‘We really feel the pinch’: Staff shortages biting for Brisbane’s local dining scene

When City Winery shut the doors of its six venues last week, it described Queen’s Wharf as the “proverbial final nail”. But even before the entertainment precinct opened in Brisbane’s CBD, local dining venues were feeling a perfect storm of pressures.

Along with the rest of Australia, Queensland’s hospitality venues have faced rising food costs, changed consumer spending habits, and shortages in skilled workers for several years.

A Jobs and Skills Australia spokesperson said this week they have seen shortages of chefs, cooks, and pastry cooks and bakers in Queensland in the years since 2022.

A thriving scene: Emme’s Thomas Tze Lian (left); The Star’s culinary director Uday Huja (middle); and Stanley’s Louis Tikaram (right).Credit: Tammy Law, The Star Brisbane, Markus Ravik

Now, many of the city’s hospitality workers have found jobs at Queen’s Wharf.

The launch of the precinct two weeks ago promised “a suite of culinary and entertainment offerings”, with The Star alone introducing 3000 positions in retail, accommodation, and hospitality.

The Star chief executive Daniel Finch said 1400 staff had already started work.

“We have begun actively recruiting, with more venues and spaces continuing to open throughout the year,” said Finch on Wednesday.

The Star also said last year it was planning to look overseas for fresh talent – including a “recruitment blitz in the United Arab Emirates aimed at luring Australian expats home” – to avoid straining Brisbane’s local skilled hospitality workforce.

The Star culinary director Uday Huja said at the time: “While there are hundreds of jobs up for grabs for Queenslanders to be part of something special, we also have some specialised culinary positions to fill.”

But the new precinct has opened to a post-COVID dining scene, which Brisbane’s chefs and restaurant-owners said included rising ingredient prices, yo-yoing customer numbers week-to-week, and diners who found it “hard to gamble on a new restaurant”.

They said the industry needed local skilled workers as a top priority – and called on the government to encourage more locals to enter the profession – but that international workers were also needed in steady supply to fill front-of house positions, including cafe workers and restaurant waitstaff.

Thomas Tze Lian, from James Street bistro Emme, said he’d had an ad up for staff “nearly every day since the day [Emme] opened”.

“[Waitstaff] are backpackers, uni students, professionals these days – but for us to hire professionals, it’s like a diamond in the rough,” he said.

“There’s barely any Australian apprentices around, I’m very lucky to have one.”

Louis Tikaram, head chef of Stanley at Howard Smith Wharves, said his restaurant had no current apprentices.

“You don’t have chefs just walking through the door looking for jobs any more,” said Tikaram. “If staff leave, there might not be anyone behind them.”

An Australian working holiday visa permits adult tourists to take short-term jobs before they must complete several months in select industries, such as fruit-picking, often in remote areas.

International students were limited in their capacity to work after restrictions introduced in 2023 that capped their maximum number of hours to 48 a fortnight during semesters.

With the Australian government now also making clear its intentions to reduce the number of students coming into the country, Brisbane’s restaurateurs said this would hurt the industry in several years’ time.

“We know restricting students and working holiday visas [mean] we really feel the pinch,” said Tze Lian. “[Further restrictions] could affect a lot of smaller businesses.”

“There’s no staff, and it’s expensive to operate.”

Tikaram made the shift to open his Howard Smith Wharves restaurant from Los Angeles five years ago. He said it was important to encourage growth in Brisbane’s restaurant scene, saying it had the potential to be a “world-class food city”.

“The more the merrier,” he said. “[When] more good restaurants and restaurateurs that move to Brisbane, it’s good for everyone.”

The Queen’s Wharf precinct had yet to open all its dining and retail options, with its “next phase” planned for later this year.

It also faced issues when the contract between Queen’s Wharf owner Destination Brisbane Consortium and luxury retailer DFS fell through – with DFS launching legal action against DBC in April this year.

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