Brisbane is my most favorite city in all of Australia with Melbourne being a distant second. Forget Sydney. It's too much like Los Angeles where at a party, the two typical questions are: "Where do you live, and What do you do?" Once people know those two, they can extrapolate your probable socio-economics, but what may be actually more important is what the inner contents of the person is all about.
Brisbane (pronounced as briz' bin by the Aussies) is a large, modern city, but still has the spirit & hospitality of a friendly country town. The people in Brisbane seem to want to keep it that way, much to their credit. I flew in from Cairns visiting the Great Barrier Reef & staying at Turtle Cove, a laid back, unpretentious resort, and landed in Brisbane where a friendly, loquacious taxi driver picked me up to go to Sportsman Hotel.
We talked about Brisbane, and he pointed out that there was a Chinatown. I guess since I looked East Asian, he thought that I might be interested, but I let him know that if I wanted to go to a Chinatown, I would visit China. I was here to take in as much of Australia as possible.
As we approached the Sportsman, he mentioned that it was an unusual hotel and it may not be in my "style." The taxi driver was just being informative, but I let him know that I specifically made a reservation to stay at the Sportsman Hotel. (I guess that the taxi driver's Gaydar was not working that day.) And with that, my luggage & I were left off in front of a modest hotel.
In Australia, hotel seems to imply a bar/saloon as well as living quarters. It's so convenient to just go down a flight of stairs to get something to eat & alcohol to drink. BTW, don't expect the rooms to be on par with the Ritz Carlton or Four Seasons hotels, etc.
I went to Sporties (That's what the locals affectionately call this venerable hotel) in August 6-9,1999 so things may have evolved from when I stayed there. The bar area was mostly populated by a mellow middle aged group of men mostly ranging from late 30's to the 60's. The buzz of friendly conversation was the most obvious noise.
John, the Bartender, really made the effort to make me feel at home. I was introduced to Frank, Mr. Queensland Leather, his partner David, who also was that week's doorman. Later got to meet Peter T. & his partner Noel and their friend Greg. We hanged out the entire weekend, and I was invited to go with them to the Ekka on Sunday in the avro (afternoon).
Ekka??? Was short for exhibition. An exhibition of what? Buffed men from the stations or "ranches" in American English bring their prized livestock to compete for prizes. It turned out to be very close to the American "county fair" except they didn't have battered & fried candied wallaby wrapped around a kitkat chocolate bar on a stick as an analog to our fried snickers bar/oreos or battered & fried stick of butter. We Americans can be so declasse when it comes to junk food at county fairs.
That Saturday night at Sporties turned out to be hosted by the Boot Company which was the local men's leather organization where they hosted a play party. The men of Brisbane are a lusty, manly bunch, and they knew how to be great party-hearty "Hail, fellow, well met" players.
This was the highlight of my round of 6 Australian cities. Brisbane & Sporties will always be a wonderful memory of true Australian openness & hospitality that will forever be part of my pleasant memories of Australia. Sporties, I lift my hat to thee and finish that salutation with a grand obeisance. May you be here for many more years to come whether it be with drag queens or leathermen.
PS To Peter T. & Noel: My old computer that stored your e-mail address suddenly crashed so I lost any contact information in order to reach you all. Hope all is well & want to let you know that I truly appreciate all the kindness shown to me during my short stay in your fair city. Long may Brisbane prosper. read more