By Shane Rodgers
Over time, Brisbane has often referred to itself as a “river city”. For good reason. We have a river and, by global standards, it is a pretty good one.
Despite this, it struck me when I visited Thailand’s capital city, Bangkok, a couple of weeks ago, that we are still well short of really embracing the river as a tourism selling point.
At night, the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok is “party river”. It is awash (if you excuse the pun) with floating restaurants, lit-up attractions, transport vessels and colourful lights.
In a city where traffic constantly slows down the dry world, the Bangkok wet water world is free flowing and fun.
Sure, Brisbane is a much smaller city without millions of tourists to draw into this level of nightlife. Sure, Brisbane has its CityCats and a few floating dining options. But it is pretty sparce out there and, other than the inner city stretch, there are not a whole lot of iconic nighttime spots to excite the journey.
Brisbane has long had a love-hate relationship with the river. Several people have pointed out over the years that very little actually points towards the river.
After some big, devastating floods we tended to turn our backs on our deep, brown waterway as if it was in disgrace.
While there are a few spots that genuinely take advantage of their river location – Howard Smith Wharves, the Eagle Street precinct and South Bank etc – in general there are not a lot of places to directly embrace it.
We have the walkways, but they are mostly a daytime walking experience. They are not heavily integrated into our night economy.
As someone who has previously been deeply involved in Brisbane’s destination positioning, I still think long and hard about Brisbane’s points of difference as a city.
There will be a lot more focus on this in the leadup to the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The fact is, we do a lot of things very well as a city and the inner-city is in a transformation phase that will make it more appealing at night. Visitors like hanging out with friendly Australian people and living the Aussie life for a while.
The trouble is the rest of the world do a lot of things very well too, and Brisbane is a relatively little-known city in a country that is well away from the major population centres.
We need to really define our points of difference and then supercharge those unique selling propositions.
In this, a big river that snakes through the city is a good start. Brisbane River is not Sydney Harbour but it is mightier than the Yarra or the Torrens and it is not outshined by the River Thames or the Seine.
One of the distinctive aspects of the Chao Phraya River night life is the plethora of traditional-looking craft that add an authentic and distinctive flavour.
This does not mean they are old. The traditional longtail boats are now powered by engines that look like they were borrowed from the space shuttle. Dozens of relatively new craft, including the shuttle craft from the major hotels, have the distinctive Thai design.
Bangkok has not just super-activated its river, it has done so in unique Thai style.
The question for Brisbane is: How do we capitalise on one of our best city assets and create our own authentic river experience? How do we embrace our Australian-ness?
Brisbane is first and foremost part of Australia. The appeal of Australiana comes primarily through our unique fauna and our mix of indigenous, European and multinational culture.
Should we have tinny tours? Or Bluey Barges? Or Wiggle Wherries? Or Skippy Sloops? Or Albo Arks?
Most cities of the world would give their right arms (if cities had such a thing) for a river like the one that flows through Brisbane.
What type of river city do we want to be? A river runs through it. But so what we if don’t use it.
Shane Rodgers is the Publisher of Newsreel. He is a former COO and Marketing and Communications Director of the Brisbane Economic Development Agency (formerly known as Brisbane Marketing).
