People have lived in the Brisbane area for thousands of years - Aboriginal occupation in parts of the region predates the end of the last Ice Age. The first Europeans arrived in the early 1820s - a generally disgruntled group of solders, government officials and recalcitrant convicts who had committed further crimes since transportation to New South Wales.

The new settlers may not have been inspiring, but they came to an area with a long, wide river and fertile soils bathed in a sub-tropical climate. The Colonial Office in London thought the convict colony would pave the way for a prosperous free settlement.

Using archive photos from the late nineteenth century through to the 1950s, Brisbane Then an d Now matches historical views with their twenty-first century equivalents to tell the story of one of Australia's most vibrant cities.