BRISBANE, the capital, a seaport and chief seat of trade of Queensland, Australia, situated about 500 miles N. of Sydney, in Moreton District. It stands about 25 miles from the mouth of a river of its own name, which falls into Moreton Bay, and it is divided into the four divisions of North Brisbane, South Brisbane, Kangaroo Point, and Fortitude Valley. Pop. about 145,000. Brisbane possesses broad and handsome streets, and some fine buildings, among the chief of which are the Houses of Legislature, which cost £100,000, the postoffice, tele graph office, the viceregal lodge, and the Queensland National Bank. It is the seat of an Anglican and of a Roman Catholic bishop. There are some 50 churches, the chief being the two cathe drals; and several daily and weekly newspapers are published. The export trade, which is large, includes gold, wool, cotton, sugar, tallow, and hides; and the imports, most of the articles in use among a thriving community. Regular
steam communication is kept up with the other Australian ports, as well as with London (11,295 miles), and there is an extensive system of wharfs on both sides of the river.
Brisbane was settled as a penal sta tion, in 1825, by Sir T. Brisbane, Gov ernor of New South Wales. In 1836 the town comprised the houses of the com mandant and other officers, barracks, a tread mill, stores, etc. Three years later the convict settlement was broken up. In 1842, the colony was opened to free settlers. The Brisbane river rises in the Burnett Range, and receives the Bremer and other rivers before its en trance into Moreton Bay, below the town of Brisbane. The Victoria lattice girder bridge (1,080 feet long), connecting North and South Brisbane, was de stroyed by a flood, in 1893, which laid half of South Brisbane in ruins.