I'm a 10 year veteran of the inner city night life and I've never witnessed a fight. I guess I'm lucky, but I, and no one I know, ever feels unsafe in Brisbane at night. Or anytime for that matter. Common sense tells me to avoid dark alleys and deserted parks after dark. It also tells me not argue with a drunk any time of day. Either way, Brisbane is as safe as city of this size any where in the world from my experience. I kinda get a little defensive when people say it's violent. The people who have made this comment to me in the past either get the idea from the news, not real life, or they're the type of people that can't stay away from a good argument.

A lot of people would disagree with your anecdote. Read the post on the Cole thread in the Brisbane sub about the guy who's constantly being challenged by boofheads in the Brisbane CBD. His post seems authentic, and from a better range of experience about this than yours, sorry. Compared to Harlem, Brisbane is unsafe. Yes, there are murders in New York but they are between people who know each other in the same gang. Walking down the street or going to a club is much safer there. Much much safer. My mate is a doctor and he told me that after years of living overseas, he felt much safer living for a year in Harlem than in London or in Brisbane. There are people and police everywhere and it's open 24 hours. Here you get blind dark alleys with bogans from Chermside or Mt Gravatt or Morningside or Kangaroo Point who think they're kings because they "own a ute mate" or "own an investment property mate" and you never know what they will do. They fight. There's another thread about it. There are not really enough women in Australia so young men get angry. Seems about right. The women here in Brisbame love fighting too. Go overseas and you'll see the difference immediately.

I feel that some of the things that people applaud Australian culture for are also some of the things that drag it down. Concepts such as Australian egalitarianism and a "fair go" are a double edged sword. People are welcoming to outsiders, unassuming and dont promote hierarchical behavior. But at the same time; it is expected of individuals to keep themselves in line so that they dont appear to be trying to outshine their peers. If you get a respectable education, attempt to learn a foreign language, or push yourself to excel in something that isnt sport; it is uncomfortable and a faux pas to openly acknowledge it in public. So you ought to only try to better yourself in private.