Post-war Brisbane has been a powerful source for the literary and artistic imagination - perhaps more so than any other Australian city. The cultural journal Meanjin began in Brisbane in 1940, and a number of significant poets worked in Brisbane around this time. In the visual arts, a vibrant scene flourished into the 1960s. Most famously, the two decades after the Second World War proved a powerful imaginative source for 'literary' writers such as David Malouf, Rodney Hall and Thea Astley. With a focus on the literary and visual arts - in particular poetry, the novel, and painting - The Third Metropolis considers the relationship of these works of art to the actual history of the city - political, economic and demographic. For the first time, The Third Metropolis places Brisbane within wider debates about Australian cultural history.