Brisbane's river is one of the city's great assets.
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But is Brisbane making best use of it?
Thirty years ago, Sallyanne Atkinson was Brisbane's lord mayor and she suggested the city needed to turn itself to face the river.
It did and Brisbane got the Queensland Art Gallery, the Kookaburra Queen, World Expo 88 and then South Bank in a rush of riverside developments in the 1980s that shrugged off "big country town" Brisbane and ushered in city Brisbane.
That was a long time ago. The Broncos were real babies back then.
Today we have the annual Riverfire fireworks, the CityCats, plenty of restaurants along Petrie Bight and the restored Riverwalk around the New Farm.
But in the middle of this week one of the best questions about the Brisbane River was asked by the city's Lord Mayor Graham Quirk as he launched his 2017-18 budget and allocated nearly $8 million towards new river-based tourism opportunities.
Part of that is for opportunities for water taxis from the new Queens Wharf casino and hotel complex opposite South Bank and from the revamped Howard Smith Wharves site under the Story Bridge and for trips into Moreton Bay.
However he questioned the slow progress of using the Brisbane River for future tourism.
Tourism in Brisbane is now a $6.3 billion-a-year business.
But Cr Quirk said there were now "too many fingers in the pie" when it came to new tourism ideas.
"River development processes are riddled with bureaucratic approval process with many fingers in the pie," Cr Quirk said.
A new river tourism project needs the support of eight different agencies in 2017.
Cr Quirk believes a single authority should be in charge of approving a new river tourism idea.
"This isn't something that is new," he said.
"This is something that has been a real issue for a long period of time," he said.
"Now I really do think we need to look at a single entity that co-ordinates the approval processes on the river."
This week Fairfax Media's investigations revealed Cr Quirk has a point.
To get an approval for new tourism development on the Brisbane River the support of these eight bodies is needed:
1. Maritime Safety Queensland, from the Department of Main Roads, assesses new routes and safety;
2. The Department of Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning, which assesses projects;
3. The State Assessment and Referral Agency, which approves any decision;
4. The Department of Environment, which assesses any impact on the river;
5. The Department of State Development, which assesses "higher-level" approvals;
6. The Department of Natural Resources and Mining, which approves any changes to land use;
7. Tourism and Major Events, which "listens" to ideas;
8. And, Brisbane City Council, which oversees new moorings on the Brisbane River.
Lord Mayor Quirk's frustration this week did not come out of nowhere.
Brisbane City Council has waited several years - and is still waiting - for state government approval for new riverside moorings on the Brisbane River.
On March 24, 2017 a Brisbane Tourism Summit was held in Brisbane at The Capital, the think-tank for new ideas located in the building that replaced the Regent Theatre in Brisbane's Queen Street Mall.
The summit was about new tourism ideas for Brisbane.
And one of the high priorities at the end of the half-day summit was "opening up the river for more infrastructure and better access to Moreton Bay islands."
So who was at this Brisbane tourism summit in March?
Senior bureaucrats from five government agencies including the departments of State Development, Tourism and Major Events, Trade and Investment, Tourism and Events Queensland and Agriculture and Fisheries.
Also Simon Crooks, the project director of Destination Brisbane Consortium; Geoff Hogg, the managing director of Star Entertainment Group; Adam Flaskas and Luke Fraser from the Howard Smith Wharves Consortium; David Lynch, the chief executive of South Bank; David James from the Tangalooma Resort; and Karen Williams, the mayor of Redland City.
Overall, they are a high-powered group of decision-makers, who all heard the managing director of Tourism Australia, John O'Sullivan, speak about looking for new tourism opportunities.
You might think one state government bureaucrat at this event advised their minister of any tensions.
Apparently not.
Tourism Minister Kate Jones said in a single paragraph comment that Lord Mayor Graham Quirk has not raised problems with red tape with her.
"While the lord mayor has never raised these issues with me, I am happy to discuss opportunities to open up the river," Ms Jones said.
State Development Minister Anthony Lynham said via a spokeswoman the lord mayor's comments were "a surprise".
Dr Lynham has asked his departmental officers to seek further information from council and encouraged him to meet with the Tourism Minister.
"Several government agencies have been working with council for a couple of years to identify new mooring locations between the Gateway and University of Queensland," the spokeswoman said.
"The government has commissioned a study on demand for recreational and commercial users and location of additional moorings. This work is due in September."
The Department of Environment and Heritage Protection is, of course, involved in checking any environmental impacts.
"While EHP provides technical advice for a suite of projects on the river - including infrastructure upgrades, residential development and port upgrades - the department has also been involved in some larger-scale, tourism-type projects," a spokeswoman said.
"Examples include Queen's Wharf, the Howard Smith Wharves, and the proposed cruise ship terminal to be constructed by the Port of Brisbane at the mouth of the Brisbane River."
However, it is Deputy Premier Jackie Trad's Department of Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning that is in charge, according to the Department of Environment.
"The State Assessment and Referral Agency (SARA) of the Department of Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning is the central agency responsible for state decision-making regarding development proposals," the department spokeswoman said.
And seemingly, the last voice is the existing river tourism businesses.
Darren Timms has run Brisbane's River City Cruises or 14 years, taking up to 100 tourists twice a day for morning tea and lunch cruises to Brisbane's Breakfast Creek Hotel.
With Mirimar Cruises - who take daily river trips to Lone Pine - River City Cruises is one of the remaining tour operators on the river, competing directly against the Brisbane City Council's City Cats.
Over 14 years his company has been shifted from Howard Smith Wharves, been "evicted" from the moorings under the Riverside Expressway when the Destination Brisbane Consortium started and now has to "erect a tent" to sell tickets each day when tourists arrive every morning on the other side of the Brisbane River in front of the Wheel of Brisbane at South Bank.
Mr Timms isn't complaining. Tourism is growing and it's a big pie.
But he warns Brisbane is many years behind other cities in many ways and the city badly needs better river tourism facilities.
More central refuelling facilities, better space for maintenance and better ticketing facilities are on his wish list.
"And one of the big things is that we are competing with Council's own tourism products," Mr Timms said.
"The City Cats and the City Greeters who run free tours in their own right. They are directly competing with private operators.
"It is very frustrating for us when we get passenger after passenger asking us for directions to the free ferry.
"And it happens every day, all day, every day."
