Business owners meet with town planners to revitalise Mackay waterfront

Business owners and local planners were given a reality check on how a somewhat-neglected riverfront is costing Mackay.

The think tank included Member for Dawson Andrew Wilcox, Former Mayor Colin Meng and Acting CEO of Mackay Regional Council David McKendry.

Local Mackay business owners said they were given a “reality check” when walking down the Pioneer riverfront blaming “years of neglect” for what they say is a vacant and dead city centre.

In a meeting between Mackay’s self prescribed ‘shakers and movers’, Steven Boxall, CEO of Resources Centre of Excellence said he was “verbally challenged by homeless people” when assessing the potential of the Mackay walkway.

“We got told we didn’t ask to use their lounge room to do our interview,” he said.

The meeting, held at Harrup Park, saw members of the hospitality industry, construction leaders and tourist operators gather with the Mackay council CEO and the member for Dawson, Andrew Willcox to discuss the city centre’s revival.

The Waterfront Priority Development Area has led to River Wharves, River Pontoon, and the redevelopment of Queens Park, while council is currently working on the River and Sydney St intersection project.

Joint owners of NE Food, the parent company of the Dispensary on Wood St and Byrnes Pies, Damien and Adrian Connors, spoke of the need to connect the waterfront with the city centre which to them currently looks “atrocious”.

“That mountain bike track was fantastic to bring businesses to towns but locals got nothing to do in that city centre,” Damien Connors said.

The Connors family recently purchased the iconic 136 year old Paxton’s Warehouse on River St, last month for $500,000, considered the ‘last’ heritage building along the Pioneer River.

Damien and Adrian Connors, who co-own Burp, The Dispensary and NE Food are pushing for more traffic in the Mackay CBD

In November 2023, Paxton’s Warehouse workers were given days to leave the building after damage was discovered, and Adrian Connors said they’ll have to work through the processes.

“Keeping the heritage in Mackay is fantastic.

“The heritage of what the Paxtons was and the wharf precinct is an amazing heritage that needs to be respected and how that happens, I can’t say until we have more information on the building.

“At the present time it does have some council infringement notices on which we’re going to work through.”

With their new Paxton’s Warehouse and The Dispensary on either side of a riverfront experiencing dwindling foot traffic, the Connors brothers are keen to see the boardwalk’s revival and say it won’t happen without local government leading the charge.

“We need council, we need state and we need federal to get involved,” Mr Damien Connors said.

“It might be tens of millions of dollars.”

The boardwalk along River St lies within the PDA though acting CEO of Mackay Regional Council, David McKendry, told those at the round table he doesn’t see any plans for development in the immediate future.

“It’s all about us investing in the public realm then getting the private development to come along,” he said.

“We’ve got some future stages that we can continue to work on that will become the fish’s tail which is further down towards the boat ramp.”

Originally published as Business owners meet with town planners to revitalise Mackay waterfront