Brisbane Olympic Games 2032: List of all the developments and plans
Brisbane is set to change dramatically as the Olympic Games nears - here is what you can expect in the future.
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Brisbane 2032, here we come.
The shaping, reshaping and revitalising of the River City ahead of the Olympic Games is now in full swing.
From developments already underway to bold ideas, these are just some of the transformations that will drive Brisbane into the future.
Victoria Park transformation plan
The plan to overhaul Victoria Park was in June 2023 finalised as the Brisbane City Council moved into the construction phase for the expansive central green space.
Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner released the master plan on June 15 for the transformation of the inner-city golf course into a 64-hectare parkland.
“Victoria Park represents a unique opportunity to deliver a new destination for Brisbane that is loved by residents and visitors alike,” he said when handing down the council’s budget.
In response to feedback from the community, council said it boosted the green component of the project by removing a number of proposed built structures from the draft plan, including the multi-level carpark, visitor centre and some of the concrete plazas.
“Instead, the final plan creates an incredible urban forest that prioritises open space, adventure and discovery,” Mr Schrinner said.
The park in Herston will include blanket coverage from tree canopies to improve cooling and provide habitation for wildlife, as part of the $141 million investment over the next four years.
Victoria Park will also play a major role during the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games as host venue of the equestrian cross country event and BMX freestyle.
“What Expo 88’ did for South Bank, the Brisbane 2032 Games can do for Victoria Park,” Mr Schrinner said.
Eagle Street Pier’s stunning new look
The popular Eagle Street Pier bar and kitchen opened its doors to patrons in May following a its $3.5 million renovation.
Riverland, as it’s called, revealed its dramatic transformation, including a 800 sqm riverfront deck and two new food concepts.
The waterfront venue underwent an 800 sqm extension of the existing riverside deck to create a sprawling outdoor drinking and dining area with uninterrupted views of Story Bridge and the Brisbane River.
With a 1000-person capacity, each level of the three-tiered venue is built to cater for a range of group sizes and occasions and includes: Sky Deck, an exclusive space perched on top of one a container bar, offering uninterrupted Story Bridge views; Promenade Deck, with direct access to the Eagle Street Pier riverfront; a new live music stage; and a big screen for sporting events.
The bar and kitchen will also offer guests an exciting dining experience from two new unique kitchen concepts operating out of sea containers.
The Queenslander container will serve modern pub fare with a focus on Queensland produce.
Chief Operating Officer Craig Ellison said the redevelopment was an exciting moment for the Eagle Street precinct.
“Eagle Street is back,” Mr Ellison said
Changing face of Queen Street Mall
In May it was revelead two hospitality venues will be pushed out of Queen Street Mall to potentially make way for a pop-up gin bar and food trucks under council’s plan to revitalise the city.
Milano’s and Pig ‘N’ Whistle will cease operating at the end of June, while new shading will protect pedestrians walking across the Brisbane River on Victoria Bridge.
Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said the mall makeover would streamline pedestrian access while the Brisbane City Council’s purchase of Reddacliff Place would permanently preserve the space for the popular open-air markets.
“Queen Street Mall and South Bank are loved by our residents and are must-do destinations for visitors,” he said.
“Decluttering the mall and ensuring the experience travelling between the city and South Bank is vibrant, seamless and accessible will deliver long-term benefits for Brisbane.”
Sun protection on Victoria Bridge and a greater focus on pedestrian access from the city and across the bridge comes after the state government released a draft plan to modernise South Bank.
Luxury new restaurant on a bridge
It was revealed in April that Brisbane will welcome its first restaurant on a bridge, with a major hospitality group winning the hotly contested tender to operate on the new Kangaroo Point Green Bridge.
The Tassis Group – which owns Massimo and Opa in the city and Yamas in West End – will open an elegant noshery as well as a casual all-day cafe when the bridge is unveiled in 2024.
Director Michael Tassis said the upper-level restaurant Bombora, an Indigenous term for waves breaking over a reef, and the bridge-level cafe, named after the Banjo Patterson poem Mulga Bill’s Bicycle, would “offer dining experiences like no other”.
Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said the Tassis Group demonstrated its drive to do business in Brisbane after bouncing back when its riverfront Opa was inundated during the 2022 floods.
“With their newest restaurant to be more than 10m above the Brisbane River they can get excited about establishing a venue that can never be flooded,” Cr Schrinner said.
He said the group’s competitive tender offered strong local ties, “with all service providers and contractors based in Brisbane, delivering a 99 per cent local supply chain”.
And in a saving for ratepayers, income from the dining venues would help fund the ongoing maintenance of the bridge.
Cr Schrinner said the Kangaroo Point Green Bridge would become “a must-visit dining destination” and also benefit people exploring the river city during the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Walter Taylor Bridge’s future
A real estate agent in March called on the transformation of the Walter Taylor Bridge into a quirky apartment style accommodation for visitors saying it was currently being “wasted”.
The suspension bridge, connecting Indooroopilly to Chelmer, housed multiple families from the 1960s until 2010. The buildings owned by council have been vacant for some time and tours are being done on the Indooroopilly side.
Dixon Estate Agents owner Jack Dixon said Walter Taylor had a vision and it was currently being under-utilised.
“Its designer and builder, whose name it bears, was one of Brisbane’s most enterprising figures, a man of vision and drive who would doubtless be very sorry to see its potential wasted,” Mr Dixon said.
“Upstairs the quirky apartment space should welcome people once again. Guests – international visitors, romantic locals, adventurous honeymooners – would no doubt pay handsomely for this one-of-a-kind overnight experience with unbelievable river views.”
Mr Dixon said Walter Taylor’s vision was to use the bridge as accommodation.
He said he spoke to Walter Taylor’s grandson years ago and he said he “couldn’t think of anything better than the bridge pylon being returned to accommodation and leisure use”.
Blueprint for future Brisbane revealed
A blueprint for Brisbane’s inner-city transformation over the coming years was in April released by the Brisbane City Council, with a focus on unlocking more housing, green space, jobs and river tourism.
With the Brisbane 2032 Games under a decade away, the council released an Inner City Strategy highlighting the need to create strong cultural experiences, celebrate the city’s subtropical lifestyle, create inner-city neighbourhoods and ensure they are well connected.
The delivery of the fully electric Brisbane Metro along with green bridges would be key, with the strategy also committing to work with government and the private sector to improve river-based infrastructure and unlock new river tourism activities.
With Brisbane inner-city set to be home to more than 470,000 residents by the year 2041, Deputy Mayor Krista Adams said the strategy was focused on evolving places such as South Brisbane, Albion, Newstead and Woolloongabba – as well as the CBD – into world-class precincts.
“The best cities in the world aren’t created by chance and precinct planning is a necessary step on our pathway to success,” she said.
Included in the plan was the previously-announced introduction of CBD-style height limits for South Brisbane’s Kurilpa precinct, which the council has said will help meet demand for more high-density properties.
With the Olympic and Paralympic Games in less than ten years, council also said working with the private sector to transform under-utilised inner-city areas would enhance the experience for visitors and also deliver a legacy for locals.
Kangaroo Point Green Bridge takes shape
The Kangaroo Point Green Bridge reached a construction milestone in February, with the completion of its first deck span.
Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner announced the completion of a steel bridge deck span connecting the CBD landing site at the corner of Alice and Edward streets to the first bridge pier.
“Wherever I go in Brisbane, people are keen to know more about this fantastic project so it’s great we can start the year by announcing the bridge has reached this key milestone,” he said in a statement.
Mr Schrinner said the installation of the bridge span was a major milestone for the much-anticipated project.
The Lord Mayor said the bridge will become a Brisbane icon on completion, as its striking 83-metre mast and destination dining venue become synonymous with the river city.
“Before, during and after the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the bridge will provide a critical link between a redeveloped Gabba Stadium and the CBD,” he said.
The Green Bridges Program was announced in March 2019 at a cost of more than half a billion dollars.
Sky’s the limit for CBD
New residential buildings rising above existing height limits across South Brisbane will need to meet strict “green” building standards, with Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner in May saying the precinct would become Brisbane’s most sustainable community.
In March, Brisbane City Council announced it would allow CBD-style heights – 274m – in the Kurilpa precinct as part of its sustainable-growth strategy, with the change predicted to create 10,000 new homes.
“We are now proposing to take this a step further by requiring residential buildings that exceed existing height limits meet higher requirements of sustainability and deliver benefits to the wider community,” Cr Schrinner said.
Under the Kurilpa Sustainable Growth Precinct Plan, buildings above existing height limits would be required to meet the Green Building Council of Australia’s five-star Green Star rating category, along with incorporating greater greenery through the introduction of a higher green plot ratio, and invest in public art and creative lighting.
Developers would also be required to include expansive green space, public realms, open spaces and pedestrian plazas, and require taller buildings to include other community benefits to improve housing diversity and affordability models such as build-to-rent and agreements with community housing providers.
In June the Palaszczuk government warned it will block the major residential development proposal if it fails to include adequate social and affordable housing.
Bold plans for the Gabba
The next major phase of Brisbane’s two new Olympic and Paralympic showpiece stadiums began in April.
The $2.7bn knockdown and rebuild of the Gabba, and $2.5bn redevelopment of Brisbane Arena started despite some concersn over costs.
Under a funding agreement signed by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in February, the state will foot the bill for the redevelopment of the 50,000-seat Gabba – the cost of which was originally floated at just $1bn, $1.7bn less than the current figure.
The federal government will fork out the $2.5bn for the new 17,000 seat Brisbane Arena – which has been flagged to be built at Roma Street – and will include a drop-in swimming pool for the Games.
Big ideas to change Brisbane
An Olympic pool in the Brisbane River, a massive natural playground and the removal of the Riverside Expressway were among the bold ideas put forward by residents in July 2022 to transform the city ahead of the 2032 Games.
In one of the most significant community feedback programs undertaken by Brisbane City Council, hundreds of ideas were received on how to revitalise inner-city precincts.
Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said hundreds of Brisbane planners, designers, architects and students contributed, and has now encouraged residents to have their say on the “daring, audacious and innovative concepts”.
“We asked some of Brisbane’s best and brightest to come forward with big and bold ideas that can transform those areas of our city that are popular with residents and visitors alike,” he said.
“What we wanted were concepts of all shapes and sizes that can enhance the experience of visitors during the Brisbane 2032 Games and remain as legacy infrastructure and experiences for residents into the future.
“Like Expo88 transformed the industrial site we now know as South Bank, we wanted to start a conversation on how Brisbane 2032 can revolutionise other parts of our city, particularly those areas in and around Games venues.”
Submissions include a bold call for the “beautification” of parts of the Riverside Expressway not essential to strategic traffic movements, such as the Elizabeth St off ramp, several green inner-city spaces and a clifftop outdoor natural play area at Kangaroo Point.
Turning Brisbane streets into ‘forests’
Brisbane was in April urged to use the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games as a catalyst to become the “world’s most walkable city”.
With the revamped $2.5bn Gabba stadium able to be linked via a 9km loop with South Bank, Suncorp Stadium and the $2.7bn federally-funded Brisbane Arena, experts say investing in connecting the major Games precincts will be a vital legacy opportunity.
A concept map unveiled to more than 200 stakeholders at a Committee for Brisbane event revealed the major walking and rolling opportunities the location of the venues offered – with advocates calling for immediate investment to ensure the key loop was developed with full accessibility, shade, lighting and safety features.
LatStudios director Damian Thompson said connecting the 9km between the venue precincts – “where you want to hang out” – needed to happen “with a sense of urgency”.
“A kilometre of streetscape a year is a reasonable undertaking in any city, but that is way too late,” he said.
CFB chief executive Barton Green said a number of accessibility ideas already raised included ensuring all 2032 event material would be available in audio and braille, and publishing a SEQ pathways map advising about mobility links within Queensland cities and across the region.
Mr Green also said the 2032 Games had the chance to be the most accessible Games ever held – “more bold ambition, and why not?” he said.
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