A 57-year old man who apparently had too much to drink threatened to blow up half the City of Brisbane using his television remote control.

Geoffrey Fryatt had the whole city in panic with the police declaring a state of emergency when he reportedly shouted at the top of his voice, "One push of the button will blow up half of Brisbane."

He claimed his remote controlled some explosives planted in a nearby store of chemicals.

Fryatt, who lives in a luxury golf resort in the city, was later arrested by paramilitary police.

A lawyer representing Fryatt told the Brisbane District Court that his client had been drinking too much lately after losing a huge amount from his life savings in a fraud

The judge who sentenced Fryatt to one-year probation chided him for "frightening members of the public," saying that threats of bombs and bomb hoaxes had a much greater impact than such threats once did.