The pool, pontoon and politics blocking a complete Kangaroo Point Riverwalk

A connected Kangaroo Point active transport network was promised to residents of the inner east in 2020 but four years, two green bridges and one successful Olympics bid later, it’s still on the drawing board.

The state government first announced plans for a $22.5 million project to “fill in gaps on the popular Riverwalk at Kangaroo Point to create an unbroken bike and pedestrian path linking Kangaroo Point and Mowbray Park” days before the 2020 election.

While many private developments in the roughly 630-metre stretch of waterfront property have built or reserved space along the riverside, the shoreline is also dotted with pontoons, a mini-marina, and even a pool, squarely in the path of any future walkway.

This year, council also introduced a different proposal to upgrade the existing bike route along Shafston Avenue into a separated lane for cyclists, which it committed to funding on a 50-50 split with state.

Several Brisbane active transport users said change was needed to make travel through the area safer, but opinions were divided over whether the Shafston Avenue upgrade would be enough.

Katie Panaretto often travels through the inner east from her home suburb of Teneriffe, crossing the Story and Victoria bridges on her bike.

It was on this route that Panaretto, a former president of Bicycle Queensland, was “ran over from behind” in a suspected road rage incident in January 2023 – fracturing her pelvis, collarbone, and several ribs.

“There was a really loud bang, just like a car crash, and I didn’t know what was going on,” she said. “I was flung over the front of the bike.”

Panaretto spent five days in hospital, then six weeks in a wheelchair, with the overall recovery taking 18 months. Since the accident, she says she feels safer riding well away from busy roads, and along riverside paths where she can.

That means sticking closer to home, and avoiding sections of the East Brisbane bikeway that require her to ride along footpaths, take detours through backstreets, and dodge cars emerging from driveways.

Katie Panaretto spent six weeks in a wheelchair after a car ran her over while she was riding in the city’s inner east.Credit: Katie Panaretto

“For those of us that use the bus and [active transport], we need alternative ways to get around,” Panaretto said. “I don’t think it all has to be rolled-gold.”

However, Greens member for South Brisbane Amy MacMahon remained concerned that a Shafston Avenue bikeway would cost the community a complete Riverwalk.

“It’s embarrassing that the Labor state government and the LNP council can’t work together and get on with the job of completing this riverfront walkway,” MacMahon said.

“Over the last four years, all I’ve heard is them shifting the blame onto the other, while residents are still left waiting.”

Council have never made a public commitment to match funding for the Riverwalk project in Kangaroo Point, maintaining the project was a Queensland Labor election promise.

However, council and the state’s department of transport and main roads agreed to jointly fund and execute a planning study in 2022.

In mid-2023, that same planning project delivered a plan for recommended infrastructure upgrades valued at $93 million – more than four times the original cost of the promise.

Speaking to Parliament in July this year, Minister for Transport Bart Mellish said the cost estimate would exceed “the available Queensland government funding even if it is combined with matching funding from BCC” and had been rejected in 2023.

Earlier this year, council proposed the alternative bikeway project for Shafston Avenue at a cost of $35 million.

This development would create a dedicated bike route between the near-complete Kangaroo Point green bridge – which is expected to be completed by the end of 2024 – and Lytton Road’s bike lane, which was built in 2019.

TMR said both the bikeway and Riverwalk had been flagged in the 2023 planning study and that it was currently “negotiating an agreement to jointly deliver improvements” along Shafston Avenue, and “prioritising” that project.

Civic cabinet chair for transport Ryan Murphy said there would be “detailed design and then construction … as soon as the state signs a 50-50 funding agreement council has given them”.

While a Kangaroo Point Riverwalk was not off the table, Murphy described it as a “significant undertaking [that] would likely take several years to plan, design and deliver”.