Developers circle as Brisbane Entertainment Centre nears its end

It was built in the hope of an Olympics that never happened, and another Olympics could prove its swansong.

The Brisbane Entertainment Centre at Boondall, at the city’s northern fringe, will probably host its final major event in nine years’ time, after nearly half a century as the city’s main concert and indoor sports venue.

All things going well, that crown will pass to the planned 17,000-seat Brisbane Arena at Roma Street, right in the heart of the city.

Concept art of the proposed Brisbane Arena above the new underground Roma Street station.

So where does that leave the much-maligned Entertainment Centre?

ASM Global chairman Harvey Lister, the venue’s manager, would not offer any insight, instead referring queries to state Sport Minister Stirling Hinchliffe.

Hinchliffe said the venue had life in it yet, particularly given it was slated to be an Olympic venue.

As for after the 2032 Games, that was an open question.

“As a government, we’re always looking at ways of getting the best value from our infrastructure assets for the benefit of Queenslanders,” Hinchliffe said.

“The Brisbane Entertainment Centre occupies a significant parcel of land but with substantial development-limiting environmental constraints.

“With easy access to the Shorncliffe line, the site could have future scope for precise development that’s highly sensitive to the natural surroundings.”

The Brisbane Entertainment Centre site at Boondall could be repurposed post-Games, once the Brisbane Arena was built.Credit: ASM Global

To say the Brisbane Entertainment Centre is unloved is perhaps underselling the visceral reaction some have to the venue. “Bulldoze Boondall” is a common refrain for concert-goers, forced into car park traffic jams late at night.

It has a train station, accessible via pathways through the scrub, but as the BEC website warns: “Due to the finishing time of some events, some scheduled services departing Boondall Station may not make connecting services.”

So punters have little choice other than to drive, with an inevitable post-show traffic jam, and pay $18 for the privilege.

Brisbane Arena, adjacent to Roma Street Station, would be more centrally located and have much better access for patrons across the south-east.

That makes it difficult to imagine the Brisbane Entertainment Centre remaining viable, despite Lister’s protestations to the contrary.

And with about 72 hectares of land around the arena, it has its fair share of interested parties circling.

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Planning firm Ethos Urban has prepared a concept master plan for the site, which it declined to share with this masthead.

But the firm’s planning director, Ben Weaver, said the completion of the Brisbane Arena would create an “exciting opportunity” to reimagine the Entertainment Centre’s role and function.

“[Boondall] benefits from not one but two suburb rail stations and close access to the Bruce Highway,” he said.

“From our initial analysis, the site has over 20 hectares of land that has been previously developed that could be redeveloped without encroachment into the areas of ecological significance or flooding overlays.

“It has the potential to become Brisbane’s new subtropical garden suburb, with natural links to the Boondall wetlands and high levels of public transport accessibility.”

Ross Elliott, the co-founder of urban planning think tank Suburban Futures, said it was obvious Boondall’s future was in doubt.

“By moving the Entertainment Centre to a new facility in town, you then get to repurpose the place it used to be at,” he said.

“You’d probably keep the indoor sports there because there’s such a scarcity of places for people to play indoor sport, but there’s 50, or maybe even 70, hectares of developable land in and around Boondall, which already has two train stations.”

Elliott said the private sector would be waiting to pounce once Boondall’s Olympic commitments were over.

“The point that’s worth keeping in mind is that there’s a lot more private money than public out there and the opportunity with some of these suburban renewal districts is to unlock access to private capital, to create these spaces,” he said.

“West Village was private money. Most of the places people like, if you really start to think about it – [such as] James Street, New Farm – was done by private capital.”

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Brisbane City Council’s planning chair, Adam Allan, told a Property Council lunch this year it was important Brisbane’s suburbs experienced the same sort of Olympic benefit as the Gabba and Roma Street precincts.

The Brisbane Entertainment Centre’s end is in sight.Credit: Matt Dennien

“A lot of the precinct renewal that will come off the back of those Olympic venues is going to happen anyway,” he said.

“My focus is to make sure that the suburbs share in some of this change and that we end up with better sporting and recreational facilities in the suburbs, that we get some of the precinct renewal out there, so it doesn’t become a situation where all the benefits that accrue from the Olympics and Paralympics are centred around the inner city.

“We’ve got to share it citywide.”

Jared Cassidy, Boondall’s local councillor and leader of Brisbane City Council’s Labor opposition, wanted that philosophy to extend to the Entertainment Centre.

“This is an opportunity where you can demonstrate that the Olympics was actually a catalyst for something, that it did actually deliver something different for the community,” he said.

Whatever happened at Boondall, Cassidy said it was important the community was front and centre in all planning conversations.

“Ordinarily, it would be a council planning process, but because it’s state government land, there’s often friction about how that works,” he said.

“I actually think there could be a collaborative approach, which engages the community, with the knowledge that we’re talking about 15 years away from now because, in nine years, this is going to be an Olympic venue.”

Boondall will host Olympic handball in 2032.Credit: Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images

Cassidy said he expected the site to have the attention of developers, but warned caution on how to proceed.

“There’s increasing density around it – units and townhouses around Boondall, around the train station – so I think that’s the sort of site where you want to have a conversation about where we’re going to address future housing issues,” he said.

“We want to look at a community-led plan, as well as delivering community sporting facilities to what is actually the only place in Brisbane that could deliver all of those things.

“But the last thing you want is not to do that work up front, and for the rumour mill to be running hot about some sort of secret deal being done.”

Local MP Leanne Linard said the Entertainment Centre was an important community asset, with the indoor sports hall hosting basketball and futsal, and local remote control and model boat clubs utilising the grounds. It was also a popular spot for dog-walking.

And Linard, the state environment minister, said the precinct’s natural assets needed to be protected.

“If you think about how close it is to Ramsar-protected wetlands, it’s an area of significant environmental value,” she said.

“People are very connected to it, they value it deeply. They want it, it’s green space, and it creates a real livability for those local suburbs around Boondall.

“Yes, it’s a large entertainment venue, but it does have that broader sense of community connection.”

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Opened in 1986, the Brisbane Entertainment Centre would have been the centrepiece of a northside sports precinct if Brisbane was successful in winning the right to host the 1992 Olympic Games.

The proposed Boondall zone for the 1992 Brisbane Olympic Games (note: the bid book was written in French, the official primary language of the International Olympic Committee).

Barcelona won that battle, but Boondall’s Olympic dream is not over. The 13,500-capacity arena, with 11,000 permanent seats, opened in 1986 and has been selected as the Olympic handball venue for the 2032 Games.

That, in effect, puts a stay of execution on the ageing facility, even if the Roma Street arena came online well before 2032.

It seems there is life left within Boondall’s brutalist walls yet.

“For now, I’d say that it’s a very highly utilised site and I don’t think necessarily [the Brisbane Arena] meets those needs,” Linard said.

“So don’t be counting out the Entertainment Centre yet, my friend.”

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