Brisbane Dockside To Riverlife Walk

Brisbane Dockside To Riverlife Walk, Queensland. Australia

We started our walk under the Story Bridge at Captain John Burke Park. John Burke Park, sitting below Brisbane's Story Bridge is one of Brisbane's most scenic, inner-city parks with a host of hidden treasures just waiting to be explored. The Story Bridge is as much of an icon to Brisbane as the Sydney Harbour Bridge is to Sydney. Like the Sydney Harbour Bridge, you can drive across it, walk across it, and even go up onto the spans via a guided bridge climb. In John Burke Park, near the intersection of Holman and Main Streets, there is a Story Board setting out a brief history of the Shipping Company after whom the Park is named.

We followed the path south with jacaranda trees lining the riverside between the Medley Cafe and Dockside Ferry Terminal. Passing Yungaba House, which is steeped in history, starting out as an immigration house in 1887 and eventually being used as a temporary refuge for destitute soldiers, an accommodation centre for workers on the Story Bridge and later as a hospital in WWII.

Yungaba, situated alongside the Brisbane River on the eastern side of the point, was designed as an immigrant hostel in 1885 to provide for new migrants. The name "Yungaba" means ‘place of sunshine’ and derives from the Gubbi Gubbi Aboriginal language from the Maroochy area. The use of Yungaba for immigration ceased in 1995 and in 2008, the Queensland Government sold Yungaba to developers, Australand. Australand restored the building and converted it into apartments and constructed three other apartment buildings alongside the original building.

A little further up you pass Medley Café, which commands a prime riverfront position at Kangaroo Point, nestled in the exclusive history-laden Yungaba enclave. The contemporary open plan eatery with 2 level terraced decks makes the most of the stunning views across to the Howard Smith wharves, Brisbane River Walk and New Farm cliffs and is an unbeatable spot to catch some warm morning rays in winter or cool river breezes in summer. Moving forward we pass the Bridgewater Terraces with their amazing view of either a blossoming garden or the Brisbane River.

Further up the path we pass Moreton View Tower and Villas located on Brisbane’s historic shipbuilding dockyard. The re-developed areas between Darragh Street and Cairns Street were previously the Evans Deakin shipbuilding yards, established in 1940 and closed in 1975. The Company began by building ships to meet Australia’s defence needs in WWII. Over 80 large vessels, including an oil-drilling rig, were constructed. The Dockside marina was formerly a large dry dock for ship construction, built by the State Government and Evans Deakin between 1964 and 1967. It is on the site of a slip built by Hugh Moar in 1881. Evans Deakin used Moar’s slip from 1940 until work started on the dry dock in 1964. A ship built by the company, the RW Miller, was at the fitting out berth in the river when the 1974 flood struck Brisbane. It was cut loose from its moorings by the force of the flood and valiant efforts were need by Marine personnel and tug operators to prevent its being lost. he dockyards lay derelict for some years until the development of firstly, Dockside Hotel and then Moreton View Tower and Villas. After many setbacks in the building of MVTV, first ‘off-the-plan’ contracts were signed in the early part of 1989 and the first residents took up occupancy in December 1989.

Passing Dockside Marina port, located in front of three prominent appartment towers, we followed the footbridge across the mouth of the Frank Nicklin Dry Dock crossing Ferryman’s Bridge and finishing in Cairns Street, turning around we headed back towards the Story Bridge. 

Being low tide, you can take stairs down to a sandy beach beside the river. We let Shari (pup) off leash for a run on the beach and a little swim before we continued onwards. 

Next passing the Holman Street Ferry Terminal, which is a great spot to head across the river to the Brisbane CBD. The next destination for our walk today was Riverlife, which operates from the old Naval Stores. 

The building was constructed between 1886 and 1888. Subsequently, they were added to the Queensland Heritage Register in 1992. Riverlife which was started in 2005 operates from this heritage building and has quite an extensive offering. From tours both on and off the water to event spaces both in and out of doors. 

Kim passed up a coffee and we continue to the Kangaroo Point cliffs, stopping for watch a few climbers conquering the cliff face.  We then turned around and headed back to Captain Burke Park. 

A brief but thorough account of the history of Kangaroo Point can be found in the publication Kangaroo Point Heritage Walk, published by the Kangaroo Point Neighbourhood Watch. The walk is also dotting with history plaques and signs.

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