Stadium Renders Mislead Public
The Government’s artistic impressions of the proposed main stadium at Victoria Park grossly mislead Queenslanders.
New Architectural Renders Highlight Misleading Government Images
Save Victoria Park has just released new architectural renders by a respected international sports architect, highlighting the true overwhelming scale of a 63,000 seat stadium proposed for Victoria Park. These architectural renders are overlayed with the government’s own artist’s impressions which were released on the Delivering 2032 website. These new architectural renders highlight the grossly misleading nature of the government’s images in failing to properly illustrate the scope and size of the proposed main stadium in Victoria Park.
Using Perth’s Optus Stadium as a size comparison, these new visuals show how a 14-storey stadium structure would completely dominate the Victoria Park landscape. And this is just the beginning. These renders don’t even include the additional 25,000-seat aquatics centre, warm up track or other major infrastructure now planned for the site.
Site Analysis & Test Fit
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Scenario A: Stadium at the Same Level as Gilchrist Avenue
The following images illustrate a scenario where the stadium playing ground is at the same level as Gilchrist Avenue. These renders highlight the amount of earthworks, excavation and blasting which would likely be required in this scenario. Note that in some places, excavation of up to 20.12 m would be required.
Scenario B: Stadium at the Same Level as Herston Road
The following images illustrate a scenario where the stadium playing ground is at the same level as Herston Road. These renders highlight the amount of earthworks, excavation and blasting which would likely be required in this scenario.
Olympic Stadium Impact on Victoria Park
The image below shows an accurate render of the footprint of a 60,000 seat stadium on Victoria Park. Note that this render DOES NOT included the required Olympic warm-up track, other associated infrastructure and the 25,000 capacity National Aquatic Centre and Precinct.
Press Statement
New analysis shows Brisbane to lose more than half its largest city parkland to Olympic development
New stadium visuals and report accessed above.
Brisbane is set to sacrifice more than half of its largest inner-city parkland to Olympic stadium infrastructure, according to new expert projections and accurate stadium renders 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 sporting precinct, with up to 58% of the public parkland lost to development.
The updated analysis, conducted by sustainable development researcher Dr Neil Peach (insert link), comes alongside newly released architectural visuals (insert link) which illustrate the actual impact of a 60,000+ seat oval stadium on Victoria Park, using Perth’s Optus venue as a scaled example.
“These visuals show more accurately how a 14-storey mega structure will completely overwhelm this park,” said Save Victoria Park spokesperson Rosemary O’Hagan. “And these pictures don’t even include the 25,000-seat aquatics stadium and other major ancillary facilities, now planned for the site.
“This is a hilly, poorly serviced landscape, to put it mildly. You simply can’t plonk stadiums here. These projects are going to require either large-scale quarrying, or the erection of hugely imposing retaining walls just to create flat workable sites. The park will be further carved up by major new plazas, bridges, pathways and other amenities to cater for tens of thousands of people at a time.”
The March 2024 Sports Venue Review - which first floated the idea of using Victoria Park as an Olympic sporting precinct - estimated 13% of the park could be consumed by stadium infrastructure, although the basis for this figure is unknown.
Current plans in the public domain, however, show the 64-hectare park will now host two major stadiums for aquatics and football with a combined total of 88,000 seats, an Olympic athletics warm-up track, and proposed enabling infrastructure including car parks and new connections to roads and public transport.
Using the site-specific analyses by researchers such as Dr Peach, as well as other experts including town planners and international sports architects, it is now clear that initial Victoria Park stadium footprint projections - and the official artist impressions used to sell these proposals - are grossly misleading.
“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.
“It’s time the government called this project what it is: the redevelopment of one of Brisbane’s most precious green assets - and a significant First Nations cultural site - into a concrete sporting precinct.
“Not only are we facing major loss of public space, we are being stripped of our democratic rights to object to these stadiums, projects the state government never had the mandate to build in Victoria Park in the first place.
“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 Victoria Park as a ‘park for the people’?
“It’s not too late to course correct and ensure the rhetoric of a sustainable Olympic Games matches the reality for Brisbane.”
ENDS
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.
Legacy in the eye of the beholder: The (be)dazzling artist impressions of Olympic stadiums
Written by QUT Professor Marcus Foth
“Artist impressions of Olympic stadiums often promise green legacies, but behind the glossy architectural visuals lies a concrete reality the public cannot afford to ignore.
The New Brisbane Stadium glossy aerials promise a shimmering oval gently nestled in a lush forest of mature gum trees, as though a 63,000-seat stadium had been magically lowered, fully complete, into Victoria Park without so much as disturbing a kookaburra. These are the Queensland Government’s official artist impressions of the newly announced Olympic stadium for Brisbane 2032 and, at a glance, they radiate the same feel-good sustainability aura that once accompanied the Games’ now-abandoned “climate-positive” promise. Yet, these images are pure sleight-of-hand…”
Experts predict up to 58% of Victoria Park will be lost to main stadium
According to new preliminary analysis by Dr Neil Peach, a sustainable development researcher, Brisbane is on track to lose over half of Victoria Park to the proposed main stadium, highlighting the inaccuracies of GIICA and Graeme Quirk’s estimates that only 10% of the park would be consumed by a stadium.
In contrast, Dr Neil Peach’s research suggests that up to 58% of the park is now projected to be lost, replaced by pay-to-enter stadium facilities. This estimate is backed up by new architectural renders created by a renowned international sports architect.
Read Dr Peach’s preliminary analysis below.
