The architect Stuart Vokes calls it "the Brisbane Project", a conscious act of valuing or re-valuing the settings and buildings of the city. Some of it started with domestic architecture, the reclaiming of a thousand old Queenslanders, which was only semi public. The project became noticeable on much larger scale with redevelopments such as GOMA and the State Library, and spread across the landscape with dozens of retail developments that turned the concept of a shopping mall inside out, returning the life of the city to its streets.

The meeting of Fish Lane and Grey Street is an example that snuck up on me. The lane was once a sketchy cut-through, nicking the arse-end of South Brisbane. Grey Street had no purpose beyond serving as a major traffic funnel. Neither suggested themselves as hosts of a groovy little dining district, but that's what happened. Just across from the museum's dinosaur garden, where T-Rex still roars at the buses as they rumble past, an apartment development sitting hard up against the elevated train line retained the old colonial era buildings at street level, and raised apartments above.

And what premium apartment block is complete without a fantastic cocktail bar? None, I tell you. Not a damned one of them. So the residents got Maker, a minimalist – almost sly – grog shop from Jerome Batten, one of the guys behind New Farm's really awesome little grocery, Sourced. Looking more like a Melbourne espresso bar than the other sort, Maker is a thin sliver of dark delight, all wood panelling, raw metal and a long bar in burnished copper.

Properly lubricated, the question of a nosh arises and is answered by Julius and Gauge. The former a high-volume diner that maintains a high-quality menu, even as it serves hordes of tourists and families, the latter one of the smartest, most demanding restaurants in the country. The city is but a few minutes' walk away. Transport is ubiquitous. The purpose of a city – to crush as much potential into as small a space as possible – is well realised here.

This makes what seems to be happening a short drive away in West End all the more vexing. You don't get more village-like than West End, yet the city and state governments, which have done surprisingly well in South Brisbane, appear to be utterly clueless here. There are hundreds, hell, maybe thousands of new apartments going into the area, most of them in the old warehouse and light industrial neighbourhoods where the river bends around at the old milk factory.