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The New South Cities Series #2
Brisbane
Part of a series in which leading Australian authors write about their hometowns, this unique and evocative exploration is part memoir and part guide to Australia's Brisbane. Intertwining personal stories with the city's historical past, this account paints a portrait of the contemporary transformation of the city.
313 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2010
8 people are currently reading
146 people want to read
About the author
Matthew Condon
40 books47 followersMatthew Steven Condon is a prize-winning Australian author and journalist.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
July 17, 2014
Mostly dull, beige, disjointed, with a few momentary splashes of color or historical interest. Much like the city itself. Can't tell if that was intentional, but I was bored by this book. Easy to read but a struggle to finish.
October 7, 2016
This book is 290 pages, but only needed to be 11 words long: "Brisbane sucks, but I choose to live here anyway. The end"
Its structure was supposedly inspired by the "meandering Brisbane river". Which I think is code for "I just started writing until I stopped". It has no narrative, theme or message. Other than "Brisbane sucks", which it manages to weave into each unrelated tale.
For example - apparently in Brisbane's early days, there was a lot of trouble getting the town clocks in synch and correct, and the population complained about it a lot. Obviously, says the book, this was because they wanted to be close to England's "beating heart in Greenwich". Rather than, say, wanting to know what the time was.
There's a few interesting bits and pieces about Brisbane history (like the clock thing), but only of interest to people who live here.
Otherwise, I don't think this book has anything to recommend it, unless you share the author's chipped shoulder and want to feel that your rampant insecurity is justified.
Its structure was supposedly inspired by the "meandering Brisbane river". Which I think is code for "I just started writing until I stopped". It has no narrative, theme or message. Other than "Brisbane sucks", which it manages to weave into each unrelated tale.
For example - apparently in Brisbane's early days, there was a lot of trouble getting the town clocks in synch and correct, and the population complained about it a lot. Obviously, says the book, this was because they wanted to be close to England's "beating heart in Greenwich". Rather than, say, wanting to know what the time was.
There's a few interesting bits and pieces about Brisbane history (like the clock thing), but only of interest to people who live here.
Otherwise, I don't think this book has anything to recommend it, unless you share the author's chipped shoulder and want to feel that your rampant insecurity is justified.
November 27, 2011
Was I more critical of this one than the other two in the series (Melbourne, Hobart) that I'd read because I know Brisbane well? Possibly (I'm prepared to admit as much) but I don't think so. The occassional third person narration was annoying, and unnecessary. It felt like he tried to grasp to hard for a theme, when one - a potentially interesting one - was staring him right in the face and he didn't explore it. He talks of leaving Brisbane as a young man and returning decades later with a family. He alludes to why, but he doesn't explore that. Instead, he juxtaposes his blissful childhood with his son's, and an exploration of Brisbane's murky beginnings and an historian's misplaced self-esteem. Maybe he just couldn't decide what the hell Brisbane was going to be about, and threw in too much, and made much too much of a deal of some of the things his son does, that he also did. I did like the exchange between father and son about where Brisbane was, however. It was one of the few things in the book that seemed true and like meaning wasn't painfully extracted from it. Just a kid, asking about a park and then distracted by the idea of playing. Anyway, it also made me tire of the series. So I'll take a break before embarking on Sydney and Perth and Adelaide (and will Canberra and Darwin get a look in? I hope so.)
August 2, 2024
I’ve read much better Brisbane books (“Johnno”, “The Mayne Inheritance”) Although it was better written and had some wonderfully vivid image-filled descriptions, I didn't enjoy it as much. Its jumping between past and present was awkward and hindered engagement.
July 21, 2018
As with other books from this series I enjoyed taking a look at one of Australia’s capital cities through the eyes of a local resident. From Brisbane I learnt a little bit of the city’s history, but I also enjoyed the author’s reminiscing about his childhood and discovering his family history all of which is attached to the city in various ways.
April 23, 2016
On the jacket blurb, this book makes the rather audacious claim that it’s a memoir of both the city and the author, “melancholic but not sentimental”.
Lies.
There is more fuzzy nostalgia, schmaltz, and sentiment in this book than in an entire season of M*A*S*H. That’s not to say that Matt Condon isn’t a fine writer. He is. But if you want to find his “A” material, this isn’t the place. His focus meanders around much like the Brisbane River, slow, languid and without any particular destination in mind. If I didn’t know better I’d say that the text may have been completed late, because this is a volume that could benefit from a fair bit of editing to link everything together a bit more strongly.
Where there is a focus on the history of the city itself, they don’t really concern figures like Oxley, Logan, Pamphlett, Parsons, Finnegan, Zillmann, or any of the other important figures in early Brisbane history that most locals don’t know even as they drive on roads named after them and live in suburbs named after them. Instead, Condon focuses on Frank Cumbrae-Stewart, an unlikable blowhard from the early years of the 20th century who is responsible for the misplaced obelisk on North Quay commemorating a spot where Oxley probably didn’t land. It is an interesting enough story if you like hearing about the petty politics in historical societies. But if you were expecting something on the early days of Brisbane, you’ll be disappointed.
Not that the book is entirely hopeless, it is interesting to see the contrasts between Condon’s own childhood in the inner city and my own out in the northern bay side suburbs. The endless stories about Condon’s childhood are brought together with the story of Oxley and Cumbrae-Stewart towards the end of the book. But getting to that point you have to wade through what seems like endless recollections and stories about Cumbrae-Stewart’s talent for making enemies. And sentiment, a lot of melancholic sentiment.
Lies.
There is more fuzzy nostalgia, schmaltz, and sentiment in this book than in an entire season of M*A*S*H. That’s not to say that Matt Condon isn’t a fine writer. He is. But if you want to find his “A” material, this isn’t the place. His focus meanders around much like the Brisbane River, slow, languid and without any particular destination in mind. If I didn’t know better I’d say that the text may have been completed late, because this is a volume that could benefit from a fair bit of editing to link everything together a bit more strongly.
Where there is a focus on the history of the city itself, they don’t really concern figures like Oxley, Logan, Pamphlett, Parsons, Finnegan, Zillmann, or any of the other important figures in early Brisbane history that most locals don’t know even as they drive on roads named after them and live in suburbs named after them. Instead, Condon focuses on Frank Cumbrae-Stewart, an unlikable blowhard from the early years of the 20th century who is responsible for the misplaced obelisk on North Quay commemorating a spot where Oxley probably didn’t land. It is an interesting enough story if you like hearing about the petty politics in historical societies. But if you were expecting something on the early days of Brisbane, you’ll be disappointed.
Not that the book is entirely hopeless, it is interesting to see the contrasts between Condon’s own childhood in the inner city and my own out in the northern bay side suburbs. The endless stories about Condon’s childhood are brought together with the story of Oxley and Cumbrae-Stewart towards the end of the book. But getting to that point you have to wade through what seems like endless recollections and stories about Cumbrae-Stewart’s talent for making enemies. And sentiment, a lot of melancholic sentiment.
July 2, 2016
This was one of the first in a series of Aussie authors writing about their home town, covering most of the major cities. I've read most with 2 remaining. This was a very interesting read for me as I knew little of Brisbane and Queensland's background. I liked that Mr Condon referred to the city as 'a book with no index'. He comes at this through his family's history which went back a couple of generations. He starts with the controversy of how and where the city was founded with the surveyor John Oxley coming ashore and why the current memorial must be in the wrong place. He follows to the separation of Queensland from New South Wales as a new colony of Great Britain. And how the city grew to importance aquiring a bit of cosmopolitan airs during WWII with the huge US military presence. Into sleepy 1950's and then the corrupt police state of Joh Bjeke-Peterson in the 1960's to 1970's. And how the sleepy small overgrown town exploded into a world class city in the late 1990's especially the policies of the Labour government of Peter Beattie.
October 11, 2014
The story of Brisbane as a 'book with no index' was very interesting to me, as a reader who moved to this city as an adult, and from Sydney at that. Brisbane makes a bit more sense to me after reading this book.
I found this book by Condon much easier to engage with than his long-form journalistic work 'Three Crooked Kings' (which I couldn't finish it was so dry). So, if you didn't like 'Three Crooked Kings', don't be turned off Condon's work, just try 'Brisbane' instead.
I found this book by Condon much easier to engage with than his long-form journalistic work 'Three Crooked Kings' (which I couldn't finish it was so dry). So, if you didn't like 'Three Crooked Kings', don't be turned off Condon's work, just try 'Brisbane' instead.
March 18, 2012
What delightful surprise. This book is beautifully written, it's poetry in prose. It has certainly given me a magical perspective of Brisbane, a city I will be visiting soon.
September 5, 2019
This is part of a series of books written about Australia's capital cities by writers who grew up there. The whole series is aimed at readers who are very familiar with the cities described, and I found myself a little frustrated at the lack of a map and the easy assumptions made by the author that a stranger would immediately know suburbs and locations. But this insider-ism honours the intent of the books to be travel-books-without-leaving-home, written for those ‘at home’ rather than visitors. They are impressionistic rather than instructive.
That said, I think that my experience of Brisbane was enhanced by having read this book, despite being an outsider
That said, I think that my experience of Brisbane was enhanced by having read this book, despite being an outsider
January 5, 2020
Despite what others have said I enjoyed the meandering narrative. The way the book covered three time periods - the historical, the Conden as a boy and the present emphasising that Brisbane has many story layers.
April 25, 2022
Interesting approach of interweaving his personal story as he discovers more about the city he grew up in. Great to discover more about my own city, relate to some of the nuances of the city and consider where it is headed based on where we have come from.
February 8, 2020
A beautiful homage to Brisbane, 'where the chime of the City Hall clock echoes through time and place'.
November 27, 2022
Beautiful homage that combines fact and anecdote to paint an interesting canvas of the city
October 24, 2020
This is an excellent account of early Brisbane and all the bureaucratic garbage that seems to abound in Governments, whether now or in the past.
Nevertheless, it is a very good history lesson, and the interests, comments and passions of the writer, Matthew CONDON blend very well.
I have twice had this out from the Library and have to now return it; but am hoping no one else wants it so I can get out again.
Highly recommended.
Nevertheless, it is a very good history lesson, and the interests, comments and passions of the writer, Matthew CONDON blend very well.
I have twice had this out from the Library and have to now return it; but am hoping no one else wants it so I can get out again.
Highly recommended.
May 15, 2017
Australian author and journalist, Matthew Condon, captures the essence of his childhood city in this memoir of Brisbane’s past and present. As a fellow “Brisbanite”, I struggled to relate to Condon’s romantic point of view.
Brisbane pieces together the city’s elusive history with painstaking detail. The key focus is on rediscovering John Oxley’s original 1824 landing site, following the misjudgment of the memorial’s placement in North Quay.
To avoid being too dry, Condon breaks up the book with personal anecdotes from his childhood and interactions with his young son in the present day. Although this nostalgia can be cloying, his writing is a lot more engaging here, adding a pinch of tasteful narrative to an otherwise very bland book. Condon explains that he deliberately wove the book’s structure to mirror the meandering flow of the Brisbane River. Attention to details like this redeems this heavy read.
Although I would never read this book for pleasure, I appreciate the insight it gave me. I would have liked to learn more about my city’s cultural history, rather than just its town planning. Unfortunately, the topics covered in this memoir will interest only a narrow, local readership.
This review can also be found on my blog Paige's Pages.
Brisbane pieces together the city’s elusive history with painstaking detail. The key focus is on rediscovering John Oxley’s original 1824 landing site, following the misjudgment of the memorial’s placement in North Quay.
To avoid being too dry, Condon breaks up the book with personal anecdotes from his childhood and interactions with his young son in the present day. Although this nostalgia can be cloying, his writing is a lot more engaging here, adding a pinch of tasteful narrative to an otherwise very bland book. Condon explains that he deliberately wove the book’s structure to mirror the meandering flow of the Brisbane River. Attention to details like this redeems this heavy read.
Although I would never read this book for pleasure, I appreciate the insight it gave me. I would have liked to learn more about my city’s cultural history, rather than just its town planning. Unfortunately, the topics covered in this memoir will interest only a narrow, local readership.
This review can also be found on my blog Paige's Pages.
December 30, 2012
This book inspired me to walk the route which John Oxley may have explored from today's Coronation Drive up Lang Parade, Eagle Tce and Haig Road in Milton and Rosalie, up to Paddington, following the valley of fresh water ponds (now underground drains)which Oxley described. I also found several of the deep gullies still with surviving patches of bush that Condon mentions. Apart from that this book was a disappointment. It was repetitive and seemed to lack a central theme to hold it together. It is more a collection of essays and recollections (some of them banal) than a coherent book. It fell way short of Robert Drewe's The Shark Net, for instance. More could have been done with the history of Oxley's explorations of the area perhaps rather than dwelling on the tiresome character behind the wrongly located plinth. I've since discovered this is one in a series of books about capital cities in Australia and so perhaps there were issues of publication deadlines which prevented this being a better book.
March 14, 2016
Although it was 2014 when I read Brisbane, I can't help but recall this short semi-fictional autobiography cum historical narrative (yup it wears that many hats) whenever I visit a city's centre. Because of this book, where I once saw cumbersome buildings and roads, I now see stories of real people who lived and died, triumphed and failed; of whole communities whose lives centred (to a certain extent) around these buildings and who talked, lived, and saw the world differently from how we do now, and ultimately how those stories have paved the way to what the rest of the city is able to be today. Recommended for his lyrical and... sensitive prose. haha
November 26, 2017
Ostensibly for book research, but I was drawn into this multilayered, overlapping, story of the author’s search for both Brisbane’s European origins, and his family’s. Both histories are blank — ‘books without an index’ — and he follows memories, documents, and names down gullies and across valley floors. Brisbane is a mud map, made from the surrounding environment, and washed away to be made new again.
June 18, 2011
This book was recommended to me as being similar to "The Mayne Inheritance". Although it was arguably better written, I didn't enjoy it as much. I wanted MORE history and intersting stories.
August 20, 2019
Lovely book! I may be biased, but I think this was a wonderful, quirky memoir/history book.
June 3, 2014
Great account of Brisbane in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. A short book, so shouldn't take too much time.
June 24, 2015
Having grown up in Brisbane I thoroughly enjoyed this book and brought fresh insights to my understanding of the city.
Read
December 12, 2018DNF on pg. 50 - I couldn’t particularly identify with it and wasn’t getting enough joy/ curious fun facts/ knowledge out of it. Hence 👋
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews