3 Days in Brisbane, Australia

After spending some time in Melbourne, I traveled north to Brisbane for three days. As the third-largest city in Australia, there are plenty of things to do in the city and its surrounding areas.

Day 1 – Exploring the City

I arrived early in the day and dropped my bags off at YHA Brisbane City hostel. From there, I headed to the central part of the city. My first stop was the Queensland Museum which is a natural history and science museum. I headed to the Brisbane Sign next, and then I visited City Hall where I took a tour of the clock tower. I didn’t think the views were anything special, but the clock was mildly interesting. Afterwards, I stopped for lunch in the South Bank area which had quite a few restaurants and bars.

The Brisbane Sign

After cooling down in the air conditioning, my next stop was Felons Brewing Company where I enjoyed a glass of wine with views of the Brisbane River and Story Bridge in the background. From there, I took an elevator up to the bridge which has space for pedestrians to walk across. This was a long but relaxing walk, and the bridge led to Kangaroo Point Cliffs Lookout which had really nice views of downtown Brisbane.

View from Felons Brewing Company

Kangaroo Point Cliffs Lookout

The weather was cooling down a bit, so I walked back to South Bank and through the Arbour Walkway which was filled with beautiful trees. I then stopped for dinner at Gnocchi Gnocchi Brothers where I had gnocchi (of course) along with a really good house salad. It was a day with lots of walking, but I was glad I’d seen a few different areas of Brisbane.

The Arbour Walkway

Day 2 – Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

I woke up early the next morning to visit the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, an animal sanctuary a few miles from downtown Brisbane. I took the public bus there which was really convenient; I had purchased a Go Card when I arrived the day before, which is a travel card you can load money onto to pay for buses, trains, and trams. The bus dropped me off directly at the sanctuary’s entrance.

After making my way inside the sanctuary, my first stop was the extras counter to see if they had any koala experiences for sale; these had been sold out online. I was able to purchase a koala-holding ticket as well as a dingo encounter (note: the koala-holding is no longer an option as of July 1, 2024). My tickets were scheduled for later in the day, so I visited the kangaroos and wallabies first. I spent some time feeding them and walking around their exhibit, and then I saw some dingos, Tasmanian devils, and a cassowary.

Mom and baby kangaroo

Before long it was time for my koala experience, where a zookeeper taught me how to hold a koala and then placed him in my arms for a photo opportunity. The koala’s name was Jester and he was very cute, although his fur was a bit coarse and his claws were sharp!

Jester the Koala

After that special experience, I had some lunch and then visited the koala exhibits. All of them were sleeping but they were still very adorable. I then headed to the raptor show, where one of the zookeepers showed us some huge flying owls and falcons; they were trained to swoop over the crowd and the surrounding area and even took some bird food from an audience member. Finally, it was time for my dingo experience where I got to meet Stirling, a four-year old dingo. He was extremely soft and pretty good at posing for photos (he was given meatballs after each photo which helped). I had seen all of the exhibits by late afternoon, so I took the bus back into the city and enjoyed a quiet rest of the evening. It was a very unique day learning about and interacting with many different Australian animals.

Stirling the Dingo

Day 3 – The Australia Zoo

I had another animal-filled day planned, as I would be spending the day at the Australia Zoo, which is Steve Irwin’s famous zoo. I took the early train from Brisbane to Beerwah where the zoo is located. When we arrived, a courtesy coach picked passengers up from the train station and took us directly to the entrance.

The zoo was very different from others I had been to; the exhibits were all huge with tons and tons of space for the animals to roam. This was of course good for the animals, but it did take a long time to walk from exhibit to exhibit. My favorite animals throughout the day were the komodo dragons, cheetahs, elephants, and koalas. I also got to see my first echidnas and quokkas which were both very cute.

Koalas at the Australia Zoo

I spent most of the day at the zoo, and in addition to the regular exhibits I watched the “Tigers Live” and “Crocodiles Live” shows. The crocodile one was especially interesting; the zookeepers demonstrated how the crocs can sense vibrations from the shore and sneak up on their prey. They taught us a lot of crocodile safety tips as well, which was useful since I would be spending awhile in Australia! Eventually I headed back to Brisbane and had dinner at La Carmela which was close to my hostel. I would be venturing to the Outback the next day to start the work part of my working holiday visa, so it was nice to have a final few days of vacation beforehand. It was a short but sweet introduction to the city.

A very large crocodile