Racecourse Road, Ascot, gets a magical makeover

A famous inner north Brisbane landmark is about to shine that bit brighter, when an illuminating community project is officially launched on Friday night.

Racecourse Rd Up in Lights project has festooned the famous Brisbane street with fairy lights. Picture: SUPPLIED

A famous local landmark is about to shine that bit brighter, when an illuminating community project is officially launched on Friday night.

Racecourse Road Precinct business group president Kate Peereboom said the Up in Lights project had festooned the almost-1km-long Ascot/Hamilton shopping strip’s iconic street trees with thousands of fairy lights. The project would be launched with a street party from 4-8pm on Friday, with the lights turned on just in time to welcome the crowds of horse race enthusiasts who will visit the precinct over the next few months for the Brisbane Racing Carnival.

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She said the project involved “about 40 trees, four weeks of installation, five contractors, traffic management crews and many thousands of meters of fairly lights”

Trees along the 1km strip have been wrapped in thousands of meters of fairy lights.

The effect is magical, turning the footpath into a fairyland.

“It’s now complete and has been very smooth with little disruption to businesses in the street,” Ms Peereboom said. “A lot of the work has been completed at night. We are so happy that the install has completed ahead of schedule and will be officially launched the day prior to the commencement of the Brisbane Racing Club’s winter carnival, where we are expecting many thousand of extra people to visit the area.”

She said the “biggest job was to get consents from 40 odd businesses and landlords during the process to allow the lights to be connected to their properties”.

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“Overall we have had strong support from all business owners,” she said.

“We are incredibly relieved that the installation has gone so well. Racecourse Road Business Group feel excited and we can’t wait to celebrate with the community.

“The trees look amazing, particularly the entrance trees at both ends of the road.

“We hope that residents and visitors will be attracted to come and see the lights and enjoy the extra magical effects it will have on the street ambience.”

It took four weeks to install the lights.

About 40 trees were covered in lights.

She said about 2000 people were expected to attend the Up in Lights Community event at St Augustine’s Anglican Church, 56 Racecourse Rd, Hamilton, on Friday night. Activities will include lantern making, jumping castles, face painters, street entertainers and a performance by the Nudgee College rock bands, plus street food and a pop up bar.

The project was funded by a grant from the Federal Government as well as Brisbane City Council, which contributed a combined $300,000. Council also provided support through their Village Precincts team.

It is hoped that the lights will help the embattled shopping strip, which has had several longstanding tenants move out in recent months.

Traders on the street have endured a number of disruptions in recent years, including extensive upgrade work on Kingsford Smith Drive, which was due to finish this year but has been extended by up to a year due to design problems. At the same time, Brisbane Racing Club (BRC) moved racing events from the Eagle Farm Racecourse, at the other end of the strip, to Doomben due to problems with the track surface, cutting pedestrian traffic. Racing returned to Eagle Farm in January. BRC has also conducted extensive development work at the racecourse site, which included building another shopping centre, called Racecourse Village.

However, several new and soon-to-be-built developments on the road could bring in fresh blood, including the Silk on Racecourse Road’s 13 “bespoke apartments”.

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