The “International Exhibition on Leisure, Brisbane 1988,” known as World Expo 88, was held at South Bank in Brisbane, Australia, from April 30 to October 30, 1988. Organized by the Brisbane Exposition and South Bank Redevelopment Authority, it was a specialized exhibition under the Second Categorization System and was staged to mark Australia's bicentenary. The BIE records 18,560,447 visits on the 40-hectare site.

The idea owed much to architect James Maccormick, who had designed Australian pavilions at earlier Expos and lobbied politicians, business leaders and the public for a Brisbane Expo, with the 1988 bicentenary as its occasion. In the early 1980s Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen secured the rights for the state. South Bank was chosen as the site in 1984, when the riverside district had been reduced to a few old hotels, light industrial buildings and boarding houses. The Queensland government hoped the Expo would reposition Brisbane as a “new world city,” and the budget, estimated at A$645 million, was meant to be covered by ticket sales, sponsorship and property sales.

The theme was “Leisure in the Age of Technology,” and the Expo introduced visitors to tools now taken for granted, including touch-screen phone booths, a first for Australia. Organizers also used an early form of the internet to manage the site, along with computerized lighting displays. The BIE lists 36 official participants, and the site held 52 government pavilions and 32 corporate pavilions. Next to the Australian pavilion, the “Art of Central Australia” gallery displayed 27 Indigenous paintings, and Nepal contributed a Peace Pagoda crafted in Nepal.

Queen Elizabeth II opened the Expo on April 30, 1988, closing her speech with the words “I now declare World Expo 88 well and truly open.” Laser displays, fireworks, parades, concerts, a water-skiing show and a monorail kept the site lively, and the Expo stayed open into the night. Chairman Sir Llew Edwards set the tone on opening day by leading a conga line of performers to guide the last visitors out. Attendance far exceeded the 8 million visits originally expected. More than 500,000 season tickets were sold, and Brisbane residents formed the core audience.

After the Expo the site was cleared except for three heritage buildings and the Boardwalk. The Queensland government had planned to sell the land for commercial development, but community lobbying kept the riverfront public. The South Bank Corporation was established in 1989, and the South Bank Parklands opened in 1992. The Nepalese Peace Pagoda is the only international element of the Expo still on the site, and the Indigenous paintings were later moved to the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, built on former Expo land. The river transport used during the Expo is now part of the city's public transport network.

Expo 1988 Brisbane changed how the city saw itself, encouraging night-time activity and outdoor dining and giving Brisbane a central public park. As researchers Andrew Smith and Judith Mair put it, “Expo 88 not only helped to make Brisbane; it was the making of the city.”