Robina Olympic Village: The big issue that has locals concerned
A satellite Athletes Village is to be built in the heart of Robina for the 2032 Olympics to house more than 2600 competitors and officials. But there’s a catch, writes Keith Woods.
Opinion
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THERE is something about the Gold Coast’s Olympics wish-list that just doesn’t add up.
There is much focus on extending the light rail line to the airport. Mayor Tom Tate says it is an “absolute must”.
There is similar talk about using the 2032 Games as a pretext to secure funding for the Coomera Connector.
But neither project reaches the one Gold Coast suburb likely to be the epicentre of the Games here: Robina.
A slick video released last week in support of Brisbane’s bid for the Games included images of a large satellite athletes village in Robina, designed to house more than 2600 competitors and officials.
As the narrator helpfully points out, the village’s Collyer Quays site is only two minutes from Cbus Super Stadium, where football games will be held.
It’s also pretty close to every other proposed Olympic venue on the Gold Coast bar the Coomera Indoor Sports Centre.
So it is logical to locate the athletes village at this spot. But doing so would mean it would also be logical to fast-track transport upgrades for Robina ahead of 2032.
“I hope they have a bloody good infrastructure plan ready to cope with the impact,” local councillor Hermann Vorster said when he learnt of the village plan.
So far, it looks like Cr Vorster and his constituents are to be disappointed.
Despite the fact that the site of the proposed athletes village is right beside the Robina train station, there seems little hope that the heavy rail line might be extended to the airport before the Olympics.
In the context, building the mooted light rail spur line from Miami to Robina would also make sense. But again this seems far down the priority list.
As things stand, come the 2032 Olympics, the nearest light rail station to the athletes village would be eight kilometres away.
Take the slightly longer Christine Avenue route and the trip could double as the course for the Olympic 10km run.
There is similarly little talk of upgrading Robina’s chronically congested roads.
Your columnist recently found it took an extraordinarily long time to exit the suburb and its warren of red lights and roundabouts amid heavy traffic. And that was on a Sunday afternoon! Try doing it at rush hour on a weekday. Or even worse, with half the already limited road space taken over by “Games lanes”.
Yet the priority, ahead of the Games, is the Coomera Connector, which will terminate at Nerang-Broadbeach road 11 kilometres to the north.
This column is not suggesting that the light rail extension to the airport and the Coomera Connector are not important projects for the city.
But if we are really serious about getting ready for an Olympics centred on Robina, then surely the heavy rail extension to the airport, a light rail spur and radically improving that suburb’s crowded roads should be top of the priority list, not bottom of it.
Otherwise, the Gold Coast’s Olympics wish-list just doesn’t add up.
MAY 18: SURPRISING FATE OF GOLD COAST'S MOST ICONIC BUILDINGS
THERE is a small detail on the facade of the Australia Fair shopping centre in Southport that’s an important link to the area’s past.
Thousands pass it every day as they shuttle in and out of the sprawling centre’s car park, but few ever notice it, much less pay it any attention.
It’s an ornate plaster plaque, high on the centre’s eastern face, bearing the year 1927.
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The same feature once sat proudly above the doorway of the Pacific Hotel, celebrating the year of its construction.
The hotel was knocked down in 1988 to make way for the north-eastern section of the shopping centre. The plaque was preserved and included in the new building, the design of which – including two large triangle features either side of the plaque – was intended to stir memories of the structure it replaced.
Such token nods to the past have become a feature of development on the Gold Coast.
Instead of saving historic buildings, we have an interesting habit of saving small parts of them.
The Pink Poodle sign lives on – although the building is long gone. The Miami Ice name and logo can still be seen on the corner of Kratzmann Ave and the Gold Coast Highway, though the tower that now stands on the site bears no resemblance to the iconic ice works building demolished in 2013.
The whimsical, whitewashed walls of Cav’s Steakhouse have been swept away, although the restaurant’s fibreglass cows have been preserved for posterity.
Much as a concrete seal sculpture is all that remains of the once great Lennons Hotel.
In this context, the decision to save the historic facade of the Old Burleigh Theatre Arcade may be seen by some as a form of progress.
Although it certainly does not feel that way to local residents.
Nicolle Archer, who has been leading a vigorous campaign to save the Arcade, is not impressed by the “facadism” at play, saying it leaves only “tokenistic remains” of the site.
She would have preferred to see another architectural trend employed – adaptive reuse – to preserve the entire building and give it new life.
“We’ve seen it in some big sites in the big cities,” she told this column.
“Some real success stories where they’re embracing and enhancing not just the fabric of the building but the spirit of it, the soul of it.
“Success stories like the Princess Theatre in Woolloongabba. People are just pumped about it.”
Although the site was privately owned, Ms Archer points out that, whether as a theatre or a shopping arcade, the Burleigh building always had a public aspect. She and other campaigners would have liked to have seen that continue with a “cultural hub” in any redevelopment.
She thinks the owners have missed a “golden opportunity”.
Others will insist that the new building is a compromise between old and new unprecedented on the Gold Coast.
“The developer has made considerable concessions at great cost to meet community expectations”, said Andrew McLean, a town planner at Brisbane-based Saunders Havill Group.
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But the compromise is an uneasy one. Pretty as they are, the artists’ impressions make very clear the new building will tower over the old.
As councillor Peter Young said last week, “it looks disjointed and two completely different buildings”.
It’s surprising that we can’t do better on the Gold Coast – our historic buildings are few and far between.
Ms Archer fears that the Old Burleigh Theatre Arcade redevelopment may “create more problems” in the future if it “sets an important precedent for heritage”.
This column hopes instead that lessons are learned from a process that was, to put it politely, far from perfect for all involved.
That, in building the Gold Coast of the future, we can keep more than just token remnants of its past.
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