Queensland transport is two systems: a connected south-east corner of trains, busways, ferries and light rail — currently the cheapest urban transport in the country — and a state beyond it that runs on aircraft and long, straight highways.
The south-east corner
Brisbane’s rail network radiates through the suburbs and runs the spine of the corner — one line south to the Gold Coast, one north toward the Sunshine Coast — while the busways (grade-separated bus motorways, a Brisbane speciality) cover the corridors trains miss. The CityCat ferries make the river a commute: if your hospital sits near a terminal, the boat is the best journey to work in Australia.
The Gold Coast adds its light rail down the beach spine; everything runs on one Go Card (or contactless), and Queensland’s flat-fare experiment has made public transport almost free — check the current fare policy, but budget approximately nothing.
Driving
The rest of the state: fly
Distances worth knowing
| Journey | Typical time |
|---|---|
| Brisbane CBD → hospital cluster (Herston / South Brisbane) | 10–15 min by busway or ferry |
| Brisbane → Gold Coast | ~1 hr by train or road |
| Brisbane → Sunshine Coast | ~1 hr 15 by road |
| Brisbane → Toowoomba | ~1 hr 30 by road |
| Brisbane → Bundaberg | ~4 hr 30 by road, or a 1-hr flight |
| Brisbane → Rockhampton / Mackay | 7 / 10 hr by road — fly |
| Brisbane → Townsville / Cairns | 2-hr flights; 13–16 hr drives |
| Cairns → the Torres Strait | 2-hr flight to Horn Island, then boats |
| Brisbane → Sydney / Melbourne | 1.5 / 2-hr flights, constantly |
Off-peak estimates. Add for the M1 at commuter hours, and treat wet-season road closures in the north as a when, not an if.
Licence conversion, buying and registering a car, and the practicalities of Australian driving are national topics, covered once in the master’s Living in Australia.