Two-thirds of Victoria Park would remain parkland when the Brisbane Stadium is built, Premier David Crisafulli announced on Thursday as planners revealed the location of the Olympic warm-up track.
Speaking at the Queensland University of Technology’s Kelvin Grove campus, in a building overlooking the park, Crisafulli said this week’s federal environmental approval, revealed by this masthead on Wednesday, was a “real sigh of relief” for the government.
The decision meant preliminary work on both the main 63,000-seat Brisbane Stadium and the 25,000-seat National Aquatic Centre, at the site of the Centenary Pool, could commence.
“What this does is ensures that our timeline for delivery can be executed and it is really important – we don’t have time to waste,” he said.
Crisafulli said two-thirds of the site would remain parkland once the stadium was built – including the culturally significant York’s Hollow – and there would be no access restrictions.
“This green space has to be open all of the time … and every Queenslander should be able to benefit regardless of how much money they’ve got in their pocket,” he said.
“Two-thirds of it is going to be not only open parkland, but it’s going to be taken up a level, and the level of activation will mean that this will be a really special precinct for the state for many, many years to come.”
Save Victoria Park spokeswoman Sue Bremner said the park was already well activated – by their estimates, about 1.2 million people visited the park every year, either by frequenting businesses on the site, general recreational visits or cyclists riding through.
Bremner said Brisbane City Council’s 2023 Victoria Park master plan, which proposed the city’s own version of New York’s Central Park, had alerted many to the site’s recreational potential.
“People were just starting to discover it as a park, as opposed to the old golf course,” she said.
“Talk of the council’s plans, in effect, alerted people to the fact that the park was there, and more people started going. Yes, it was still slow, but it never really had a chance to get off the ground.”
Bremner said despite the Commonwealth’s environmental sign-off, she still held fears for York’s Hollow, particularly if construction disturbed natural underground springs.
“There is an ancient spring still existing under the ground through Victoria Park,” she said.
“Even though we know that lake is man-made, it is not just fed by rainwater – it is actually spring-fed, and it proves that the underground spring still exists.
“That’s why the First Nations people camp there, because it was clear fresh water.”
It would not be far from York’s Hollow where Olympic athletes will warm up for competition at the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Arup Australia and New Zealand business director Penny Hall, who has headed the precinct master planning process, said they had identified the site for the Olympic warm-up track – and it would be right next to the stadium.
“We have the warm-up track firmly locked into the south-east [of the stadium], where we’re working with the landform and a lot of the environmental issues, to ensure it’s sensitively placed,” she said.
“And then there’ll be an ongoing legacy community asset in sports fields and others as we move forward.”
When the Gabba was to serve as Brisbane’s main Olympic stadium, plans to have a warm-up track at Raymond Park – half a kilometre from the stadium – proved contentious.
The Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority will take possession of Victoria Park on June 1, at which point it will be fenced off to the public.
From our partners
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
