What is the capital of Queensland?

Brisbane is the capital of Queensland and Australia's third-largest city, with a metropolitan population of about 2.7 million. It sits on the Brisbane River about 25 kilometres upstream from Moreton Bay on the south-east coast of Queensland, in a subtropical climate zone.

The city began in 1824 as a penal settlement for repeat offenders sent from Sydney and was named after Sir Thomas Brisbane, then Governor of New South Wales. Free settlement opened from 1842 and Brisbane became the capital when Queensland separated from New South Wales in 1859. The 1974 Brisbane flood and the 2010 to 2011 Queensland floods, both of which inundated central Brisbane, are the city's defining modern disasters and shaped current floodplain planning controls.

Brisbane will host the 2032 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games, the third Australian Olympics after Melbourne 1956 and Sydney 2000. Major venues will include a redeveloped Gabba cricket ground and a new athletes' village. The city is the gateway to south-east Queensland tourism, with the Gold Coast 80 kilometres south and the Sunshine Coast about 100 kilometres north.

Economically, Brisbane is the headquarters for several major Australian companies including Suncorp, Virgin Australia, and Flight Centre, and serves as the corporate centre for Queensland's resources industry. The Port of Brisbane is one of the busiest container ports in Australia. The city is home to the University of Queensland, Queensland University of Technology, and Griffith University, and has a younger demographic profile than Sydney or Melbourne thanks to strong interstate migration from southern states.