HERITAGE BRISBANE CITY

Brisbane City Botanic Gardens is a living museum of plant collections, displaying early heritage specimens through to present day exotic and native plantings. It is considered to be one of the most important non-indigenous cultural landscapes in Queensland and is recognised for its natural and historic values. In addition to the plant collections, there are a number of significant heritage features.

Walk through the beautiful Brisbane City Botanic Gardens accompanied by a Brisbane Botanic Gardens Volunteer Guide. Tours are offered twice daily, (except Sundays, public holidays and mid-December to mid-January). Walks last approximately one hour. Meet at 11.00am or 1.00pm at the Rotunda opposite the Albert Street gates. You can also visit Brisbane Botanic Gardens Mt. Coot-tha, situated on Mt. Coot-tha Road, Toowong.

A visit to Queensland Parliament allows you to experience the grandeur of Queensland\'s first and foremost public building. Built in 1868, the beautifully restored interior showcases Queensland\'s history, as shaped by the governments and laws that have been made in the Parliament.

Today the building is still home to Australia\'s only unicameral State Parliament. Visitors can enjoy tours conducted by Parliamentary Attendants, who provide insights into the buildings\' architecture, history and operation of Parliament.

City Hall is one of Queensland's most significant heritage and cultural icons.

Since its opening in 1930, City Hall has been a symbol of civic pride and over the years it has become one of Brisbane's greatest icons and community meeting places. The building has played an important role in the lives of our local community in times of war, peace, celebration and refuge and has rightly earned the title of the 'People's Place'.

City Hall is home to Brisbane’s civic, community, artistic and social life and reopened in April 2013 after three years of extensive restoration and upgrades.

Visitors can enjoy free exhibits at Museum of Brisbane, daily tours and access to the iconic clock tower. For more information call 3403 8888 or visit www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/cityhall

The MacArthur Museum Brisbane introduces visitors to a critical time in Brisbane’s history – the dark days of World War Two.

Visit the office where MacArthur planned the Allied campaigns in the South-West Pacific and his famous, ‘I shall return’ campaign for the recapture of the Philippines.

Experience Brisbane during the dark years of 1942 to 1944 – when streets were lined with air-raid shelters, and warships and submarines crowded the banks of the Brisbane River.

Explore a time of censorship, rationing and blackouts, when adults and children carried ID cards, and housewives queued for food supplies.

The Queensland Police Museum offers visitors the opportunity to enter the world of policing. Displays depict the history of the Queensland Police Service from 1864 to present day, giving an insight into different police sections. Visitors can test their detective skills by using clues from the simulated murder scene to solve a crime.

Other displays illustrate infamous Brisbane crimes, real murder cases, a Shrine of Honour and police transport.

QUT Art Museum has a nationally significant collection focused on contemporary Australian art. The six galleries provide an engaging space for exhibitions. It is situated within QUT Gardens Cultural Precinct, Brisbane City.

The QUT Art Museum is proud to display collection based exhibitions, major touring exhibitions, as well as QUT student exhibitions. Guided tours and free public programs, including the "Meet the Artist" series, provide a diverse range of activities to compliment the exhibitions.

The iconic Brisbane Lookout at scenic Mt. Coot-tha has been a favourite destination for locals and visitors for more than a century and has been made new again! Recent improvements to the renowned Summit Restaurant and popular Kuta Cafe, as well as ongoing improvements to the Mt. Coot-tha, gives everyone a reason to keep coming back!

If you haven't visited us yet you are invited to do so for Brisbane Lookout is a great destination for everyone and a "must see" for all visitors to Brisbane. Breathtaking panoramic views of Brisbane City out to Moreton Bay by day and a fairyland of glittering lights at night await you.

Within the Mt. Coot-tha area you'll not only find the Brisbane Lookout....though that alone is worth the journey. There is also the many pleasures and attractions of the Mt. Coot-tha Botanic Gardens, the Cosmic Planetarium, Herbarium and the many picnic, walking, bike and even horse tracks around Mt. Coot-tha. A remarkable vantage from which to view Brisbane and beyond and a fantastic, natural recreation reserve....does it get any better?

The stones of St Stephen's Cathedral are silent witnesses to the joy and hope, the grief and anguish of generations of Catholic families.

In the quiet corners of this cathedral, those who shed tears of regret have found peace, those who sighed with weariness have gone out with new strength, those who were lost have discovered a way. Under the arches of this building, candles of hope and trust have flickered through the years. Here, those in love have pledged to be true to one another all the days of their lives. Here, they have brought their children to be baptised and confirmed as followers of Christ. Here, they have said their last farewell to those whose death they mourn. Here, on countless occasions, the local Church has gathered around the bishop to celebrate its unity in the Eucharist.

The cathedral takes its name from the ‘cathedra’ or bishop's seat, symbol of the chief pastor and teacher of the local Church. In the cathedral, parish communities find a sign of their fellowship with each other and the expression of their unity with the Church throughout the world. The cathedral is therefore not only an important place for those who use it regularly, but for the whole city of Brisbane as it provides a sanctuary and an oasis of green that invites people to rest awhile.

The Mercy Heritage Centre works to preserve and promote the extraordinary history and heritage of the Sisters of Mercy Brisbane Congregation, to encourage an understanding and appreciation of the value of the Mercy Story within the community.

We will acquire, preserve, research, and maintain permanent collections of material for the purposes of study, education, interpretation, enjoyment, and for their continuing value to the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy.

St John's Cathedral is a heritage site with cultural splendour unrivalled in Brisbane. With gothic-revival architecture that begun 100 years ago (and is still being built), the Cathedral features wood-carvings, stained-glass, 350 million year old limestone and the only fully stone-vaulted ceiling in Australia. The Cathedral's font contains pillars of fossiliferous limestone 350 million years old from Frosterley, United Kingdom, in which skeletons of Coral polyps and bi-valve shells are clearly visible. Every window in the cathedral is of significance: from the large early twentieth century Wheel window to the collection of William Bustard's work, and then the later vibrant windows of David Saunders. The Millennium Window, designed by Scott Maxwell and made by Warwick Blair, was installed in 2001. The Cathedral is set in a precinct of heritage buildings.

The Victoria Barracks Museum collection includes weapons which saw service in Australian, Allied and enemy forces between 1899 and 1972. Medals on display include Boer War, First World War and Second World War campaign and gallantry awards. A comprehensive display of replica medals enables easy identification of medals issued to Australian servicemen and women from approximately 1860 to 1980. A range of research publications is also held by the Museum. The museum is located close to the heart of Brisbane in Petrie Terrace.