Press Statement: GIICA Northshore Stadium Rejection Under Fire as Government Pushes Major Development on Same Site
PRESS STATEMENT: GIICA NORTHSHORE STADIUM REJECTION UNDER FIRE AS GOVERNMENT PUSHES MAJOR DEVELOPMENT ON SAME SITE
Save Victoria Park
08 September 2026
Queenslanders deserve an explanation for how Northshore Hamilton was supposedly unsuitable for an Olympic stadium, but is now perfectly suitable for thousands of homes, a hotel, retail, medical services and potentially childcare and education facilities.
Northshore is flat, former industrial and commercial land, much of it controlled by the State Government, close to the airport and already earmarked for major redevelopment.
If the Crisafulli government was determined to break its election promise of ‘no new stadiums’, this was exactly the sort of site that should have been seriously pursued for a new stadium and Olympic Village.
Instead, GIICA rejected Northshore and the government chose to destroy the heart of heritage-listed Victoria Park Barrambin.
GIICA cited transport, access, existing development constraints and safety implications with the location’s proximity to fuel storage north of the site as reasons the location was unsuitable for a stadium.
Yet those supposed constraints have not stopped the government from proposing a huge new 13-tower residential and commercial precinct on the very same land.
In fact, the government is now committing $154 million in enabling infrastructure at Northshore, including new roads, sewer and water infrastructure, to prepare the land for development.
If Northshore’s transport, access and development constraints made it unsuitable for a stadium, how are those same constraints compatible with putting thousands of new homes and a major commercial precinct there?
Meanwhile, more than 200 trees have already been destroyed at Victoria Park Barrambin for a stadium on a steep, constrained, heritage-listed site beside Queensland’s busiest hospital.
The government rejected Northshore for the stadium and chose to destroy Victoria Park Barrambin instead. Now it is spending another $154 million preparing Northshore for major development.
Queenslanders are entitled to ask why.
MEDIA NOTE: Save Victoria Park has published a comparison of GIICA’s reasons for rejecting Northshore Hamilton as a stadium site against the Queensland Government’s subsequent residential and commercial development plans for the precinct. Read the analysis:
ENDS