🎭 Culture & Dining

South Brisbane

South Brisbane wraps around South Bank on the southern riverbank and holds the galleries, the convention centre and the dining strips — the working half of the same precinct.

✍️ By Frank Adam Burns 📅 Updated 2026📍 Brisbane, QLD

South Brisbane and South Bank are used interchangeably by most visitors, and the boundary genuinely is blurry. The useful distinction: South Bank is the parkland, South Brisbane is the built-up suburb around it — the galleries, the convention centre, the restaurants and the apartments.

The Cultural Centre

The four institutions sit at the northern end where South Brisbane meets the Victoria Bridge, and all have free general entry.

GOMA is the largest modern art gallery in Australia. The Queensland Art Gallery holds the historical collections. The Queensland Museum has Muttaburrasaurus and the whale gallery, with the ticketed Sciencentre attached. The State Library completes the row.

QPAC is here too, handling the touring productions and the orchestra, and the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre sits behind on Merivale Street.

Grey Street and Little Stanley Street

Grey Street runs the length of the precinct and carries most of the restaurants, bars and hotels. Little Stanley Street is the more casual parallel strip facing the parklands.

Both are busy every weekend and book out around QPAC performances and convention events — worth checking what is on if you want a table.

The dining here is more mainstream than West End's and more expensive, with the trade-off being that it is open later and more reliably.

Fish Lane

The laneway running behind Grey Street has become one of the better small-bar and restaurant strips in the city — narrow, with street art, and considerably more interesting than the main road it sits behind.

It is the answer if Grey Street feels too polished.

South Brisbane or South Bank?

For accommodation the difference barely matters — they adjoin and everything is within a few minutes' walk.

South Brisbane puts you closer to the train stations, the convention centre and the restaurants. South Bank puts you closer to the parklands, Streets Beach and the river. Either way you have both.

Staying Here

Good for: culture, dining, conventions, families using the parklands, and excellent transport — two train stations, the busway and the ferry.

Less good for: quiet, and value — this is one of the more expensive parts of the city to stay in.

Getting There

South Brisbane and South Bank stations both serve the area, the Cultural Centre busway station is at the galleries, and the CityCat and CityHopper stop at South Bank. Every journey costs fifty cents.

On foot the CBD is about ten minutes over Victoria Bridge, the Goodwill Bridge or the Kurilpa Bridge. West End is about fifteen minutes upstream.

Common Questions

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