Kookaburra River Queens join queue of boats looking for new home

They have been a floating advertisement for Brisbane since Expo 88, but the Kookaburra River Queens paddlewheelers will soon join a growing queue of commercial river operators looking for a new home.

The iconic Kookaburra River Queens paddlewheelers have until July 27 to find a new home, but after four years of talks the State Government says it is still “looking at’’ options.

The boats, a floating advertisement for the city since the days of Expo 88, have been moored at Eagle Street Pier for the past 30 years.

But their owner, and 15 restaurants, pubs and clubs including well known Jade Buddha bar and George’s Paragon, face uncertainty ahead of construction on the $2 billion, two-tower Waterfront Brisbane redevelopment.

Michael Platsis, who owns George’s Paragon and two other Eagle Street Pier nosheries, Rico Bar and Dining and Phat Cow Steak and Lobster, said he employed 200 staff.

George’s had been at Eagle Street for 12 years.

The Kookaburra Queen paddlewheelers have been based at Eagle Street Pier for three decades.

“We are angry to a point, but you have to move on,’’ Mr Platsis said.

“We have to look at an alternative to where we are now.’’

It comes as 11 commercial operators at nearby Dockside marina in Kangaroo Point have been given until March 4 to leave after the state Department of Natural Resources and Mines (DNRM) wrote to them to claim they had breached the lease conditions of the marina.

Kookaburra declined to comment, however Natural Resources Minister Scott Stewart said recently his department was “looking at where they could move them’’.

The options are growing ever more limited despite Brisbane dubbing itself the “river city’’.

Eagle St Pier precinct has been quiet since Covid-19.

The Government last year announced plans that Howard Smith Wharves, diagonally opposite the Dockside marina, would become a terminal for vessels servicing the Moreton Bay and nearby islands.

It also wanted to build a superyacht facility in the CBD, but that has fallen by the wayside as the site would have been in the way of Council’s Kangaroo Point green bridge.

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner, who last week blasted DNRM’s eviction notice for Dockside operators as “bureaucracy gone bonkers’’, announced the start of construction at the green bridge site only on Tuesday.

Kookaburra lodged a submission as far back as 2020 on Dexus Funds Management’s plans for the 43-level South Tower and 49-level North Tower project, which also includes reclamation of 1800 sqm of riverbed and construction of a new riverwalk and pontoon.

“Kookaburra Showboat Cruises vessels have been located at Eagle Street Pier for 30 years and are iconic to the city of Brisbane,’’ its submission said.

“Our lease with Dexus (for our two commercial pontoons) is due to expire in October (this year).

An artist's impression of Dexus' $2.1 billion, city-changing Waterfront Brisbane project.

“There is no infrastructure in place elsewhere in Brisbane that would enable Kookaburra Showboat Cruises to relocate our commercial vessels to, once our lease expires.

“We urgently require and are seeking the assistance of Brisbane City Council to safeguard our presence in the Brisbane landscape.”

Dexus said it had been working with the retailers for four years, so the notice to vacate by July 27 should not have come as a surprise.

Waterfront Brisbane project director Matthew Beasley has previously said Dexus had worked closely with the retailers about the redevelopment of Eagle Street Pier and the announcement would provide them with certainty.

“This is an exciting milestone on the pathway to rejuvenating the precinct as Brisbane’s premier riverfront destination that will position Brisbane as a world-class business and tourist destination,” he said.

“We hope the people of Brisbane take the opportunity to support these venues in the coming months.”

How the Dexus project could look.

But one hospitality venue said confirmation of the evictions were sent out a week before the recent peak of the Omicron wave, and retailers would not be given the opportunity to keep trading in an effort to recoup losses sustained during Covid.

Complicating matters, not all tenants have been formally told to leave.

Jade Buddha co-owner Phil Hogan confirmed the business had not received a notice to vacate, but declined to comment further.

Mr Beasley said Dexus was happy to work with the outlets on moving them into the new development, although that was not expected to open for another five years.

Dexus also has to hurdle a Planning and Environment Court appeal set down for next month, from March 7 to 17.

Multinational financial giant Bloomberg Incorporation, which owns the adjacent Riparian super luxury unit tower, home to some of Brisbane’s wealthiest people, is arguing Waterfront Brisbane is a “massive overdevelopment’’ of the site.

Brisbane CBD landscape as seen from Riparian Plaza. Photographer: Liam Kidston

The Riparian Plaza foyer.

After the government initially tried to sell part of Eagle St to Dexus, a proposal knocked back by Council on traffic grounds, it quietly transferred a perpetual lease over the riverbed to Council.

Council then approved Waterfront Brisbane’s revised project, to be built out into and over the river, one week before Christmas Day in 2020.

Bloomberg was refused access, after a Right to Information request, to all bar six pages of the 317-page so-called “facilitation agreement’’ between the government and Council, which sets out details of the lease transfer.

Dozens of Riparian residents have lodged formal objections, including many who complained that the North Tower would be 14.75m away from their tower, designed by famed architect Harry Seidler.

Another pointed out that the “Gold Tower’’ was originally given an exemption and permission for extra height, in exchange for keeping the Eagle St Pier area lowrise.