Shopping Major department stores, such as Myer and David Jones, provide services in some branches including multi-lingual staff to assist international visitors. Assisted shopping, currency exchange, mail order and parcel forwarding are also available. Shops are generally closed on Sundays in the suburbs. Brisbane s city centre is compact and easy to get around making it ideal for shopping. The city s shopping district centres around Queen Street Mall, with more than 500 shops, boutiques, major department stores and arcades.
Shopping takes on a new dimension on the weekends with open air arts and crafts markets.
The largest and most colourful are those at South Bank Parklands and on the riverside terraces of Eagle Street, both of which are near the conference venue. Brisbane has some of the best and least expensive duty free shopping in the world with duty free shops in the city centre and in the Departure Lounge of the International Airport. The Australian currency is decimal with dollars and cents. Major international credit and charge cards such as Visa, American Express and Mastercard are widely accepted at retail outlets in Brisbane. Travellers cheques in Australian and US dollars are also widely accepted and can be cashed at banks, airports and major hotels.