Greater Brisbane

Greater Brisbane is a group of five local government areas which all make up Brisbane's 2.6 million inhabitants, or about 49 per cent of Queensland's population in 2020. The primary one is the City of Brisbane, which holds over 1.1 million inhabitants, making it the largest local government area in Australia.

Districts
The first five mentioned are the five local government areas that make up Greater Brisbane, which also correspond to tourism regions. The capital of Brisbane is mentioned first, while the rest are mentioned in a clockwise order starting south.

Moreton Island is neither an LGA or a region, and is usually treated as a part of Brisbane, and the only way to access the island is via a ferry, and from a travellers point of view, it's not really a part of Brisbane, but a destination of its own. Moreton Island also has a completely different road and transport system to the rest of Brisbane, and hence, categorised under Greater Brisbane, not Brisbane.

Other destinations

 * – home to the very scenic D'Aguilar Range just minutes northwest of Brisbane
 * – a key fort that played an important role in Brisbane's defence in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
 * – located to the east of Redlands City, North Stradbroke Island is the second largest sand island in the world, just after K'gari.
 * – several small islands in Redland City
 * – a small island off the coast of Brisbane
 * – a small national park nestled between Logan and Redland Cities
 * – a small island off the coast of Brisbane
 * – a small national park nestled between Logan and Redland Cities
 * – a small national park nestled between Logan and Redland Cities

Understand
Greater Brisbane is what usually most non-Queenslanders usually call "Brisbane", and before a visit to South East Queensland, it is easy to assume that Greater Brisbane is the same as Brisbane, and it's often affiliated with Brisbane. Unlike the other state capital cities of Australia, Greater Brisbane developed in a way similar to the boroughs of New York City, but instead of boroughs, with local government areas instead.

By plane
The primary way of getting into Greater Brisbane is via. See the Brisbane page on getting around.

By car
The primary way that most will come from the south will usually be via Logan City, which is the closest point of Greater Brisbane from the south. This table below shows the distance from each city. Distances are in kilometres, and to the CBD of each of the five cities mentioned.

By public transport
South East Queensland's public transport network is run by a single provider known as Translink. The official website and app can be used to plan journeys. Google Maps also offers full navigation with real time information.

The region is divided into 8 concentric "zones" for fare purposes. Network maps clearly mark the zones and zone boundaries. Your fare is determined by how many zones you travel through. For example, travelling between zones 2 and 3 will cost you the same as travelling between zones 7 and 8. Major destinations like shopping centres are often used as zone boundaries. A station or stop within a zone boundary is considered part of either zone.

Fare payments can be made with a contactless credit or debit card (buses not available until 2025). Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Apple Pay and Google Pay are accepted. Some prepaid cards may also work.

The fare is deducted as you touch on and touch off each mode of transport. You must touch both on and off for all journeys regardless of the mode of transport. A failure to touch off will result in a fixed fare of up to $30 being charged. Train stations and tram stops have fare gates or distinctive pink validators located on the platform. Buses and ferries are fitted with validators as you board and alight.

Translink uses the word "journey" to mean end-to-end journey including any required transfers, and the word "trip" to mean a single point-to-point trip. A journey can be made up of one or more trips on any mode of transport. When making a number of trips to get to your destination it is still one journey if you touch on within 60 minutes of touching off on your previous trip.

Alternatively, fare payments can be made with a go card. The card costs $10 (refundable deposit) plus the travel credit you wish to top up (maximum $250). The card is available at train station ticket counters, busway fare machines, and selected newsagents and convenience stores. The card can be topped up at the same locations, including train station fare machines. Applying for a refund of the deposit and any unused travel credit can be a hassle. If you have paid by cash it can be processed directly at a train station, including the airport train station. If you have paid by credit card it can only be processed by cheque or transfer to an Australian bank account.

Paper tickets are only available at train station ticket counters, train station fare machines and busway fare machines. Paper tickets are only valid for one way journeys and cost 30% more than a card. Buses are prepaid only so you will need to purchase a paper ticket beforehand or use a card instead.

If you are going to be travelling extensively and using the Airtrain, you can buy a 3-day or 5-day unlimited travel SEEQ Card for $79 and $129 respectively. SEEQ cards work like regular go cards and provide additional discounts at various tourist attractions around South East Queensland. You don't have to worry about topping up and refunds, but you'll struggle to get value out of it unless you are catching the Airtrain.

You can be fined $261 for travelling without a valid fare.

By car
Most of the motorway network in SE Queensland is centred around Greater Brisbane. Getting around most suburbs in Greater Brisbane can in most cases, be done entirely on motorways, though there are some notable exceptions where using a road that isn't a motorway is quicker and easier. The motorways and major roads are as follows:
 * Pacific Motorway (M1, M3) – starts at Coffs Harbour in New South Wales, and first enters at southeast Logan City, and continues to Brisbane CBD.
 * Logan Motorway (M6, M2) – a short motorway starting at the M1 Pacific Motorway in Loganholme to the M2/M7 Ipswich Motorway in Gailles. The motorway is tolled, and has two separate toll points – one at Heathwood which costs $2.98 and the other at Loganlea, at a cost of $1.81 (as at April 2022).
 * The M5 is not one motorway, but a series of roads, including the Centenary Highway, starting in Ipswich, which heads north-northeast and becomes the Western Freeway passing the Fig Tree Pocket Road after which it heads northeast. After Indooroopilly, the M5 becomes the Legacy Way, which is tolled and is a tunnel, bypassing Brisbane CBD. As of April 2022, the tolls cost $5.79 per car and $2.90 per motorcycle.
 * The AirportLinkM7 (M7) is a short tunnelled motorway linking Fortitude Valley north of the CBD to Brisbane Airport costing $5.92 for cars (as of 2022). The route continues further south as Clem7 which has a different toll, costing $5.37.
 * The Port of Brisbane Motorway and Port Drive (M4, SR 24) is a short motorway from the Gateway Motorway to the Port of Brisbane.
 * Gateway Motorway (M1) – a motorway just to bypass Brisbane CBD if you're heading from the Gold Coast to the Sunshine Coast.
 * Warrego Highway and Ipswich Motorway (M2, M7) – a motorway that's the continuation of the divided Warrego Hwy to Toowoomba that heads northeast to Rocklea, continues as A7 and eventually becomes the Clem7.
 * The first of the Cunningham Highway (M15 / National Highway 15) is a motorway, which later continues down southwest to Armidale and Tamworth as an undivided highway.

All cities but Redland City have at least one motorway. Brisbane by far has the most motorways both by length and number, followed by Ipswich and Logan. Moreton Bay doesn't really have a motorway of its own, its only motorway is just the Bruce Highway on its way to Cairns.

See
Brisbane has many museums, and many museums of state significance are located in the City of Brisbane. Outside, most are generally just local history museums.

Also, Greater Brisbane features a vast sprawl of countless suburbs that can be seen across the metropolitan region.

Do
While many associate South-East Queensland beaches with the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast or Noosa, there are plenty of beaches in the Greater Brisbane region in the three cities that have a coastline; Brisbane, Redland City and Moreton Bay. As Brisbane's waters are the location of Brisbane's port, Port of Brisbane, the airport, and where the Brisbane River flows, it may not be the best spot to go and swim or surf, but the other two have plenty of beaches for swimming and surfing. If you're in Brisbane and are unsure on where to go, Moreton Bay is much better known than the Redlands for its beaches.

Eat
The place you could go to for food for a diverse variety of food is obviously Brisbane CBD, where you can pretty much get nearly every single type of cuisine that's available in Australia that you can think of. However, that should not be a huge surprise, as it's the CBD of Australia's third largest city.

A bit to the northeast of Brisbane CBD lies Fortitude Valley, which is Brisbane's Chinatown and there's plenty of Chinese restaurants, with both a mix of authentic Chinese cuisine and a bit of Overseas Chinese cuisine. As seafood is heavily consumed, the menus found tend to have a stronger emphasis on seafood, as opposed to the rest of Australia where pork or chicken is the main emphasis. Another place in Brisbane that has some good Chinese food owing to its large Chinese population is Sunnybank, which is Brisbane's equivalent of Melbourne's Box Hill or Sydney's Kingston. Outside Brisbane City, other places generally tend to just have what Chinese restaurants in rural areas have, and options are not the best, though the options in Logan are slightly better than the other three.