{"id":223098,"date":"2025-10-18T16:16:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T16:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/223098\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T16:16:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T16:16:15","slug":"the-face-of-brisbane-is-changing-but-should-thousands-of-homes-be-developed-in-a-flood-zone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/223098\/","title":{"rendered":"The face of Brisbane is changing \u2014 but should thousands of homes be developed in a flood zone?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Plans to build a riverfront precinct in a flood-prone area<\/a> of Brisbane have urban planners and locals wary, with questions being asked about the safety, practicality and costs.<\/p>\n

They believe the already-booming area of South Brisbane may not be able to accommodate thousands of new homes, and are concerned residents could be trapped in high-rise apartment buildings during severe weather events.<\/p>\n

The LNP government announced on Friday its plans to transform a Visy glass factory site on the Brisbane River into a new mixed-use precinct.<\/p>\n

Part of that development could include 4,000 homes, with construction potentially beginning from March 2027.<\/p>\n

Expert warns move is ‘quite the opposite’ of good planning<\/p>\n

The former Labor government purchased the glass factory on Montague Road in South Brisbane in 2022 for $165 million.<\/p>\n

It had planned to use the site as an international broadcast centre during the 2032 Games.<\/p>\n

The LNP government has scrapped that proposal and is now seeking private sector proponents to redevelop the 7.1-hectare South Brisbane property.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

The state government, which has released its own renders, says construction on the South Brisbane site could begin in 2027. (Supplied: Queensland government)<\/p>\n

Premier David Crisafulli on Friday described the plans as a “once in a generation moment” to reshape the inner-city.<\/p>\n

“We’re unlocking one of the last golden stretches of riverfront to create a world-class legacy precinct that all Queenslanders can be proud of,” he said.<\/p>\n

But Griffith University urban planner Dr Tony Matthews has doubts.<\/p>\n

“If you look at the state government’s current render, which is hopefully some kind of worst-case scenario, it’s just a bunch of tall matchstick towers up against the river,” he said.<\/p>\n

“That’s not good planning or urban design. That’s quite the opposite.”<\/p>\n

Dr Matthews said there were bigger questions about who wanted and needed to live at the site and who it was catering for.<\/p>\n

He said best practice urban planning would be building three- and four-bedroom apartments for families.<\/p>\n

“But even if we do build them and those families move in, where are their children going to go to school? Where can they play? And what’s going to happen with all the cars?” He said.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

Dr Tony Matthews disagrees with the state government’s proposal to re-develop the area. (Supplied: Dr Tony Matthews)<\/p>\n

“These are real questions on a peninsula hemmed in by a very overdeveloped suburb on one side and a river.”<\/p>\n

Dr Matthews also noted it was a flood-prone site.<\/p>\n

“There are always engineering solutions to that, but they can be very costly,” he said.<\/p>\n

“High-rise buildings that are close to the river are going to be extremely vulnerable, and people could easily get trapped inside them.”<\/p>\n

He said he’d like to see the land transformed into a mixed-use site with some residential properties.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The location of the new precinct is prone to river flooding and overland flow. (Brisbane City Council Flood Information)<\/p>\n

“You could learn a lot by what’s been done in the West End village, as long as it’s done at an appropriate scale and density,” Dr Matthews said.<\/p>\n

“Instead of just a bunch of large towers \u2026 we could have active public space, no intrusion from heavy traffic, all of those things could make for a wonderful community by the river.”<\/p>\n

Locals weigh in<\/p>\n

President of the West End Community Association and former urban planner, Seleneah More, accused the government of “gifting [to] developers” so they can “build homes for the rich.”<\/p>\n

Ms More said locals would prefer to see the site used for community facilities or a school.<\/p>\n

“Our neighbourhood that has already experienced a lot of growth in 15 years,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It’s negligent planning on behalf of the government to not put basic infrastructure in place to provide for these communities that they’re creating.”<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Ms More says the Queensland government’s proposal is “gifting” developers.\u00a0 (ABC News: Chris Gillette)<\/p>\n

Ms More said during the 2022 Brisbane floods, some apartment buildings in the area went without power for up to a week.<\/p>\n

“I had power out for a couple of days. I live in a 12-story building, but I’m able-bodied, I could go up and down on the stairs,” Ms More said.<\/p>\n

“There are real safety concerns with flooding.”<\/p>\n

Another local Kent Boreham says he worries about affordable housing and getting priced out of the area.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s aimed at people with a lot of money,” he told the ABC.<\/p>\n

“We’re trying to get into the housing market, we’re renting and trying to stay in the catchment so my daughter can stay with her friends, it’s really tough.”<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

But not all residents agree. Taso Kontoudios lives down the road from the site and believes the plans “make sense”.<\/p>\n

“We’re not out in the country, we’re not in the suburbs, we’re in the city,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got to understand it’s all high rises in the city and it’s going to spread. We’ve got to give people accommodation; they’ve got to live somewhere.”<\/p>\n

Should not be ‘adding’ to flood risk<\/p>\n

A spokesperson from the Insurance Council of Australia said while they can’t comment on this specific project, flooding “remains Australia’s most costly and rapidly growing extreme weather risk.”<\/p>\n

There are already 245,000 homes in Australia that face a severe to extreme risk of flooding, according to the spokesperson.<\/p>\n

“We should not be adding to this,” they said.<\/p>\n

The spokesperson said the Insurance Council “has long advocated against the development on floodplains and is engaging with all levels of government on the solutions required to safeguard our most at-risk communities.”<\/p>\n

“Quite often when people are buying an affordable home, it can become an incredibly unaffordable home when it has to be built twice,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Visy glass factory in Brisbane’s inner city is set to be transformed into a new riverfront precinct. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

In a statement to ABC News, Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie defended the government’s vision for the site.<\/p>\n

He said the government was “partnering with the private sector to deliver a world-class mixed-use precinct to include new parkland, open space, and thousands of new homes.”<\/p>\n

“We are plugging an infrastructure black hole with a record $116.8 billion capital pipeline including new schools, hospitals, roads and rail,” Mr Bleijie said.<\/p>\n

“Expressions of interest are now open to seek feedback on the best use of the prime riverfront site.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Plans to build a riverfront precinct in a flood-prone area of Brisbane have urban planners and locals wary,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,16553,18630,24654,3786,135472,44,94,701,135471,133723,135470,37283],"class_list":{"0":"post-223098","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-development","11":"tag-flooding","12":"tag-floods","13":"tag-government","14":"tag-montague-street","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-qld","17":"tag-queensland","18":"tag-riverfront-precinct","19":"tag-south-brisbane","20":"tag-visy","21":"tag-west-end"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}