Max Futcher: It’s time to demolish this Brisbane River eyesore

Who would have thought when this river icon smashed into the Goodwill Bridge in 2011 it still wouldn’t be fixed a decade later. Now it’s even in worse shape after recent floods, writes Max Futcher. VOTE IN THE POLL

It’s time for Drift Restaurant to be fixed quickly, or demolished.

When the white pavilions from the Milton restaurant broke away and crashed into the Goodwill Bridge in 2011, who would have guessed it still wouldn’t be fixed a decade later? Now, after another major flooding event, it’s in even worse shape.

The river lifted the hulking barge to the top of its pylons, before a shipping container knocked it on to the Bicentennial Bikeway, where it remains a twisted mess today.

The Drift Restaurant during the 2022 floods.

“It’s a bit of an eyesore,” said Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Tuesday, and few would argue. I was on a boat with the Lord Mayor when he inspected the site at the height of the flood.

“It has to move, there is no doubt about it,” said Adrian Schrinner.

“It is now urgent, it is blocking the busiest bikeway in Brisbane,” he said.

But while state and local governments bicker over who should pay for it to be removed, the controller of the site sees it differently. “I want to keep it! I’ve fought all these years to try and keep it,” said Ken Allsop on Wednesday.

Ken holds the lease on Drift, and has worked for years to bring it back to life as a restaurant. “It used to do $200,000 a week turnover 11 years ago. It won Best New Restaurant in 2010,” he said.

“It’s a good site, amazing place on the river. It just needs a bit of love and care, and a bit of paint,” Ken said, standing in front of a giant wreck that clearly needs so much more. He claims he’s owed millions in compensation, and even suggests a plan to right the structure.

“There’s two cranes down there doing the green bridge opposite South Bank. They could lift the whole site up, re-do the poles, drop it back on its poles, and we’re away,” he declared. In fact, Ken claims he was due to start a restaurant fit-out at the end of this month.

It would be great to see the site returned to its former glory but it should have happened long before now.

David Moore, owned The Drift when the 2011 floods hit. Picture: Steve Pohlner

In January 2011, just a couple of days after the flood ripped through, I interviewed the restaurateur behind Drift’s success. The mud was still wet, and David Moore had tears in his eyes as he stood beside a ruined grand piano and talked of rebuilding. It didn’t happen.

David has been on a long journey since then, and most recently opened his latest business, OMG Decadent Donuts. The shop sits high on a hill in Ascot, and yet such was the extreme rainfall, David’s business was flooded again.

This time, the damage wasn’t as bad, and last week he was up and running. This time, he’s helping other flood victims by fundraising. “We are doing what we can. I think everyone is trying to play their part to help everyone,” said David.

The Drift was still in disrepair when this photograph was taken in 2017. Picture: Richard Walker

David Moore has moved on from Drift Restaurant for his own sanity. It’s time Brisbane did as well.

To be fair to Ken Allsop, he has spent a lot of money trying to resurrect the site, but any final chance for Drift must come with a tight deadline. The sight of that rundown shell has haunted Coronation Drive for long enough. “I’ve put my money into it for years,” said Ken.

“For someone to turn around and say nothing’s happened for all those years … a lot of stuff has happened.”

But it hasn’t happened fast enough.

It’s been 11 years, and it’s taken another terrible flood for us to realise it, but time’s up.

Max Futcher is co-anchor of 7News, weeknights at 6pm.