25 signs you were born and raised in Brisbane

1. You’ve seen your house, your neighbourhood, or your favourite café underwater at least once.

Your whole life, you heard your parents talk about the ‘74 floods of their childhood, and watched them point out various water level marks around town. The ‘74 floods had nothing on the floods of 2011.

2. You’ve anxiously waited for a date underneath the Hungry Jacks sign in the Queen Street Mall.

…While trying to maintain some personal space among all the other anxiously waiting teens. Even when you’re just trying to meet up with a friend, you feel like a jittery teenager.

3. You turn up your nose at it, but you secretly love the Gold Coast.

It can be tacky and touristy, but parts of it are undeniably beautiful. You just steer clear of Surfers in favour of Broadbeach and Burleigh Heads.

4. You’ve made poor choices at the RE’s student night.

You know you’re in for a bad night when you follow up with a trip to Dunder. Shudder.

5. You’ve instagrammed from GoMA.

You’ve been to at least one Asia-Pacific Triennial, because you know the art installations will have serious Instagram potential.

6. You have a strategy for visiting the Eat Street Markets.

To fit in as many delicious street food snacks as you can, you make your friends share every dish with you.

7. You’re a sushi snob.

You will bypass three closer sushi restaurants to go to your favourite. You also know where your nearest preferred sushi train or bar is at any given time.

8. You nearly fell over the first time you were put on a waitlist for brunch.

Brisbane is growing up. Luckily, Shouk in Paddington is worth a short ten-minute wait. You laughed when you were asked to wait 45 minutes for brunch in Sydney or Melbourne.

9. You’ve gone on a date to Mt Coot-tha.

And at least one of your fitness fanatic friends has tried to convince you to walk to the summit.

10. You swam at Streets Beach once.

Once.

11. You can feel an afternoon storm hours before the clouds roll in.

Brisbane is a humid city, and you can feel the humidity building before the release of a thunderstorm. In fact, on a muggy morning you’re not only predicting, but praying for an afternoon storm.

12. You didn’t see snow until you were in your twenties.

There’s a good chance you’ve never seen snow. In fact, you’re secretly surprised it snows anywhere in Australia.

13. You’ve joined the crowds for Riverfire.

The Brisbane Festival in September goes out with a bang with the annual Riverfire fireworks show. You can’t miss it.

14. You seriously consider cancelling your plans when it starts to rain.

It’s mostly sunny in Brisbane, but when it rains it pours. Wild storms and the potential of flood makes a heavy downpour not just inconvenient, but often dangerous. Mostly because no one knows how to drive in the rain.

15. You let tourists flock to the Gold Coast while you head north to the Sunshine Coast.

The beaches of Noosa, Caloundra, Mooloolaba, and Coolum are just a short drive away.

16. You never miss a State of Origin game.

You always watch the ultimate grudge match between Queensland and New South Wales, even if you don’t follow any sport during the rest of the year. You tell yourself it was a blessing in disguise that NSW won in 2014, because winning eight years in a row was getting a little dull.

17. You eat your body weight in mangoes every summer.

And you have your mango carving down to a fine art.

18. You’ve been to all of the Gold Coast theme parks.

You know Dreamworld, Sea World, Movie World, and Wet ‘n Wild like the back of your hand.

19. You’ve sat in the mosaic couch at Trammies Corner.

You enjoyed the view. You didn’t enjoy sitting on a couch made of stone.

20. You have a personal opinion on all of the city’s bridges.

You’ve even grown to love the divisive Kurilpa Bridge.

21. You once thought taking the city cat to New Farm Park would be a good idea.

And realised you drastically overestimated the speed of the city cat.

22. You were underage at Schoolies.

Queenslanders graduate high school when they’re 17, which means the entire post-high school party week was spent in hotel rooms and your handful of 18 year old friends were worth their weight in gold. You also know to never visit the Gold Coast in late November or early December.

23. Some of your best memories are from Stradbroke Island.

It’s a twenty minute ferry trip, but it feels like a world away from the city. But you know to avoid during the September holidays, when “Straddie” is overrun by binge-drinking high schoolers.

24. You’re disappointed when international visitors skip Brisbane, but secretly confused when they do come.

It’s a beautiful city, but you gotta know — what did they see in a tourism brochure that brought them here?

25. You spent the first half of your life complaining about Brisbane and the second half defending it.

Sure, when you were sixteen all you ever did was bitch and moan that Brisbane was boring. These days, you’re proud of your hometown for having the creativity and energy of a big city, but the laidback lifestyle of a small one.