Things to do around Brisbane

Some places we have visited in the 4 months since arriving in oz


Australia zoo

About 90 minutes drive from Brisbane, Steve Irwin's zoo heavily concentrating on crocodiles (obviously) but with various other animals too. Elephants were our favourite, lining up to hand feed fruit to 3 elephants, and the tiger cubs were great too. There's a big stadium called the crocatorium with crocodile shows. What ever you do make sure you miss the cringe worthy bindi show, basically 30 minutes of bindi ( steve and terry's 12? year old daughter) singing and dancing. We accidentally attended not realising what the show was all about , thats 30 minutes of my life I will never get back.

Fig tree pocket koala Sancturary Brisbane

Close to the center of Brisbane (15 mins drive for us), a koala sancturary for rescued koalas, also contains a lot of kangaroos you can hand feed much to their indifference. Occasionally you can find a kangaroo that isn't completely stuffed to the brim with food and it will raise its head from its sprawled position to let you pop in a bit of food (come on sir, its only wafer fin).

Also lots of birds (very good birds of prey show), lizards, snakes, including some sulpher crested cockatoo's who can say hello and goodbye when prompted.

Surfers Paradise

This is what I came to Australia for, big waves, clear turquoise sea, sand so fine it squeaks as you walk on it. Ninety minutes from Brisbane (by the time you have found somewhere to park).

The beach goes on for ever, hundreds of miles, but there's only an occasional bit of sea you can go in marked with 2 yellow flags and a life guard sat in his jeep. The yellow flags are about 50 meters apart so while the beach is hundreds of miles long everyone is crammed into these pockets of beach. Not too bad in winter but I can imagine it being hellishly busy in summer.

And the sand really does squeak as you walk on it :)

Redcliffe

The locals here (in Brisbane) don't seem to consider Redcliffe a proper beach, maybe the sand doesn't squeak enough (it is courser and errm red'er).

Very pleasant, great for kids (no giant waves) no yellow flags, can be a bit rocky in places. Nice series of man made outdoor lagoon pools nearby.

Movie World

Slightly over an hour from Brisbane, its a roller coaster theme park based around movies. There wasn't that much for the younger kids to do unless they are brave enough to go on things like the log flume. My 4 year old was terrified of the scooby doo actors roaming the park but loved the kids roller coaster that was actually quite big and fast (too fast for the 11 year old to risk going on).

Highlights were the Shrek 3d movie and the super man roller coaster.