I'm not a great one for frequenting the ale houses of the Brisbane CBD after work, simply due to the distance I live from the city and the time it takes to get home in the evenings. I figure that leaving home at 7:15 in the morning and arriving home at 7:00 in the evening is a long enough day without stretching it out by boozing on with colleagues after knock-off time. Besides, what's the point when one or at most two standard drinks will make one ineligible to drive anyway?

That opinion aside, I strayed from the norm this evening and attended a 'farewell drinks' session for one of our younger personnel, moving on to bigger and better things. We - four of us, plus a husband of one and assorted hangers on - made our presence felt at this venue at the river end of the Brisbane CBD.

It used to be a restaurant, and from what I saw inside tonight, still is to a certain limited degree, but has mainly been transformed into a boozer of the most average form. Certainly, there's a small eatery area between the 'garden' bar and the inside bar, but essentially, this place is a pub by any stretch of the imagination. Especially on a Friday evening in a town like Brisbane. Loud, crowded, filled with 'pretty' people and frankly, not my scene.

That aside, the beers are fascinating. Knowing I had to drive home, I couldn't really stay for a session, so choices were limited. I did try a Leffe Brune, which tasted of a light hops and left a sarsparilla tang on the back of the palate, and a Hoegaarden, which is a wheat beer and something I must say I'm quite fond of. The Leffe was dark, almost cola-like in colour with a wonderful head which persisted for a long time. I found the 500ml glass to be much too much of a good thing by the end, preferring to at least halve the amount and double the experience. The Hoegaarden was entirely different. Being a wheat beer, the mouth feel isn't anywhere near as heavy as barley, but still maintains the bitterness of a real beer flavour. The beer itself is cloudy, which means that yeast is still in suspension, albeit dead. To me, this indicates that I'm drinking a genuine ale and not something which has been filtered to within an 'n'th of it's existence in order to produce a clear glassful. This beer - or probably lager depending on it's fermentation method - was quite something to savour. Light, alive in the mouth and with a lightly citrus aftertaste while remaining true to the bitter beer flavour of a european ale.

From a Brisbanite's perspective, if you're Gen Y and still inhabit the pub/club scene, then you may find this venue to your liking. For me, I found it totally lacking atmosphere, far too crowded, far too noisy and far too small for what it professed to offer. In short, simply an imposter boozer trying hard to wear fancy clothes and winding up starkers. The beer is horrendously priced, served with faux flair and serviced in a somewhat frantic manner. Perhaps because it was Friday night, I've gained a bad impression, but I'm yet to find a venue in the CBD which is much different. My recommendation? Take a leisurely drive to the Darling Downs village of Allora, for luncheon at the Commercial Hotel, Allora. No Belgian Beers, but a damn good feed, at an excellent price and the beer's cold, cheaper and frankly, better.

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I'm a Brisbanite, but can't actually say I've paid a whole lot of attention to this seemingly benighted development. Until now.

I haven't had to work in the CBD for quite a while, but that all changed in January this year. Once again exposed to the rigours of making the daily commute into the city, I'm limited to travelling either by train, or car. Bus is definitely out, given where I currently work in the city, and the hours the job requires. Personally, I despise public transport in any event.  It's uncomfortable, inconvenient and expensive. In fact, from a cost/convenience perspective, travelling into town by six cylinder Camry (yes, Timmy......I have another Camry!) five days a week costs me as much in fuel as a weekly train ticket. The plus for me being the convenience of being able to come & go as I please, in comfort, without having to endure the press of my fellow human beings. There's also the additional benefit of enjoying Radio National as I go. Something which is impossible on Brisbane's electric train system.

Travelling by car into town has awakened me to the current state of gridlock on Brisbane's suburban roads during morning and evening peak hours. To put it bluntly, it's fucking terrible. A journey of 24 kilometers, which normally takes thirty minutes, takes one hour fifteen minutes. Unless some fool fails to pay attention, then it's much longer. There are five paths one can follow into the CBD, which cross the river. The Gateway Motorway, Storey Bridge, Captain Cook Bridge/South-East Freeway, Victoria Bridge and the Grey Street Bridge. The latter two options aren't mainstream access points as one is restricted to basically one lane each way, and the other accesses the western end of the CBD, making the overall journey much too long. The Gateway Motorway crossing leaves one with an ardous journey across the north-eastern suburbs, which leaves only the Storey Bridge and Captain Cook/South-East Freeway. All avenues are chock-a-block during peak times, with traffic movement never quicker than 40kph.

Why am I telling you all this local trivia, reader? Because the Northbank Development will literally straddle the existing South-East Freeway which runs along the northern bank of the Brisbane River. It seems to be a wonderfully well thought out project, if you believe the Multiplex blurb, but I notice there's absolutely no mention of the enormous potential this development must hold for disruption of traffic flows along the freeway. I've cobbled together a couple of photos from the wife's flickr collection which fairly accurately show that stretch of the north bank of the river which the development will change. As can clearly be seen, the South-East Freeway is right smack-dab in the middle of the project and is supposed to continue to run under the development. Full plans of the Multiplex proposal are no longer available from the Qld Government website, undoubtedly given the public outcry over the potential for damage to the heritage district of of the CBD, and encroachment into the river itself, with all the attendant disruption to animal and plant life.

Brisbane's Northbank. Victoria Bridge to the immediate left. Capt Cook Bridge to the right.

Whilst I'm not a raging greenie or an avid user of the Brisbane River, I am a daily commuter. One of 4,000 every hour over the Captain Cook bridge during peak times. I don't need what has every appearance of being a politically acceptable, developer inspired construction project which has every possibility of running two years plus, creating absolute chaos amid an already stagnant daily commute. I'm a'gin it! I've just decided that I need to start paying a lot more attention to this project, and which way our Anna will wave as the winds of public opinion change.

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Show us why you love the city you live in.
Submitted by meg.

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Show us a local landmark.

Historical

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