Victoria Park to become urban forest in massive ‘rewilding’ vision

Brisbane’s Victoria Park will be transformed into an urban forest as part of a massive “rewilding” project for the inner-city precinct, while two urban quarries will become green space.

The final master plan for the inner-city Victoria Park precinct, released on Wednesday, features less “built form” than the draft proposal after feedback from residents, with a multi-level car park, visitor centre and some concrete plazas removed in return for more open space and trees.

Brisbane City Council has released the final plan for the transformation of Victoria Park.

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said people wanted to see the “rewilding of Victoria Park”, with $141 million committed to the park in Brisbane City Council’s budget over the next four years.

“Effectively, the creation of an urban forest – and that’s what our blueprint will deliver,” he said.

“What Expo 88 did for South Bank, the Brisbane 2032 Games can do for Victoria Park.”

The plan for the 64-hectare park includes restoring the natural landscape, revitalising the park’s wetlands and watering holes, and increasing tree cover and nature-based play spaces, including a tree house.

“Not only will Victoria Park be a giant green playground for residents, the plan to create 60 per cent canopy cover will create homes for wildlife and improve urban cooling,” Schrinner said.

The Victoria Park/Barrambin master plan also includes an adventure valley – including a mountain bike track and high ropes course – a treehouse lookout and cafe, updated pedestrian and bikeway bridge, a water play area and a community edible garden.

The blueprint will be delivered in stages as Victoria Park will be the venue for the temporary equestrian cross country course and BMX freestyle during the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Schrinner also announced the future transformation of two urban quarries, at Pine Mountain and Mount Coot-tha, with the opportunity to create green space and recreational sites.

Schrinner said the 26-hectare Mount Coot-tha quarry had served Brisbane residents for more than a century and still supplied an estimated 96 per cent of the asphalt aggregates for Brisbane roads.

Quarrying is no longer undertaken at the 30-hectare Pine Mountain quarry, which instead operates as a recycling facility.

Schrinner said there was still an important role for both quarries in the immediate future, but planning would start for their rehabilitation and ultimate transformation, with $545,000 allocated over the next two years.

“Some have already suggested the Mount Coot-tha site could be transformed from a barren quarry into a world-class environmental precinct similar to the Eden Project in Cornwall, United Kingdom,” he said.

The Eden Project is a visitor attraction built from a reclaimed clay pit which features domes housing thousands of plant species, potentially providing an example of the type of transformation that could be on the cards for Brisbane’s quarries.

Each quarry site is about twice the size of the South Bank parklands, and Schrinner said while they must continue to operate in the short term, it was hoped the sites could be transformed before the 2032 Olympics.