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This was published 7 months ago
Bridges, casinos, MPs and a metro: Brisbane’s ins and outs for 2024
New Year’s resolutions? Goals? Why not try manifesting outcomes for the year with an “ins and outs” list.
If you’re not sure what that is, an ins and outs list is basically a list of things (tangible or otherwise) you would like to see materialise – or die out – in the new year. They can be aspirations, trends, anything you like.
After numerous obstacles and a budget blowout, part of the $3.6 billion Queen’s Wharf precinct is due to open in 2024.
There’s no reason to share the questionable content of my personal list in a professional setting. Instead, I’ll imagine I am a city, specifically Brisbane, gazing ahead.
So here are the ins and outs Brisbane is manifesting, with the budget still a consideration for all.
Ins:
Australia’s largest casino resort
After two significant delays, a billion-dollar-plus budget blowout, contract and payment disputes, and a glaringly absent community-impact report, it’s hard to believe Star Entertainment’s new casino, Queen’s Wharf Brisbane, will finally open in 2024. Well, part of it at least.
The megaproject has been 10 years in the making and promises four luxury hotels, two residential towers, a commercial tower, cinemas, a luxury shopping complex, and up to 50 cafes, bars and restaurants.
Destination Brisbane Consortium (the joint venture of The Star Entertainment Group and Hong Kong-based partners Far East Consortium and Chow Tai Fook Enterprises) is expected to open the “core” of the project, including The Star Grand, in August.
The significance of a development like this in Brisbane, an urban centre making strides as a New World City, is hard to dispute. Queen’s Wharf is slated to create 8000 jobs, attract 1.4 million visitors to the city every year, and fill a crucial gap in accommodation ahead of the 2032 Olympics. It also helped Brisbane get a mention in The New York Times this week.
But the long-term gravitas of what is, at its core, a multibillion-dollar casino remains to be seen.
Neville Bonner Sky Bridge
The 320-metre Neville Bonner Bridge, running from Queen’s Wharf to South Bank, is also set to open in 2024. Construction began in 2020 and, in September 2023, half of it was briefly opened to 500 pedestrians.
Named after Australia’s first federal Indigenous parliamentarian, the bridge, expected to attract 10,000 pedestrians daily, will be an integral link between the city’s two largest lifestyle precincts.
While it will inevitably draw people from South Bank to the casino, it is unclear how many will venture the other way. Plans are afoot to revamp South Bank.
A new link to the CBD
In what is shaping up to be a big year for new bridges in Brisbane, another project with an expected 2024 hard launch is the Kangaroo Point Green Bridge.
Connecting the peninsula with the CBD near the Botanic Gardens, the bridge is a key part of Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner’s plan to reduce congestion and boost public and active transport. It is also expected to link the city with the Olympic stadium at Woolloongabba, with some 6000 pedestrians, cyclists and e-mobility riders expected to cross the bridge daily by 2036.
The Kangaroo Point Green Bridge will link the peninsula with the CBD near the Botanic Gardens. Credit: Brisbane City Council
Brisbane City Council transport committee head Ryan Murphy described it as the council’s “biggest active travel project”. He also defended its $100 million blowout – from $190 million to $299 million – stating the bridge “isn’t immune to the increasing construction costs other major projects are facing”.
QPAC becoming the largest performing arts centre in Australia
In keeping with other major developments, QPAC’s new theatre has exceeded its original $150 million cost estimate (albeit by a comparatively modest $25 million), is two years behind schedule (floodwater wrecked the site in 2022), and has an ambiguous opening date.
But there are reasons to be optimistic. The 1500-seat theatre will enable an extra 300,000 visitors to see 260 more performances a year; it will make QPAC the largest performing arts centre in Australia; and, with its curved glass facade, will complement the precinct’s brutalist architecture.
A metro (but not the kind you’re thinking of)
It might take the official launch to stop picturing Brisbane Metro as an underground railway system similar to those in other international cities. Instead, our network will be a fleet of fully electric, high-capacity tram-like buses.
It is hoped the Brisbane Metro will ease congestion and improve links between the CBD and suburbs. Credit: Matt Dennien
The system is hoped to reduce bottlenecks and improve connectivity to the suburbs. This public transport upheaval will be followed by the much-anticipated Cross River Rail project, due to open in 2026.
Outs:
Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner and Premier Steven Miles … ?
Not to be interpreted as a partisan wish, per se, rather a reminder of the year of politics ahead for the Sunshine State, with the Brisbane City Council election on March 16 and the state election on October 26.
Brisbane’s LNP lord mayor, Adrian Schrinner, will vie for another four-year term against Labor’s Tracey Price and the Greens’ Jonathan Sriranganathan.
At a state level, Steven Miles was sworn into the top job on December 15 after Annastacia Palaszczuk resigned that month.
It’s hardly been a smooth first month in office for the former long-time deputy premier, but shepherding the state through extreme weather events has given him a chance to prove his chops and haul the negative approval ratings to higher ground.
Miles will defend Labor’s leadership against Opposition Leader David Crisafulli when Queenslanders head to the booths.
The Gabba rebuild
The $2.7 billion rebuild of Brisbane’s Gabba stadium was a key tenet of the Queensland government’s bid for the 2032 Olympics. But objections to the project have been loud, with Greens MPs campaigning against the rebuild and its displacement of East Brisbane State School.
In December 2023, Schrinner announced his resignation from the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games advisory body, calling it “a dysfunctional farce” and “a pointless talkfest”, while also withdrawing his support for the Gabba redevelopment. A few weeks later, Miles announced his government would reflect on the proposed rebuild under a broader pause and review of Olympic infrastructure projects.
With the coming 2024 elections, this won’t be the last we’ll hear about the Gabba.
The old casino
A stalwart of the CBD, the Treasury Casino complex will move its operations down the road when Queen’s Wharf opens.
In November 2023, agents were appointed to sell the lease on the complex, which includes the heritage-listed Treasury Casino building, the Treasury Hotel, and the Treasury car park. The six-week selling campaign wrapped up in mid-December, but the agents were unable to comment on its outcome, other than to say there has been a lot of interest.
The Treasury Casino complex, including the heritage-listed Treasury Casino (pictured), will vacate when the new Queen’s Wharf Casino opens. Agents were engaged to sell the lease on the buildings in November. Credit: SMH
Personally, I’d love to see the old Treasury Casino transformed into a cultural hub – whether for art or entertainment – and, heritage limitations permitting, the rooftop activated in some way.
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