What’s on in Brisbane’s west

The west is the green one. Its calendar is anchored on the Mt Coot-tha cluster: the Brisbane Botanic Gardens Mt Coot-tha, the Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium and the bushland at Gap Creek Reserve together carry about a third of the region’s listings, with branch libraries at Ashgrove, Indooroopilly and Kenmore behind them. That outdoor anchor shapes two things. First, it pulls the region towards the weekend — the gardens, planetarium and bushland sessions run mostly on Saturdays and Sundays, so there’s a weekend day out here that the weekday library suburbs don’t offer. Second, it lifts the ticketed share: the planetarium’s shows are paid, so the west has the lowest free proportion of the outer four, though most of the rest — library and park programming, the free fitness classes — still costs nothing. The mix spans community events, kids’ sessions, workshops, nature and a little music.

Indooroopilly is on the Ipswich line, the train crossing the river there. The gardens and planetarium have no nearby station: the 471 bus runs up from the city, and there’s free parking at the gardens.