By Wikipedia CAIRNS, Australia (AP) — Strong winds and driving rain began buffeting northeast Australia as one of the country's biggest-ever storms bore down…
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Brisbane is the state capital of the Australian state of Queensland and is the largest city in that state. The statistical division of Brisbane has an estimated population of approximately 2 million, along with its LGA registering a bit over a million, it is also the third most populous city in Australia. The city is situated on the Brisbane River on a low-lying floodplain between Moreton Bay and the Great Dividing Range in southeastern Queensland. The local indigenous people knew the area as Mian-jin, meaning 'place shaped as a spike'. Brisbane is named after the river on which it sits which, in turn, was named after Sir Thomas Brisbane, the Governor of New South Wales from 1821 to 1825. Brisbane's demonym is a Brisbanite. The first European settlement in Queensland was a penal colony at Redcliffe, 28 kilometres (17 mi) north of the Brisbane central business district, in 1824. That settlement was soon abandoned and moved to North Quay in 1825. Free settlers were permitted from 1842. Brisbane was chosen as the capital when Queensland was proclaimed a separate colony from New South Wales in 1859. Brisbane also Borders the Moreton Bay, Ipswich, Somerset, Logan and the Redland Areas. At a municipal level, the city is governed by the Brisbane City Council. In 1925, the City of Brisbane Act was passed by the Queensland Government, abolishing 20 local government authorities in the city and forming the largest local authority in Australia. The city played a central role in the Allied campaign during World War II as the South West Pacific headquarters for General Douglas MacArthur. Brisbane has hosted many large cultural and sporting events including the 1982 Commonwealth Games, World Expo '88 and the final Goodwill Games in 2001. In 2008, Brisbane was classified as a gamma world city+ in the World Cities Study Group’s inventory by Loughborough University.
