Young families perused organic beetroots and exotic mushrooms at Brisbane’s newest farmer’s market on a recent weekend, showing no sign of being bothered that they were shopping in the shadow of one of Australia’s largest slaughterhouses.

They were also probably oblivious to a billionaires’ barney over the market site and its surrounds, which has fractured the relationship of two of the city’s wealthiest families in a battle over whether prime riverfront land should be transformed to cater to an exploding population or retained for critical supply chains and the wider economy.