It's just a floating bus!

Brisbane is sometimes known as 'The River City' because of the Brisbane river. This flows through the city and its suburbs , splitting the entire area into the 'Northside' and the 'Southside'. There's a bit of a friendly rivalry between the two sides (similar to the North / South divide in the UK), although in fitting with the Southern Hemisphere setting the northern side is historically considered slightly more upmarket and the southside more industrial & working class. It's all a bit odd because the river runs North-East to South-West, so many 'northsiders' live south of the 'southsiders' they look down on.

The Story Bridge spans the river at Kangaroo Point
It was built in the 30's and although I've heard rumours that it uses steel initially over-bought for the Sydney Harbour Bridge I've not seen anything to back that up. I do know one factoid though - Australias shortest highway runs across it.

There is also a lot of traffic along the river. By far the best are the 'CityCat' catamaran ferries - the second coolest form of public river transport I've ever seen.

These cruise up & down the river at a surprising speed and have a great viewing platform at the front and back to watch the scenery glide past Kangaroo Point cliffs are quarried cliffs which have been opened up for rock climbing. They're illuminated at night and have free barbecues at their base to chill out after a hard evenings bolt-clipping. The Goodwill Bridge is a pedestrian / skate / bike only bridge with a nautical museum at one end (hence the boat in the picture above). The top of the bridge is the meeting point for the Wednesday Night Skate, and negotiating the bridge is also the first major challenge for beginner skaters.
There are many more sites to see along the river, and a $6 day ticket can have you cruising up & down the river all day. The one thing they need is an on-board bar! This of course means that the ferries are full of tourists every weekend, frustrating the locals. As a long-term Brisbane resident & friend once said when I got excited about them, 'It's just a bloody bus on the water!'
As an aside, there's a statue next to the river of someone tenderly doing up the laces for a child. Unfortuanely it's slightly ill-thought out and tends to get double-takes when first seen...