism resulted in large-scale corruption; and Joh ran the show, evading all awkward questions with his own characteristic blend of bravado and evasion. Brisbane became the capital of a mineral-rich but socially backward state.

In the end even the smooth-talking Joh couldn’t talk his way out of setting up a full-scale enquiry into government malpractice. The Fitzgerald Inquiry was originally intended as a whitewash, but to the consternation of Joh and his government cronies, it insisted upon revealing the truth (which everyone had suspected all along). Corruption was found to be endemic, from the government down.

Joh was out, and the entire state underwent a transformation. The apotheosis of this was the hosting of the World Expo in 1988, which attracted 18 million visitors to the newly revitalized capital. Today, Brisbane continues to thrive and is a vital part of modern Australia – with all its citizens reaping the benefits (and the troubles) of the recent economic ups and downs which have beset the growing commercial centres of the Pacific Rim.

The centre of Brisbane is fairly compact, and where you’ll find most of the sights. The main Brisbane Visitor and Convention Centre is on the ground floor of the City Hall in Adelaide Street (www.visitbrisbane.com.au).