Brisbane

Sand poured into a park across the river, filled with filtered fresh water, not sea. Lifeguards watch it and nothing is charged to walk in, so you swim with the city around you. In December and January there is no room unless you get there early.

Twenty minutes west of the centre by car, a hill that puts the whole city in one frame. When the air is clear the dunes of Moreton Island show past the river mouth, and the gardens below hold a glasshouse built to copy rainforest.

Open since 1927, the oldest koala sanctuary there is. New South Wales and Victoria banned koala holding long ago, and this place has dropped holding too, putting a close-up encounter in its place. Koalas sleep most of the day, so in the afternoon little moves.

Two galleries stand shoulder to shoulder on the river. The front is the old state gallery; the one behind has ceilings high enough for big installations. The permanent rooms charge nothing. The children's floor fills on wet afternoons.

The red CityHopper boats cross back and forth between the two banks and take no ticket. They link the centre with Kangaroo Point and Howard Smith Wharves, and from the deck the cliffs on both sides are in view.

Come after dark rather than in daylight. Floodlights go on across the river cliff and the climbers move inside the light. A path runs along the foot of the cliff by the water, and the park above it faces the centre.

Convicts raised this windmill in 1828, the oldest building left standing in Brisbane, and since the sails never turned properly prisoners walked a treadmill instead. Inside opens for one open-house event a year; otherwise you see it only from the rise.

Fifteen ships were sunk on purpose in the shallows off western Moreton Island to shelter small boats. The iron is under coral and fish now and people snorkel it. You cross by boat from Brisbane, and at times the current pulls hard, so hire a vest.

The old wharf sheds under the Story Bridge hold restaurants and a hotel. Air-raid shelters dug out of the cliff during the war stand open. You look into them as you pass. Stairs down from the centre are steep, but a lift reaches the park on top.

A steel cantilever bridge finished in 1940, drawn by the engineer behind the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Rivet by rivet it went together, so up close the surface is all bumps. A guide takes climbers over the top; the walkway underneath is open any hour.

A sandstone city hall finished in 1930, housing the Museum of Brisbane. The free clock tower tour needs a ticket booked ahead; an old cage lift carries you up behind the giant clock faces to a viewing platform. Groups are tiny, so reserve early.

A big sand island reached by boat from Cleveland; its Aboriginal name is Minjerribah. From the North Gorge walk at Point Lookout, turtles and rays often show in the water below the cliffs. From June to November humpbacks pass the headland.

A zoo at Beerwah to the north, run by the family of Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter. In the arena called the Crocoseum, crocodiles lunge clear of the water during the show. Allow one motorway hour north from downtown Brisbane; the grounds fill a whole day.

Volcanic plugs rising from the plain, named in 1770 by James Cook, who saw glass-furnace chimneys in them. Mount Ngungun needs around an hour to summit and reveals every other peak. The tallest, Beerwah, is steep bare rock; without climbing gear, leave it be.

A free subtropical garden downtown, laid over an old railway goods yard. Waterfalls, ponds and tropical beds follow the slope, so the walk feels like bushland, not downtown. Roma Street station adjoins it, the platforms a minute from the gate.