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Transcript at this TEDxSydney talk video, at 4:10

You know, I'm from Brisbane, which is a great city to live in.(Applause and shouts from the audience) Yeah! All right! Most of Brisbane's here. That's good. (Laughter)

I assume the transcript above provided by the official website is accurate.

I think Brisbane in the transcript refers to the city, not the people in that city, right? As to Most of Brisbane's here, I have two guesses:

1, Most of those who are applauding are from Brisbane.

2, Most people from Brisbane have come here.

joy2020
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1 Answers1

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It's 2, most of the people from Brisbane are in the audience.

In this context it does refer to the people from the city, and is a colloquial way of saying "Most of the population of Brisbane's here".

I can't justify it linguistically, but the general assumption would be that anyone who responded positively to his mention of Brisbane would be from there (as when a singer at a concert asks "is anyone from [place] in tonight?" and everyone from there cheers!) so the statement that "most of those applauding are from Brisbane" is unlikely ever to be needed!

Fiona
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