Brisbane: City Hall & MoB

When we were here in December 2023, we were unable to get tickets to go up the clock tower at City Hall. They were all sold out. This time, we managed to get tickets, opting for mid-afternoon to make sure we had no conflict with our visit to the Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens.

Since we had time before our tour, we went to the Shingle Inn for lunch … a café that was founded in 1936 … in the midst of the Great Depression. It was relocated to City Hall in 2010. We had lunch here in December … reprised that experience today.

Brisbane City Hall was built between 1920-1930. The design is a combination of the Roman Pantheon and the St Mark’s Campanile in Venice. The clock tower is just over 300 feet tall, making City Hall the tallest building in Brisbane at one time. With the changes to the skyline over the past 90 years that is no longer the case of course.

Max group size for the tour is 7 … there were only four of us on the 3:00p tour. One of the visitor experience officers took us up in the caged elevator … billed as one of the oldest in the city. He told us about the construction of the clock tower, explaining that back in the day the clock was the largest public clock and the most modern time-keeping piece in Australia. Each opal clock face is about 15 feet in diameter.

The tours take place every 15 minutes to ensure no one is on the observation platform — just below the bells … one large and four smaller ones — when they chime. The chimes are known as Westminster or Cambridge. The smaller four bells — weighing 3 tons — chime every 15 minutes, and the 4.3-ton big bell marks the hour.

We got to see the CBD skyline from the observation platform. And then, on the way down, we stopped at the clock level to see them and learn more about them. Unfortunately, we could not get out at that level … nor open the elevator door. That was a bit disappointing. But it is what it is.

Before leaving city hall, we stopped in at the MoB — Museum of Brisbane — on the third floor. I was expecting that the exhibits would be more about the history of the city. And there was a bit of that. But the majority of the exhibits were art-related. One was a collection of paintings … the other was entitled “ReArranged … art of the flower” … colorful and beautiful pieces.Read more