The nation's fastest-growing capital, Brisbane is Australia's third-largest city with a population of 1,626,900 in the year 2000. Its climate is sub-tropical with an average annual rainfall of 1090 mm (most of which falls between December and March), an average of over seven hours of sunshine each day, a humidity level which hovers around 50 per cent for all the year, and a temperature range from 10°C in winter to 30°C in summer.
The locals will happily tell you that Brisbane is the only Australian capital city to enjoy a perfect climate - and who would argue with them ... Brisbane is a sub-tropical city which thrives on informality. To understand Brisbane it is vital to recognise that the city is full of contradictions. It is an informal place full of aggressiveness. It is a place of shorts and thongs and high finance. It is both sophisticated and bucolic. It is a city in flux. A city eager to change and reluctant to abandon its old and easier ways.
In his book 'Portrait of Brisbane' that passionate Queenslander Bill Scott described the city's informality and uniqueness when he wrote: 'Brisbane is a lazy town with its sleeves rolled up, casually sprawling across its thirty-seven hills. The hills are patterned with paling fences, mango trees, high-stepping weather-board houses, and a tangle of overhead wires like the web of a demented spider.'