New analysis shows Brisbane to lose more than half its largest city parkland to Olympic development
Brisbane is set to sacrifice more than half of its largest inner-city parkland to Olympic stadium construction, according to new expert projections produced for advocacy group Save Victoria Park.
Heritage-listed Victoria Park Barrambin, long promised as the city’s new destination green space, will instead be largely transformed into a pay-to-enter, hard surface precinct, with at least 58% of the public parkland lost to stadiums and their associated infrastructure.
To scale overlay showing the reality of a stadium the size of Perth’s Optus stadium in Victoria Park.
The preliminary analysis, conducted by sustainable development researcher Dr Neil Peach, comes alongside newly released visuals that clarify the actual impact of a mega stadium on Victoria Park. The imagery test fits Perth’s Optus stadium, which at 60,000 seats and 14 storeys high is a comparable venue to what is proposed for Brisbane.
“These new images show, in proper scale, how much this mega structure will completely overwhelm the park and local suburbs,” said Save Victoria Park spokesperson Rosemary O’Hagan. “And these pictures don’t even include the 25,000-seat aquatics stadium, Olympic warm up track and other major ancillary facilities now planned for the site.
“This is an extremely hilly, challenging landscape, in a high traffic area next to Queensland’s largest hospital. You can’t simply plonk mega venues here.
“The glossy official renders we have seen to sell this project to date are nothing more than architectural artifice. They are not concepts, or plans. Where are the sprawling plazas, the bridges, the towering retaining walls, and the extensive amenities that will be required to cope with tens of thousands of people at a time? Where are the multiple car parks and connections to roads and train stations that have been promised?
“It’s time the government told us exactly how much public land we are losing with this Victoria Park construction fest, and how much it’s going to cost. Especially considering they plan to strip Queenslanders of our basic democratic rights to have any type of say in these developments.”
The March 2024 Sports Venue Review - which first floated the idea of redeveloping the public park into an Olympic precinct - estimated 12-13% of the site could be consumed by a stadium infrastructure, however the origin of this figure remains unknown.
That estimate is now set to balloon, with information in the public domain showing the 64-hectare park will host two major stadiums for aquatics and football with a combined total of 88,000 seats, plus major ancillary infrastructure.
A recent media report in The Courier-Mail further suggested the government plans to sell off additional land in the park, Brisbane's last substantial inner-city green space, for residential towers to subsidise the multibillion price tag of these stadiums.
Using conservative site-specific analyses by researchers such as Dr Peach, as well as other experts including town planners, engineers and international sports architects, it is now clear that initial Victoria Park stadium footprint projections - and the likely overall cost - are grossly misleading.
To scale overlay showing the actual size of Perth’s Optus Stadium against the Crisafulli Government’s artist’s impression of a stadium in Victoria Park.
“This is a salami slicing tactic - taking a bit at a time, and announcing impacts gradually so that the full size and extent is not revealed until it’s too late,” said Ms O’Hagan.
“Let’s call this project what it is: a major profit-driven redevelopment of one of Brisbane’s most precious public assets, a park set aside for the people in 1875 and a significant First Nations cultural site.
“What is truly hard to understand here is that there are - and always have been - other viable options: flat, less challenging sites not listed on Queensland’s Heritage Register.
“We want to know - does the Crisafulli government understand their stadium plans signal the death of the community-backed Master Plan for Victoria Park?
“It’s not too late to course correct and ensure the rhetoric of a sustainable Olympic Games matches the reality for Brisbane.”
Media note:
Further initial diagrammatic studies show that if a full Olympic overlay were applied to the Victoria Park site, the entire northern side of the park would be required for sporting and temporary Games compound infrastructure.