News Gabba Upgrade & Olympics News

[Johnny Bananas]

I have mentioned before that Victoria Park is a heritage listed site.
Having the BMX and Equestrian events at Victoria Park will be designed around the hilly terrain.
This will have minimal effect on the parkland and will not affect the parklands master plan.
Also, both are temporary Olympic venues.

Victoria Park | Environment, land and water | Queensland Government

Details of a place in the Queensland Heritage Register.

apps.des.qld.gov.au

Victoria Park | Environment, land and water | Queensland Government

Details of a place in the Queensland Heritage Register.

apps.des.qld.gov.au

Some posters have mentioned that there are ways around getting things done on heritage sites most referring to buildings.
Protected and heritage site are clearly mentioned in IOC documents.
Below from one document.

• Protection of cultural heritage – the priority is preserving the significance of heritage places and heritage areas, including Indigenous cultural heritage
..............................
• No new permanent venues will be constructed on protected natural or cultural areas

If you like go ahead but they are all not related to my above comment.

Thanks.

It's not enough to just declare that heritage listing of any part of a large site kills off any chance of development. It requires actually looking at what the heritage listing covers and doesn't cover.

On the eastern end of the site, the heritage listings are for:

• A retaining wall along Gilchrist Ave
• A doglegged stone stair connected to the retaining wall
• A row of trees planted along Gilchrist Ave
• The sporting fields south of Gilchrist Ave, but not anything that has been built on those fields.
• A stone wall south of Gilchrist Ave
• A shed between Gilchrist Ave and the sporting fields

So everything with an actual heritage listing is located along Gilchrist Avenue or to its south. That means pretty much everything to its north is not covered by a heritage listing.

You mentioned certain things on the Heritage listings but nowhere near what is listed on the links to the register above.

Those links are exactly where I got my information from, under the description and significance tabs.

But what is your comment on • No new permanent venues will be constructed on protected natural or cultural areas

The sections north of the retaining wall and trees running along Gilchrist Avenue are not protected natural or cultural areas.

 

[Bjo187]

Interesting where the stadium would be isn't very hilly at all and if you look at the council plans they had to upgrade the park, the stadium location wouldn't hinder that at all really. It might even help the council fund the park upgrade that's been put on the backburner due to finances.

 

[Grasshopper17]

Interesting where the stadium would be isn't very hilly at all and if you look at the council plans they had to upgrade the park, the stadium location wouldn't hinder that at all really. It might even help the council fund the park upgrade that's been put on the backburner due to finances.


View attachment 1915178

Any chance someone can point out on a map where in Victoria Park this proposed stadium could or would go?

 

[M Malice]

Interesting where the stadium would be isn't very hilly at all and if you look at the council plans they had to upgrade the park, the stadium location wouldn't hinder that at all really. It might even help the council fund the park upgrade that's been put on the backburner due to finances.


View attachment 1915178

So any proposed stadium would likely be in the area numbered 16,23 and 24?

Not that far a walk from the Exhibition train station, a wide pedestrian overpass direct from the station to the stadium would be the ideal.

 

[Elixuh]

Build at Vic Park. Use the Gabba site for housing. That’s the best option imo.

 

[M Malice]

Build at Vic Park. Use the Gabba site for housing. That’s the best option imo.

Yep that is my view now as well, I loved the idea of a brand new stadium and terrific precinct at the Gabba, and still think it would be the best location but the fact that we would be without a home for 4 years is too big a price to pay.... plus at my age I might not be alive in 2032 to see it.

 

[Section 5]

Victoria Park​

• 602493
• 454 Gregory Terrace, Spring Hill

• General
• Significance
• History
• Description
• Maps & Gallery

Criterion AThe place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland’s history.​

Victoria Park, gazetted as a reserve for recreation in 1875, is important for its association with key phases of Queensland's history. Over the course of its existence Victoria Park’s functions have included social, cultural and sustenance grounds for Aboriginal people in the colonial period; brickmaking and timber-felling industries; municipal rubbish dump; campsites for displaced people; and sports and recreation grounds. Despite large incursions into its land (for educational and other purposes), and the construction of railway lines and roads through its centre, Victoria Park remains one of the largest parks in Brisbane, and demonstrates the value afforded to green recreational space from the 19th to the 21st century.
As part of York’s Hollow, the site was one of Brisbane’s first industrial areas following European occupation.
The park was the site of conflict between Aboriginal people and Europeans in the colonial period; the site of camps for displaced people, including Chinese and Scottish immigrants (1840s), itinerant camps during the Great Depression (1929-1932), war brides (1945-7), and families awaiting housing commission accommodation (1947-1960). As Camp Victoria Park, the park hosted Australian and US soldiers/operations during the Second World War, as well as temporary accommodation for returned servicemen and their families after the war.
The Sports Fields (1925; re-laid 1935; and including ‘Play the Game’ Wall (c.1936) and Dressing Sheds & Kiosk (1959-60)) are associated with the development of sports organisations, particularly as the first headquarters of the Brisbane Hockey Association.
The Brisbane City Council (BCC) Electricity Substation No. 4 (1928), is important in demonstrating the expansion of the electricity supply network in Brisbane during the 1920s.
Gilchrist Avenue, its retaining wall/stair and its tree plantings (1930-2, and 1936), the Riding Row Entrance Piers (1936) and the Ornamental Lake (1933-6) are important as examples of work carried out under the Intermittent Relief Scheme during the Great Depression.
The park contains examples of the work of professional horticulturalists Henry Moore (Brisbane Parks Superintendent 1912-1940) and Harry Oakman (Brisbane Parks Superintendent 1946-1963), including mature tree plantings, planter beds, and the Gundoo Memorial Grove plantings of native trees in 1959 to celebrate the centenary of Queensland, and remnants of the adjacent

subtropical plantings in the early 1960s.

Criterion CThe place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Queensland’s history.​

Victoria Park has the potential to contribute knowledge that will lead to a greater understanding of early urban material culture, consumption and disposal habits in Queensland, and early and evolved service infrastructure and occupation activities on the urban fringe.
Archaeological investigations of the extensive late-19th and early-20th century municipal refuse deposits have the potential to reveal artefacts that may provide further information on the lifestyles, diet, and health of Brisbane’s occupants, and facilitate studies of market access, consumer choice, refuse disposal patterns, and social and economic life in the late colonial period. The apparent disposal of refuse progressively across the park – from east to west – also provides an opportunity to explore change in material culture over time.
Archaeological investigations of areas subject to late-19th and early-20th century reclamation and drainage improvements, and in the vicinity of the interwar Brisbane City Council Electricity Substation No. 4, have the potential to reveal surface and sub-surface features that could contribute to a greater understanding of the planning, design, and construction of drainage and electrical distribution infrastructure.
Historical use of the park for a variety of purposes has resulted in the potential for subsurface archaeological evidence that could inform about the nature and extent of early- to mid-19th century gathering, camping, rifle range and brickmaking activities in the historically low-lying ‘York’s Hollow’ area, and occupation of the place during the Great Depression and World War II.

Criterion DThe place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places.​

BCC Electricity Substation No. 4, located in the southeast corner of Victoria Park, is an excellent and highly-intact example of an electricity substation constructed during the interwar period in Brisbane. In its form, fabric and materials, it is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of its type, which include: its urban location; domestic scale and form with modest Classical influences; masonry construction with red-brown face brick walls and render details; parapet to the main entrance; use of robust materials with simple detailing; and open and well-ventilated interior designed to contain electrical equipment, with roller door access.

Criterion EThe place is important because of its aesthetic significance.​

Victoria Park is significant for its aesthetic attributes, derived from the juxtaposition of the place’s natural qualities with its metropolitan setting, and from the aesthetic contribution of BCC Electricity Substation No. 4.
An extensive green site within the cityscape, Victoria Park features an arrangement of mature trees, planted along an avenue (Gilchrist Avenue), within a grove (Gundoo Memorial Grove), along the circumference of the park, and interspersed with playing fields and open grasses areas. The sloping nature of the site and open grassed areas provide expansive vistas within the park and out into the surrounding area.
BCC Electricity Substation No. 4, highly intact and standing prominently on the corner of Bowen Bridge Road and Gregory Terrace, has aesthetic importance for its beautiful attributes and streetscape contribution. Through its skilful use of modest Classical-style architectural features, symmetrical composition with central parapet and projecting end gables, and complementary material palette of red-brown face brick, terracotta roof tiles, and render details, the building forms an attractive, well-composed design. The building’s scale, form and design, modelled on contemporary domestic architecture, complements the streetscape of Gregory Terrace and Bowen Bridge Road.

Criterion GThe place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons.​

Victoria Park has a special association with the people of Brisbane as a popular inner-city park for organised sport and informal recreation (having served the community formally since 1875 as a valued green space for recreational purposes). It contains sporting facilities, particularly sports fields.
The sportsgrounds within the park have an association with the Brisbane Hockey Association (established 1931), which used the sportsgrounds as its first headquarters and hosted its matches there into the 1970s.

Victoria Park​

• 602493
• 454 Gregory Terrace, Spring Hill

• General
• Significance
• History
• Description
• Maps & Gallery

Victoria Park covers an area of undulating land bordered by Bowen Bridge Road, Gregory Terrace, the Royal Brisbane Hospital and Breakfast Creek in the suburbs of Spring Hill and Herston. Initially part of Barrambbin and Walan, the park was gazetted as a reserve for recreation in 1875. Over the course of its history, Victoria Park’s functions have included social, cultural and sustenance grounds for Aboriginal people across the region; brickmaking and timber-felling industries; municipal rubbish dump; campsites for displaced people; military camps; and sports and recreation grounds. Despite large incursions into its land for educational and other purposes, and the construction of railway lines and roads through its centre, Victoria Park remains one of the largest parks in inner Brisbane.
Aboriginal custodianship
Meanjin, the area now encompassing the Brisbane CBD, is traditionally part of Turrbal and Jagera/Yuggera country.[1] Walan or Woolan (meaning ‘bream’) and Barrambbin (meaning ‘windy place’) comprised the areas now known as Herston and Bowen Hills. Walan and Barrambbin were meeting and gathering places for groups travelling to and from the Blackall Ranges, as well as corroboree sites and hunting and fishing lands. The land was undulating, with hills punctuated by a chain of waterholes and gullies. It was an extensive camp, contact and cultural site.[2]
European use (1820s-1840s)
European occupation began in the 1820s, with the establishment of the Moreton Bay Penal settlement at Meanjin in 1825. The Europeans used Walan and Barrambbin for industrial activities needed to support the settlement such as brick-making and timber getting. They named the area ‘York’s Hollow’, after the leader of the local clan, whom the Europeans referred to as ‘the Duke of York’, thought to be an Anglicised version of the name Daki Yakka. A small number of interactions took place between Europeans and Aboriginal people prior to, and following, the establishment of the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement, likely the Duke of York’s clan. The Duke of York, estimated to be in his 40s in 1836, visited the European settlement at the invitation of two Quakers, and a reciprocal visit was made by the commandant of the settlement, Foster Fyans. The clan largely avoided the penal settlement, with only a limited number of interactions reported by European sources.[3]
The Moreton Bay Penal settlement was opened for free settlement in 1842. York’s Hollow, just beyond the town boundary, proved convenient for accommodating unexpected arrivals in the colony. A Chinese camp was established in 1848 following a failed attempt to employ Chinese shepherds on pastoral stations. In 1849, 253 immigrants from the Fortitude, Chaseley and Lima formed a temporary village on the York’s Hollow slopes, after arrangements for land grants fell through. Other recent immigrants to Queensland in the mid-1800s stayed in these temporary fringe camps. As Herston and the surrounding area became increasingly urbanised, these camps were deemed unhealthy. Its residents were 'moved along', and new immigration facilities were constructed elsewhere.[4]
The brickmaking industry continued within the gully, and York’s Hollow bricks were reportedly used in the construction of Parliament House in 1866. The waterway along the hollow provided a water supply for the fledgling residential settlement, supplementing the tank stream within the town.[5]
The Duke of York clan retained its presence in York’s Hollow despite these incursions. Gatherings continued at York’s Hollow, with clashes between different tribes occurring in June 1847 and June 1850; up to 800 people were present. Interactions between the clan and the Europeans were mixed: some members of the clan were employed in Brisbane town by Europeans, while Europeans allegedly visited the camp to collect native vegetation for their gardens, as well as for more nefarious purposes. There were also reports of European assaults on the camp. In December 1846, following the deaths of three European settlers on the Pine River, European soldiers raided the camp at 11pm, firing on the estimated 300 – 400 people sleeping there. Kitty, daughter of the Duke of York, died in the affray. In November 1849, Turrbal people at the Barrambbin camp were shot by military officers after a false report was circulated that they had killed a bullock. Three men were wounded; two police were sentenced to six months’ imprisonment for the offence. Local newspapers stopped reporting on the camp after 1860, but the clan likely remained within Barrambbin and Walan beyond that date.[6]
Colonial Queensland use (1860s-1890s)
When Queensland became a separate colony in 1859, the Queensland Government made a concerted effort to provide recreational lands for the people of Brisbane. It was believed that the fledgling society would benefit from having open spaces included in the infrastructure. At a time when industry was choking many of the large cities in Britain and Europe, the Queensland Government did not want the same fate to befall Brisbane. Terms such as 'lungs of the city' and 'breathing space' were used to describe parks established in Brisbane.[7]
York’s Hollow had been proposed for a recreation reserve under the New South Wales Government, and the new Queensland Government indicated its intention to create the reserve. In 1864 the Government announced that it was ‘pleased to grant a reserve of about three hundred acres, in York’s Hollow, for the purpose of a public park and recreation ground for the citizens of Brisbane.’[8] The Brisbane Municipal Council was to be granted the deed, but the Queensland Government retained control over the site. The name ‘Victoria Park’ emerged in the mid-1860s, either in tribute to the then-monarch, or the London park of the same name. In 1866-7 the park was fenced, and the Public Lands Office leased grazing rights over the land for additional revenue. Lessees attempted to evict the brick-makers and squatters who had erected tents and temporary houses within the park. [9]
Victoria Park was formally gazetted as a reserve for recreation in 1875. A Board of Trustees was created to manage the 321 acres and 2 roods (approx. 130ha) of parkland; they 'expeditiously drew up a code of by-laws which provided, not only for the protection and good government of the park, but also laid down the rules for raising revenue for the improvement of the park'. The trustees, however, had limited success in fundraising for and improving the site. [10]
The area referred to as ‘York’s Hollow’ had included an extensive area now covered by the Brisbane Showgrounds, Bowen Hills and parts of Herston, to what is now the Normanby Fiveways. From the 1860s, this area was reduced as land was required for other uses, including the Acclimatisation Society Gardens and the Grammar School Reserve. Despite its gazettal, the land set aside for Victoria Park was also reduced, as demands for services and facilities were met by encroachments on the undeveloped park. Land was resumed from the park for a night soil/manure depot (1866), a rifle range (1877, rescinded 1883[11]), sporting facilities for nearby schools, the Brisbane-Sandgate railway (1882), government domain (1883),[12] and children’s hospital (1883). Most of the resumptions were located on the park’s boundaries, but the railway crossed through the centre of the park, dividing it in two. By 1883, Victoria Park had been reduced to 217 acres (88ha), though it remained the largest open reserve within the immediate city area.[13]
At the same time, the importance of the park for recreational use was emphasised. The residential areas surrounding the park (particularly Spring Hill and Fortitude Valley) experienced dramatic residential growth in the second half of the 19th century, becoming amongst the most densely populated areas in Brisbane by 1890. These inner urban areas were also home to a cross section of Brisbane society, from the poorest living in small cottages in the lower slopes of the hill, to the prestigious and wealthy homes overlooking Victoria Park on Gregory Terrace. The park provided an open space for residents, particularly those who lived in crowded and poor conditions at the bottom of the hill.[14]
Rubbish dumping
In 1872-3, amendments to the laws and regulations relating to public health placed additional restrictions on the disposal of refuse and led to the establishment of municipal dumping grounds.[15] The Local Board of Health, with consent from the Surveyor-General, declared that rubbish could be deposited in Victoria Park – initially ‘in the clay-holes on the side of the ridges’ and later buried in trenches.[16] By 1886, a reported 1,053 loads of rubbish had been trenched and the following year it was noted by council’s health officer Dr Joseph Bancroft that the ‘available ground on the Gregory Terrace side of the railway of sufficient depth of earth is nearly worked out’.[17] In 1899 the park trustees granted the Brisbane Municipal Council permission to deposit and bury rubbish in trenches in one of the Victoria Park gullies, near the watercourse on the western side of the railway.[18] This practice continued until 1901, while unofficial dumping continued into the 1930s.[19]
Land use (1890s-1930)
In 1889, a large scheme of improvements was drafted for Victoria Park by William Soutter, a member of the Queensland Acclimatisation Society. Some proposals were rejected, such as selling residential subdivisions within the park, but Soutter implemented other improvements between 1890 and 1892. Much of the park was cleared and the rubbish burned. A 60ft (18m) drive with 12ft (3.6m) walkway was cut and kerbed through the park, atop the park’s excavated clay pits. The railway corridor was fenced, and trees grown in the Acclimatisation Society garden (including camphor laurels and umbrella trees) were planted along both sides of the railway. Drainage was improved, and the waterway running through the park was diverted. Extensive planting schemes were to follow, but were not carried out due to lack of funds.[20] By 1897, despite Soutter’s work, Victoria Park was considered ‘a magnificent tract of country many acres in extent, but it is literally in a state of nature. Little has been done to it’.[21]
The park remained popular for recreational and non-recreational uses. In the absence of formally designed facilities, informal recreation included swimming in the ponds formed in the former brickpits, and football and cricket games on the flat ground at the centre of the park. Military drills and musters were held regularly, with the Queensland Defence Force marching to the park from the Adelaide Street drill shed. Squatters, ‘larrikins’, gamblers, drinkers and others committing undesirable activities in the park were reported. Between August and October 1890, mass meetings drew thousands to the Gregory Terrace section of the park opposite the Exhibition Building each Sunday. The ‘Park Hospital’, a tent hospital for quarantine cases, was operated in the Herston Road section from late 1890. The park also drew the attention of a University Commission as a possible site for a tertiary educational facility.[22]
In 1903, Victoria Park was brought within the boundary of the City of Brisbane, and in 1908, the trusteeship of 210 acres (85ha) of the park was transferred to the Brisbane City Council (BCC). The BCC had been seeking control of the parks within its area, in place of the trustees who administered the parks. Between 1887 and 1913 it gained full control of Wickham, Observatory, Hardgrave, Babbage, Albert, Alexandra and Victoria Parks. The International Town Planning movement that existed at the time also helped to put city planning and beautification programmes on the city council's agenda. Between 1913 and 1925, Bowen, New Farm, Raymond, Newstead, Perry, Centenary and Teneriffe Parks were created.[23]
Victoria Park was the largest of the BCC’s new parks, but was ‘a rather difficult one to handle’,[24] due to its uneven topography, waterways and poor soil. Interest in the park for its non-recreational potential had continued, and in 1914, the BCC agreed to reserve around 100 acres of the park for the future use of the university, following extensive lobbying by the University Permanent Site League. While the park was to remain publicly accessible, it would not be developed for park purposes. Park funding was funnelled towards the newly acquired parks, while small improvements were made at Victoria Park. This included tree planting and the construction of tennis courts (1913, not extant), and the creation of rockeries along Gregory Terrace, bordering the park (not extant). In 1913, the park also became part of a worldwide experiment, as a small temporary tent was erected in the park near the hospital, to carry out measurements for the Carnegie Institution of Washington’s Terrestrial Magnetism study. However, the park predominantly continued to be used for non-recreational purposes, including cattle agistment (between Gregory Terrace and the railway) and wool and grain storage (in a former quarry near Gregory Terrace and Bowen Bridge Road).[25]
In 1922, 108 acres (44ha) of Victoria Park was formally reserved for university purposes under the University Site Act. The site was reserved conditionally; if the site were not to be used for the university, it would revert to the park. Four years later, funding was provided from a private donor for a larger site at St Lucia, and the reserve was set to be returned to the trustees.[26] This took some time, however, and as the land remained unused, complaints about its condition had continued. ‘[N]ot a flower has been planted in it,’ wrote a correspondent to the Brisbane Courier in 1921, ‘no improvements, except the planting of some trees, and an incompleted, unused, and miserable carriage way or road.’[27] The park was described in 1924 by the Daily Mail as both ‘a magnificent reserve’[28] and ‘a couple of hundred acres of barren land… intersected by more or less smellful drainage channels.’[29]
One of these drainage channels ran through the flat section of the park used for sporting fixtures, making the land swampy and frequently mosquito-infested. Between 1923 and 1925, a 15-20 acre (6-8ha) area at the western end of the park (now between Gilchrist Avenue and the railway reserve) was sewered, levelled and graded for use as sports grounds; a shrub-rockery entrance was laid out from Bowen Bridge Road; and five sports fields were laid out. These improvements were funded by the £750 transfer of Bowen Park to the National Agricultural and Industrial Association. Amateur athletics competition held there in 1928. Football, cricket and hockey teams acquired formal leases of the grounds, and the park hosted up to 200 players each Saturday.[30]
Brisbane City Council (BCC) Electricity Substation No. 4
In 1928-9, the BCC’s Substation No. 4 was constructed at the Gregory Terrace/Bowen Bridge Road section of Victoria Park.[31]
The BCC became a public authority for the provision of electrical services across Brisbane in 1925. Electricity in Brisbane to that point had been provided by public and private authorities in a complex overlapping system. Most of the local councils in greater Brisbane arranged supply through bulk supply contracts with the City Electric Light Company. The Brisbane Tramway Company also supplied 600-volt DC power to properties along its electrified tram system, until its responsibilities were transferred to the BCC 1925. Faced with the tramway’s obsolete electricity network, and the BCC decided to upgrade its own generation capacity and infrastructure. This led to rapid expansion in the late 1920s, as a coordinated, uniform distribution system was developed. The BCC encouraged the public to connect to existing supply lines, and constructed a large powerhouse at New Farm in 1928. Substations were quickly constructed in the suburbs, supplied with bulk energy from the BCC power stations and converted for use by consumers.[32]
In 1927, the BCC’s Electrical Department had established stores in the unused woolstores off Bowen Bridge Road in Victoria Park (outside the heritage boundary). The substation was constructed the following year, and served as a central station as the suburban electricity supply was gradually brought onto the New Farm powerhouse grid. It was one of four substations constructed in 1928 for the Electricity Supply Department, the first main control substations erected by the BCC. They received 11,000 volts AC from the New Farm Power Station via high tension underground feeder cables.[33]
Electricity substations from the interwar period were typically of masonry construction, with red-brown face brick walls and simple, render details. Most featured a parapet to the main entrance, modest Classical details, and robust material palette. The interiors housed electrical equipment, were well-ventilated, and had roller door access. Located in urban areas, the substations were generally of a domestic scale and form, in line with the council’s policy of producing substations to a domestic style and scale, so that they could fit neatly into the streetscape.[34]
The building at Victoria Park was designed by the BCC's City Architect, AH (Alfred Herbert) Foster. It was located on the corner of Bowen Bridge Road and Gregory Terrace, and had a tiled, hip roof with gables narrowly projecting from each elevation. Of a symmetrical design, the substation featured light-coloured rendered details and darker face brick walls, which complemented the prominent museum (Old Museum Building, QHR 600209) on the opposite side of Bowen Bridge Road. A c1944 photograph shows a stone retaining wall wrapped around the road (southeast and east) sides of the substation.[35]
Great Depression
The first set of large-scale improvements at Victoria Park began with the Great Depression. As funding was made available for public works under the Intermittent Relief Scheme to boost employment, Victoria Park was targeted for enhancement.[36]
The largest work were two projects proposed in the mid-1920s: the construction of a golf course and a road. The Queensland Golf Association had made the proposal for a municipal golf course in Victoria Park in 1922, as similar municipal golf courses were being opened throughout Australia. With the return of 108 acres of land from the university forthcoming, the proposal was accepted in 1926. As the return of the land was delayed, however, work on the golf course did not begin until April 1931. The 18-hole golf course was opened in 1931, with a Spanish-style clubhouse designed by AH Foster built in 1935 (QHR 602034).[37]
In addition to the new golf course, Gilchrist Avenue was constructed under the scheme in 1930, connecting Bowen Bridge Road to Ithaca Street, near Kelvin Grove Road at Normanby. This provided a long-sought vehicular path directly through the park, as well as access to the golf course and sportsgrounds. The avenue was named for the City Engineer EF (Eneas Fraser) Gilchrist. As part of the long-awaited beautification of the park, the avenue was lined with silky oak, crepe myrtle, flame and jacaranda trees. In 1933 an ornamental lake was created in a natural basin off Gilchrist Avenue at the western end of the sports fields. The lake was stocked with fish, its banks planted, and an island for birds created in its centre.[38]
Improvements were also made to the sports grounds, as lessees had complained about the rough, flood-prone surfaces of the Victoria Park fields. A new amalgamated hockey organisation, the Brisbane Hockey Association, formed in 1931, using Victoria Park as its headquarters. The Association contributed finance towards the improvements, and four new fields were formally laid out in the section fronting the newly-created Gilchrist Avenue, between 1933 and 1935. As well as hockey, these were used for cricket in summer, and hosted some football games in winter. Drainage was also improved to control flooding, and a stone wall with ‘Play The Game’ spelled out in stones was likely constructed at this time.[39]
In the Gregory Terrace section of the park, a 1.5 mile (2.4km) long, 20ft (6.1m) wide horse-riding track called ‘Riding Row’ was created, and palms were planted along its route. The Row was officially opened in 1932, with a military parade and a crowd of around 1,000 people. Two stone piers, made of Brisbane tuff, were constructed to mark its entrance at the corner of Bowen Bridge Road and Gregory Terrace in 1936.[40]
Other landscaping and reclamation work was undertaken during this time, notably as part of the beautification of the park.[41]
The Depression also impacted on the use of Victoria Park, as camps for the unemployed were erected throughout the park reserve in the 1930s. An increasing number of unemployed, itinerant men travelled either on foot, or by rail, across the state looking for employment. Between 1929 and 1933 Queensland Government policy stipulated unemployed single men, not working on relief projects, would not be able to draw state government funded emergency rations from the same centre in successive weeks. This forced them to move onto the next town, often many miles away, to demonstrate they were seeking work. The term ‘swagmen’, used to describe itinerant men walking around the country, or ‘waltzing Matilda’, seeking work in 19th and early 20th century Australia, was applied to these men who were compelled to travel long distances.[42]
A small camp of ‘shanties, shacks, huts and humpies’[43] arose in the Gregory Terrace section of Victoria Park in the early 1930s. It remained until 1932, when the camp was ‘visited by a large policeman, and the occupants agreed that the beauties of the new riding track would be enhanced by the removal of their dwellings.’[44] Other camps within Victoria Park mostly occupied the government and university domains near Herston Road (not within the heritage boundary).
Second World War
Further improvements were promised for the park, including the construction of dressing-shed accommodation for the sportsgrounds,[45] but work was put on hold following the outbreak of World War II. When the war reached the Pacific in late 1941, Brisbane was transformed into a locale of intense military activity, with thousands of American troops stationed in the city before being shipped off to fight the Japanese forces in the Pacific.[46]
In 1942, the BCC offered Victoria Park to the US Army as a large administrative and accommodation camp. ‘Camp Victoria Park’ provided support services for US combat troop operations in the South West Pacific. An air raid shelter was constructed behind the electricity substation. A Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery was emplaced in the golf course (not within the heritage boundary).[47]
Camp Victoria Park provided extensive accommodation for US and Australian forces. The camp was divided across the park, with an Officers’ Camp for Base Section 3 (Brisbane), US Army Services of Supply in the Gregory Terrace section, and an enlisted men’s camp near Herston Road (not within the heritage boundary). While most of the accommodation was canvas tents, a number of huts of fibrolite on timber stumps were constructed south of Herston Road and along Gregory Terrace. [48]
The camp was gradually vacated after the end of the war, with the final occupants departing in 1946. A flagpole from the officers’ camp was left standing in the Gregory Terrace rockeries.[49]
Postwar
The military facilities remained standing in the park for some years following the war, and were put to other uses. The vacant huts were initially used to house Australian war brides: Australian women who had married American servicemen. During and immediately after the war, between 12,000 and 15,000 Australian women married US servicemen stationed in Australia, including around 4,500 in Queensland. Some remained in Australia, but most travelled to the US to live with their husbands. Mass transportation of the war brides to the US on ‘bride ships’ was arranged from 1945, from ports in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. In September 1945, passage for over 200 brides on the Lurline was cancelled at the last minute, and a number of the women were accommodated in the empty Victoria Park buildings until new passage could be arranged for them.[50]
The post-war reconstruction process heralded an era of rapid population growth in Queensland. This growth, concurrent with material shortages, led to an acute housing shortage. The Queensland Government began repurposing military facilities for temporary accommodation, establishing ‘housing camps’ in suburbs including Holland Park, Chermside, Wacol and Kalinga. Up to 100,000 Queenslanders lived in temporary housing between 1946 and 1960. In February 1947, as the last of the war brides departed, the State Government acquired buildings in Victoria Park for temporary housing purposes. The Queensland State Housing Commission made use of the military facilities in Victoria Park, creating the second largest temporary housing settlement in Brisbane. Each hut housed several families. By 1950 Victoria Park was the impermanent home for 460 families, occupying the park for up to three years while new housing was slowly constructed in outer-lying suburbs. The Victoria Park camp, being close to the city, was highly visible to Brisbane residents. In the 1950s, the camp became the subject of media coverage about the poor living conditions experienced by the ‘old and new Australian families’.[51] As residents were moved to new houses, the temporary housing camps in Victoria Park were gradually emptied in the late 1950s, closed in 1960, and the fibrolite buildings were sold or demolished.[52]
Centenary
With the end of the war, the removal of the housing camps, and the appointment of a new Parks Superintendent, improvements to Victoria Park were planned from the 1950s. In 1959 the Centenary Pool Complex [QHR 601240] was constructed by the BCC as its principal contribution to the celebrations of Queensland’s centenary. The pool was placed at the southwest corner of Victoria Park, bordering Gregory Terrace. The complex was designed to fit into the slope of the hill overlooking the park and was designed by BCC's City Architect James Birrell. The initial design of the complex included a landscaped entrance road designed by the Superintendent of Parks and Gardens, Harry Oakman.[53]
Oakman was one of the pioneers of landscape architecture in Australia. In 1945 he began his seventeen-year appointment with the BCC as Superintendent of Parks and Gardens, and the Director of Separate Parks Branch. One of his earliest roles was transforming many of Brisbane's parks that had been damaged by the military use during the Second World War. He also led an extensive flowering tree planting programme on the slopes and gullies of the Victoria Park golf course, and poincianas, oleanders, jacarandas and flame trees along the fairways. Oakman was recognised as a Fellow of the British and Australian Institutes of Landscape Architects and the Royal Australian Institute of Parks and Recreation.[54]
Another commemorative gesture made within Victoria Park was the planting of a grove of eucalypt trees in the southeast near Bowen Bridge Road. This area of Victoria Park had been the site of some of the Housing Commission buildings, and required beautification. Named 'The Gundoo Memorial Grove', it was planted by the students of the Brisbane Girls' Grammar School as their contribution to the celebrations. The trees were provided by the Forestry Department and comprised nine [ten] different varieties of native trees (mainly eucalypts). In a memorandum, Harry Oakman stated that ‘tree planting along forest lines in this parkland would give a unique feature to the city of Brisbane, particularly if the trees chosen are Eucalypts'. He believed that the eucalypts would provide an attractive, shady grove at low cost and requiring little maintenance.[55] In the early 1960s, the grove was supplemented by subtropical plantings in the area between the pool and Bowen Bridge Road, to beautify and create a ‘tropical atmosphere in the heart of the city’.[56]
Late 20th & early 21st century use (1950s-2021)
Beautification and improvement works were undertaken under Oakman’s supervision of the park. In order ‘to provide a pleasing view on one of the city’s outlet roads’, planter beds were installed along the Gregory Terrace frontage in 1958; two beds, flanking the Riding Row entrance piers, remain extant. The park’s main entrance was also repositioned from opposite the Museum to a new road from Gregory Terrace.[57]
Sports continued at the sports fields, with leases to the Brisbane Hockey Association, Queensland Rugby Union and schools. The Hockey Association used up to seven of the fields during its playing seasons between the 1930s and the 1950s, holding junior and school fixtures, women’s practices and regular matches. It contributed finance for the ongoing maintenance of the fields, and hosted its grand finals at the park. The fields were also used to host archery contests, travelling circuses, military and royal parades, and parking for the annual Royal National Agricultural & Industrial Society show.[58]
A new brick dressing-shed, kiosk and lavatory facilities was added to the sportsgrounds from 1958. Dressing shed facilities had been provided for the sportsgrounds from 1930, but the dressing shed, a simple timber structure, burned down in 1947. When finance became available, the dressing shed was designed within the BCC and erected by 1959, being opened for the use of the sporting groups in 1960. The kiosk was leased to sporting clubs and individuals to sell refreshments during the sporting seasons. Improvements to the parking and facilities for the sportsgrounds were made in the following years, including two sets of steps from Gilchrist Avenue, flanking the dressing shed.[59]
Non-recreational and non-public uses also continued across the park. Small portions of land throughout the park were resumed for railway purposes, school use, hospital and temporary carparks, the Gregory Terrace road reserve and telecommunications, and leases were granted for school playing fields. In 1968 the Department of Electricity acquired land in the park and built an office building behind the substation. They also purchased a large stores building previously used by the Queensland Railway Department in the same corner of the park (not within the heritage boundary). In 1972 it was proposed to run a freeway through the park, though this plan did not come to fruition until the late 1990s.[60]
In 1988 the lake area in Victoria Park was reconditioned and officially named 'York's Hollow'. In the following years, artwork and sculptures were added, including figures from Expo 88. A section of lawn near the Centenary Pool was planted with trees by the Royal Geographical Society of Queensland and named ‘Gregory Grove’ in 1989 in honour of Augustus Gregory’s 170th birthday. Sixty trees were planted in the Gregory Terrace area near Rogers Street to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012.[61]
In 1999, construction on a bypass road connecting Hamilton to Milton was commenced. The bypass, called the Inner City Bypass, was undertaken to reduce traffic congestion in the central business district and Fortitude Valley. An area of 4.606ha was resumed from Victoria Park for the road, which ran through the park adjacent to the railway, exacerbating the park’s divided nature. The road was constructed in 2001, with the entire bypass completed in 2003. A landscaped pedestrian overpass was added to bridge the bypass (not in the boundary).[62]
Archaeological investigations undertaken by ARCHAEO Cultural Heritage Services in late 1999, ahead of the construction of the Inner City Bypass, revealed early sections of the York’s Hollow watercourse, fill associated with the construction of the 1880s railway, and refuse dating from the 1890s to early 1900s deposited in natural depressions and buried in rubbish trenches.[63] Over 100,000 artefacts were recovered, including: glass bottles and stoppers; ceramic kitchen, tableware, bottles, and doll parts; clay tobacco pipes; personal and clothing items including buttons, pins and beads; medicine, hygiene and writing implements; metal cutlery, nails, hardware, and coins; leather and textiles fragments; faunal and floral remains, and worked bone artefacts. Further municipal refuse trenches, likely dating from the 1870s and 1880s, were uncovered within the railway corridor and in the southeast section of Victoria Park, during archaeological investigations associated with the Cross River Rail Project in 2020.[64]
In 2021 Victoria Park continues to provide recreational facilities including playgrounds, dog off-leash areas, walking tracks, bike paths, open space and sports fields.

 

[Elixuh]

Yep that is my view now as well, I loved the idea of a brand new stadium and terrific precinct at the Gabba, and still think it would be the best location but the fact that we would be without a home for 4 years is too big a price to pay.... plus at my age I might not be alive in 2032 to see it.

Don’t say that Mr Malice!

They have the public transport infrastructure at the Gabba to build plenty of high rise apartments and slowly that area can be progressed to be a hub of accom, restaurants etc etc

 

[Section 5]

Brisbane have had enough delays on choosing a site for athletics and the opening and closing ceremonies.
It they somehow ignored the IOC recommendation on heritage and protected sites more delays will happen.
The Government have already agreed to have the IOC back in some committee capacity that the previous Premier cancelled.

There was a big media stink over repossessing one 80+ year olds home for the school at Coorparoo.

Does the Government want a heritage fight on its hands going into an election?
I guarantee you someone will take up the fight if the government goes down this path.
Some have suggested a land swap with the council but that would not stop any legal fight in regard to Victoria Park.

 

[Dom PC]

50k stadium at Vic Park would be Amazing, particularly with the exisiting development planned by the council. That precinct would rival anything in the world. Literally sitting on bus and train transport infrastructure too.

Nice to dream.

 

[Johnny Bananas]

Brisbane have had enough delays on choosing a site for athletics and the opening and closing ceremonies.
It they somehow ignored the IOC recommendation on heritage and protected sites more delays will happen.
The Government have already agreed to have the IOC back in some committee capacity that the previous Premier cancelled.

There was a big media stink over repossessing one 80+ year olds home for the school at Coorparoo.

Does the Government want a heritage fight on its hands going into an election?
I guarantee you someone will take up the fight if the government goes down this path.
Some have suggested a land swap with the council but that would not stop any legal fight in regard to Victoria Park.

Which specific parts of the heritage listing will be impacted by a stadium?

 

[dlanod]

What specifically don't you like about the SCG?

Well for starters it's in Sydney.

 

[Section 5]

Which specific parts of the heritage listing will be impacted by a stadium?

It does not matter which part, if someone takes up a legal challenge it will be 12-24 months in the courts.

Enough to and from me on Vic Park.
I am not going down the "schools" back and forth you had with another poster.
The Review panels recommendations can't come too soon for me.

 

[Gadzorks]

Infrastructure is more than just transport infrastructure. It's also green space, community facilities, recreation facilities and locally accessible schools. As I've said before, I don't consider Coorparoo to be local enough for a school given the projected future population of Woolloongabba.


Those requirements are a bad joke. Plenty of towers have gone up in Woolloongabba in the past five years, but what new green space has been added? To top it off, the Olympic planners want to take the one major community park in the area (Raymond Park) for a warm up facility. What benefit will these people receive in exchange for losing their park and having their neighbourhood awash with crowds?


I think it's the M3 at that point, but semantics aside, you can't service dense inner city area sufficiently with highways. There isn't enough road space once you factor in everyone coming from further out. The public and active transport changes are welcome but need to go further. There should be a heck of a lot more buses going to Coorparoo if they want to shift the school there, for example.

The m1 at the gold coast is suffering from exactly this fate - local traffic brings it to a standstill every day.

I allow an extra hour from the base travel time when I go Brisbane to Northern nsw.

Frustrating.

Tunnel anyone? Enter at the North end of the Coast and come out at chinderah with no stops in-between and leave the m1 as a local road.

 

[Gadzorks]

I wonder if, rather than dig to obtain internal access and carparking, a concourse could be built over the roads on Stanley, Vulture and possibly Wellington Street as well. One lane underneath could be sectioned off semi/ permanently to provide the ring road.

Might help the plan of a staged rebuild, allow better pedestrian access, keep the actual playing field relatively untouched, even allow traffic to flow during events.

Anyway, just spitballing here. I'm sure it's been thought of before.

If I understand what you meant - Turn the round stadium into the largest roundabout in town.

Once the roads are returned elevated ring road could become the base for additional seating capacity.

Awesome thinking. I think.

 

[dlanod]

If I understand what you meant - Turn the round stadium into the largest roundabout in town.

Ah, the Manuka Oval model.

 

[Johnny Bananas]

The Victoria Park proposal is getting a pretty poor reception on the Courier Mail's comments section (where most seem to be in favour of scrapping the games altogether) and Reddit (where most seem to want to keep the park and renovate the Gabba).

 

[Bjo187]

The Victoria Park proposal is getting a pretty poor reception on the Courier Mail's comments section (where most seem to be in favour of scrapping the games altogether) and Reddit (where most seem to want to keep the park and renovate the Gabba).

If you listen to the general public though, sports wouldn't have any facilities to play in anywhere or ever.

As soon as the new and shiny stadium is up though, everybody wants to be part of it and it becomes the centrepiece of the city. Happens every single time, politicians shouldn't buy into, but politicians are more selfish than ever before and look out for their own interests instead of what's best for the city/ state.

 

[BRAB]

The Victoria Park proposal is getting a pretty poor reception on the Courier Mail's comments section (where most seem to be in favour of scrapping the games altogether) and Reddit (where most seem to want to keep the park and renovate the Gabba).

The courier mail comments section is always going to be angry though.

They are even less representative of the QLD population than 100 parents who still want to walk to Gabba central after dropping off little Timmy.

 

[Andyz]

Couldn't agree more ML. I love the Gabba and I think the atmosphere, game spectacle with a full house and current viewing set up is fantastic. If the 2 week long Olympics wasn't happening in Brisbane, I doubt whether any of the so-called issues with the Gabba would have been on the agenda and a staged refurbishment would have been almost universally applauded. After a GF visit to the MCG, I reckon the Gabba is right up there in terms of the above, even though obviously on a smaller scale.

Absolutely not, “smaller scale” hardly compares 36,000 to 100,000! I’m sorry but Olympics or not the Lions membership alone no longer fits in the stadium which means it is already inadequate. And now we’ve lost the test too!

I don’t believe anyone thinks it’s fair that heaps of supporters keep missing out on sell out games & the club has to make do with a fraction of the income the Vic clubs receive from each game.

If the Gabba remains as is, the Lions future is in jeopardy there’s no two ways about it.

 

[M Malice]

Absolutely not, “smaller scale” hardly compares 36,000 to 100,000! I’m sorry but Olympics or not the Lions membership alone no longer fits in the stadium which means it is already inadequate. And now we’ve lost the test too!

I don’t believe anyone thinks it’s fair that heaps of supporters keep missing out on sell out games & the club has to make do with a fraction of the income the Vic clubs receive from each game.

If the Gabba remains as is, the Lions future is in jeopardy there’s no two ways about it.

All the scuttlebutt seems to indicate the full demolition and rebuild of the Gabba is a no go, however I think we are going to end up with a new or upgraded stadium one way or the other, hopefully if it's an upgraded Gabba a great job is done with at the very least a capacity of 50,000.

 

[Kernel Kurtz]

Just now on tripple M , had the guy who was involved with the Southbank redevelopment planning and so forth.
Steve , last name eludes me.
Marto's old boss years ago apparently.
Putting it out there bascially, the golden triangle.
Build the new stadium at Vic park .
Then rebuild the Gabba into a Madisan square garden type arena for concerts - more or less replacing Boondal as that place for entertainment.
Also an upgrade on Suncorp.
His main point was that we shouldn't turn our backs on this federal government money that would be available.
I think the figure mentioned was $4 Billion being the available amount. ( there might be more to this figure , not sure on any details)

At least there are more proposals being put to light out there, I wonder if Steve follows Bigfooty.

 

[M Malice]

Just now on tripple M , had the guy who was involved with the Southbank redevelopment planning and so forth.
Steve , last name eludes me.
Marto's old boss years ago apparently.
Putting it out there bascially, the golden triangle.
Build the new stadium at Vic park .
Then rebuild the Gabba into a Madisan square garden type arena for concerts - more or less replacing Boondal as that place for entertainment.
Also an upgrade on Suncorp.
His main point was that we shouldn't turn our backs on this federal government money that would be available.
I think the figure mentioned was $4 Billion being the available amount. ( there might be more to this figure , not sure on any details)

At least there are more proposals being put to light out there, I wonder if Steve follows Bigfooty.

Steve is Johnny Bananas.

 

[StevoJenkins]

Steve is Johnny Bananas.

Na, hasn't blindly defended the school yet.

 

[Elixuh]

Just now on tripple M , had the guy who was involved with the Southbank redevelopment planning and so forth.
Steve , last name eludes me.
Marto's old boss years ago apparently.
Putting it out there bascially, the golden triangle.
Build the new stadium at Vic park .
Then rebuild the Gabba into a Madisan square garden type arena for concerts - more or less replacing Boondal as that place for entertainment.
Also an upgrade on Suncorp.
His main point was that we shouldn't turn our backs on this federal government money that would be available.
I think the figure mentioned was $4 Billion being the available amount. ( there might be more to this figure , not sure on any details)

At least there are more proposals being put to light out there, I wonder if Steve follows Bigfooty.

I don’t get why we need so many stadiums. The only issue that has ever been raised regarding the suitability of stadiums in Brisbane is really the age and need to refresh the Gabba.

Turning the Gabba into a boutique entertainment venue is a giant waste of space close to the cbd.