By Cameron Atfield
One of Brisbane's newest and most popular music venues is celebrating after Brisbane City Council decided to extend Fortitude Valley's entertainment precinct, protecting the Triffid from future residents' noise complaints.
And that was music to the ears of the Triffid's owner, former Powderfinger bassist John Collins.
John Collins says he's "stoked" his venue, the Triffid, will now be part of the Fortitude Valley Special Entertainment Precinct.Credit: Chris Hyde
Collins opened the Triffid in an old industrial hangar in 2014 and it quickly established itself as a pillar of Brisbane's live music scene.
Now, the council is set to amend its city plan to extend the Valley Special Entertainment Precinct to include the Newstead venue, which Collins said would give it certainty going forward.
The Triffid's popular beer garden. Credit: Chris Hyde
"It's a bit of protection. We've put a large investment in at the Triffid in terms of capital and love and I'd like it to be here in 20 years," he said.
"That's my dream."
The Valley Special Entertainment Precincts were established in 2006 and were driven by former deputy mayor and local councillor David Hinchliffe.
They were designed to protect Brisbane's live music scene after residents moved into the Valley and complained about the noise.
The proposed extension to the Fortitude Valley Entertainment Precinct, which would take in the Triffid.Credit: Brisbane City Council
Venues within the entertainment precinct could operate with higher noise levels than were allowed elsewhere and all new residential development in the area was required to include a high level of noise insulation.
"When you look back at the Sun building, that's when it all started," Collins said of a unit development that led to noise complaints against established venues.
"To me, if you move next door to a runway, you don't get to complain about aircraft noise.
"Why should that happen when you move next to an entertainment venue?
"Nobody wants to be shut down by people complaining."
Collins admitted to being a little nervous about the number of new unit developments going up in the neighbourhood.
"They'll now be fully aware we're an entertainment precinct, that's the main thing," he said.
Although it seemed like a logical move in 2017, Collins said it would have been impossible to convince the council to extend the precinct when the Triffid first opened.
"I think we needed to have some runs on the board, quite honestly, before we could even talk to the council about having a look at the proposal," he said.
"Knowing that we've acted in accordance with everything we said we were going to do, it's a great decision by the council."
"I'm stoked."
Along with the main entertainment precinct, which took in the main centre of the Valley, another two satellite precincts were included, surrounding the Tivoli and Jubilee Hotel to the west and the Waterloo Hotel and Emporium to the north.
It was that Waterloo zone that would be extended to include the Triffid.
"We've been responsible since we've opened and I think it's a really good decision to include us in the precinct, so that anyone moving in around here knows that we're here," Collins said.
Local councillor Vicki Howard said the council's decision would give the Triffid protection under the Amplified Music Venues Local Law.
"Brisbane is unique in having an officially designated entertainment precinct and the Fortitude Valley area has become a nationally and internationally recognised destination for live music," she said.
"(It has) the highest concentration of live music venues in Australia and with many, including the Triffid, giving a stage to some of our city's best original talent."
Speaking of local talent, Collins said while he had watched the excitement surrounding the Midnight Oil reunion with interest, it had not given him and his old Powerfinger band-mates any ideas.
"No, no plans for a 'finger reunion, but how good is it?" he said, chuckling at the question.
"The whole Oils thing has become huge. I was watching Rage the other day, and on the radio, they're everywhere.
"It's good to see that they're doing it and, also, that people are really reacting to it. There'd be nothing worse than doing it and nobody reacting."
Collins said he was a huge Oils fan and he looked forward to seeing them at the Brisbane Riverstage.
"We played a gig at '96 at the Woodford Folk Festival and they were one of the best live bands I've ever seen, so this is going to be awesome," he said.