{"id":700132,"date":"2026-05-28T14:01:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T14:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/700132\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T14:01:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T14:01:13","slug":"brisbanes-3-6b-olympic-stadium-faces-court-challenge-by-residents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/700132\/","title":{"rendered":"Brisbane’s $3.6b Olympic stadium faces court challenge by residents"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Brisbane prepares for the 2032 Olympics, it is facing persistent opposition to its biggest feature, the Olympic stadium.<\/p>\n

The state government wants site work to begin from Monday on the $3.6 billion project in Victoria Park.<\/p>\n

But Indigenous protesters staging a months-long camp are refusing to move.<\/p>\n

They are awaiting a federal government decision on cultural heritage protection for the inner Brisbane park.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Indigenous people have been camping in Victoria Park for months in protest against the stadium. (AM: Annie Guest)<\/p>\n

“My concern is we’ll lose a big part of our cultural heritage and the green space. It’s a sacred site, campsite, for our Goori people,” said Derek Oram Sandy from the Goori Camp Embassy.<\/p>\n

“And the waterways here, the springs that are here, it’ll damage the ecosystem within the region.”<\/p>\n

Historic Aboriginal gathering and camping is acknowledged in Victoria Park’s listing on the Queensland Heritage Register.<\/p>\n

But the state government had hoped to bypass any restrictions by setting aside at least 15 heritage, environmental and planning laws last year.<\/p>\n

It also recently changed Victoria Park to freehold land.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Queensland’s premier insists the Indigenous protesters must leave the site within days. (AM: Annie Guest)<\/p>\n

Now, a Supreme Court challenge is planned by local residents group GamesWatchdog 2032.<\/p>\n

“Under the Olympic contract, it precludes building on a heritage place and it also requires the government to comply with Brisbane’s original bid which said that Victoria Park would be retained as parkland,” said spokesman Neil Peach.<\/p>\n

GamesWatchdog 2032 alleges the Queensland government is breaching its contract with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as a Games host.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Neil Peach is part of a group of residents planning a court challenge to the stadium. (AM: Annie Guest)<\/p>\n

The ABC has contacted the IOC for a response.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Queensland Premier David Crisafulli declared this week he had every faith the IOC was on board.<\/p>\n

“And you’ll see not just the respect of those environmental areas, you’ll see an improvement,” he said.<\/p>\n

“And what it will do is open up to many thousands of people who have never been there before.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the premier insisted the Indigenous protesters must leave the site within days, saying police would decide what action to take.<\/p>\n

“A city, a state, a nation and a globe are not going to be held hostage to a group of people who are making a political point,” Mr Crisafulli said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Location of new Victoria Park Olympic stadium unveiled <\/a><\/p>\n

New artist impressions showing the interior of the 63,000-seat arena have also been released.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Equipment has been moved into place at the inner Brisbane park to begin fencing the construction site next week.<\/p>\n

“It’s terrible for us because you know the excavators came on National Sorry Day,” Derek Oram Sandy said.<\/p>\n

“We have reconciliation initiatives and things like that are just token.<\/p>\n

“Two-hundred-and-fifty years on and this is how we get treated.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

His Goori Embassy Camp has been the subject of racist comments on social media.<\/p>\n

“Those racist comments and all that, they are just uneducated people,” he said.<\/p>\n

“They actually don’t know the Frontier Wars that happened here and how our mob were moved along.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, local residents are among 8,000 people who signed a petition that was handed to the IOC earlier this month.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been walking here for a quarter of a century. And I’ll be very sad not to have access here for the six years of construction,” resident Sandy Rogers said.<\/p>\n

“But it isn’t about me; closing the park is closing a free open space that creates community and keeps residents active and healthy.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

An artist’s impression of the 63,000-seat stadium. (Supplied: COX Architecture and Hassell)<\/p>\n

The Queensland government says the 63,000-seat Olympic stadium will take up one-third of Victoria Park.<\/p>\n

Sandy Rogers does not believe it.<\/p>\n

“It’s fairly blatantly obvious that this stadium and all of the infrastructure required will chew up most of the park.”<\/p>\n

The park was previously used as a golf course and covers just over half a square kilometre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Brisbane prepares for the 2032 Olympics, it is facing persistent opposition to its biggest feature, the Olympic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,17327,277147,44,38791,10018,340960,8824,38790],"class_list":["post-700132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brisbane-olympics","tag-brisbane-stadium","tag-news","tag-olympic-stadium","tag-olympics","tag-olympics-2032","tag-stadium","tag-victoria-park"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700132","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=700132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}