Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million and constitutes the core of the South East Queensland agglomeration, encompassing more than 3 million people and consisting of roughly 3 quarters of Queensland's population, and is the fastest growing agglomeration in Australia, encompassing the Gold Coast, Logan, Ipswich, Toowoomba and the Sunshine Coast. Brisbane once had the title of the fastest growing city in any developed country, but is now the second fastest growing city in Australia, after Perth.[5] The Brisbane central business district stands on the original European settlement and is situated inside a bend of the Brisbane River approximately 23 kilometres from its mouth at Moreton Bay. The metropolitan area extends in all directions along the floodplain of the Brisbane River valley between the bay and the Great Dividing Range. While the metropolitan area is governed by several municipalities, a large proportion of central Brisbane is governed by the Brisbane City Council which is Australia's largest Local Government Area by population.