Queens Wharf works shut down as Brisbane prepares for another day of poor air quality

Works on the Queens Wharf project have been halted due to Brisbane’s poor air quality. A thick smoke haze that engulfed the southeast yesterday is expected to build again throughout today.

WORK has been halted on Brisbane’s Queens Wharf project due to Brisbane’s poor air quality.

The decision was made this morning following advice from Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young with the majority of the workers on the project working outside for long periods of time.

A spokesman for the Destination Brisbane Consortium said work would recommence once it was advised conditions had improved.

“Work has ceased on-site at Queen’s Wharf and will resume once advice is received from authorities that air quality has improved,” he said.

A spokesman for Tourism Minister Kate Jones confirmed the decision.

‘STAY INDOORS’: SMOKE HAZE SPARKS HEALTH WARNING

Evita Eichperger, 9, and Lauren Eichperger, 28 of Mt Gravatt, walking along Kangaroo Point cliffs with smoke covering the sky over Brisbane City. Photographer: Liam Kidston.

A thick smoke haze settled over southeast Queensland yesterday morning.

It made the air quality in Brisbane, Ipswich and the Gold Coast worse than Beijing. It was rated as very unhealthy according to The World Air Quality Index.

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Brisbane’s air quality rating has today improved to ‘poor’ with 66.2 micrograms of pollution per cubic air metre however the government is still urging people to stay indoors if possible.

Dr Young described yesterday’s reduction in air quality as “unprecedented”.

Bureau of Meteorology meteorologist Dean Narramore said the smoke haze that blanketed Brisbane and the Gold Coast was due to bushfires in northern New South Wales and the Scenic Rim.

“We’re going to have a south-westerly wind change go through in the morning hours and that’s going to lead to those severe fire dangers and erratic fire behaviour tomorrow, but on the coastal locations we’re going to have a south-easterly change moving up as well and there’s likely to be smoke from bushfires in New South Wales trapped in those winds,” Mr Narramore said.

“Both the south-westerly winds and the south-easterly change on the coast will probably bring that smoke back into southeast Queensland.

“The smoke is likely to blanket most of the southeast”

The thickness of the haze would depend on the severity of any bushfires that burn today across Queensland and northern New South Wales.

“If a number of fires in New South Wales get going or get out of control, there could be a lot more smoke and it also depends on how that smoke down there acts as the wind changes,” Mr Narramore said.