February in Brisbane signals a return to routine as Brisbanites bid farewell to their summer holidays. It also heralds the annual celebration of love, Valentine’s Day, on the 14th.
Everyone views their own city differently, whether you’ve grown up in the city or not, but if you’re lucky enough, you fall in love with your home.
Like in any new relationship, it takes time to learn the quirks and discover the layers.
Brisbane, it is often said, is better experienced than described. We think that is because it is like one of those quiet and thoughtful people you meet – you know it will take a while for them to reveal themselves and their rich layers, but it will be so very worth it.
When we take locals on our tours they are always amazed by the unexpected and unknown stories of Brisbane’s history, culture and people that we bring to light. Brisbane is not obvious. We don’t have an instantly recognisable bridge, tower or statue (at least, not yet). What we do have are many quietly beautiful places and stories that are nothing short of extraordinary.
…Including love stories.
On our tours, including the Brisbane at War walk, we touch on local love stories that were so very unexpected. During the Second World War, 7,000 local women married US soldiers – the “war brides”. From a town with a population of 300,000 in 1942, that’s a lot of love stories. At the Albert St Uniting Church (opposite City Hall) they conducted up to 16 weddings a day… imagine the bells! We think Brisbane can definitely claim the moniker “city of love”.
So rich and varied are the tales of love that weave their way through the fabric of our city, and so craved. Acclaimed author Trent Dalton’s book of Brisbane’s love stories is now a successful stage play performed to sold out audiences across the country.
Like any love story, quite often what draws us to another is their faults as well as their beauty and depth. Brisbane is no different. From its humble beginnings as an incredibly brutal penal colony, chosen for its barely habitable geography, to its rise as a modern city known for warmth and friendliness, resilience, beautiful green spaces, love of sport and world-class cultural institutions.
Brisbane’s own international laureate, David Malouf AO, described a different Brisbane, that of the early 1940’s, in his rite-of-passage novel, “Johnno”:
"Brisbane is so sleepy, so slatternly, so sprawlingly unlovely … It is simply the most ordinary place in the world … it was so shabby and makeshift … a place where poetry could never occur…"
Perhaps Malouf's young protagonist could only see the no-frills wartime/post-war version of his hometown, but look a little closer in the 1940s and you would see a city teeming with life as its population swelled with international soldiers and new ideas. Brisbane is the birthplace of Meanjin, one of the longest running literary journals in Australia (named after the indigenous place name for the peninsula where the CBD now stands). Started in 1940, its contributors have included literary giants Patrick White, Helen Moorhouse and international authors Jean-Paul Sartre and Kurt Vonnegut.
To fall in love with Brisbane you must go on the journey to discover its character and its secrets; get beyond its façade.
Modern Brisbane authors, such as Matthew Condon, often talk about Brisbane in terms of its natural light and colours borne from the subtropical climate we enjoy so much. So, to know Brisbane you must walk.
We can leave the last words on Brisbane as a city of love to Trent Dalton:
“Love is knowing when you’ve come home” - Love Stories.
Let Brisbane Unexpected help you fall in love with Brisbane – book a walk from our collection of tours.
Romantic places:
- Mt Coot-tha Lookout
- Kangaroo Point Cliffs
- Wilsons Park above Howard Smith Wharves
- Quiet pathways, Roma Street Parklands
- New Farm Park
Great Bars for romance:
- Bar Miette
- Blackbird
- Madame Wu
- Stilts
- The Terrace Rooftop Bar Emporium Hotel
- Fiume Rooftop Bar, Crystalbrook Hotel
- Otto
*This blog was written using only NI (natural intelligence)*