Say NO to North Bank.

The controversial North Bank project may have gone quiet, but it certainly hasn’t gone away.

In a recent letter to the National Trust, the Honourable Anna Bligh MP, Deputy Premier, Treasurer and Minister for Infrastructure confirmed that “Government has decided to proceed with further negotiations with Multiplex on its proposed development.”

The Multiplex proposal, released for public comment earlier this year, includes six tall buildings constructed over the water between the Victoria and Goodwill Bridges on the northern side of the Brisbane River, facing South Bank.  The National Trust’s response can be found on our website www.nationaltrustqld.org.

According to media reports, the public response supported the redevelopment of the precinct but also highlighted concerns about aspects of the Multiplex proposal.  There is little information available on those concerns, other than confirming that heritage is one of them.

Government has been considering the redevelopment of the North Bank area for several years.  Not surprisingly, there is plenty of community support for upgrading this unwelcoming, noisy, windswept undercroft of a major freeway, used mainly by keen exercisers on the way to somewhere else.

The early masterplan options for the site released for comment in 2002 included incursions into the Brisbane River and development of quite low scale.  However, the scale of the Multiplex proposal is much larger.

Anna Bligh said “The proposal put forward by Multiplex was for a more intense development than envisaged when Government last consulted with the public” and “higher intensity development is being considered because the Government wants to deliver this project at no nett cost to the people of Queensland”. 

The National Trust’s view is that while there would be no financial cost to Government, there is a substantial cost to the people of Queensland as they would loose part of the Brisbane River and the visual connections between South Bank and the CBD.

The National Trust is concerned about the extent of incursion into the River, and will not be supporting any proposal that is higher than the freeway.

Multiplex will be releasing a revised scheme later this year.  While the planning of the proposal may change, it is unlikely that the scale of the buildings will be reduced, simply because of the high cost of building over the river.  Media statements by Multiplex confirm that from the developer’s perspective, the building heights are not negotiable. 

If this project goes ahead at this scale, the views of Brisbane’s most important precinct of early buildings will be blocked from the river and South Bank, and the relationship between this precinct and the River will be lost.

Also lost will be the location of the Queen’s Wharf, from which the River City of Brisbane grew.  From here, vessels unloaded people and goods for distribution through the adjacent government buildings to the new colony.

Complaining about the scale of this development when the piles are going in will be too late. 

Further public consultation phases will be coming soon.  Please take an interest and voice your opinion either through the formal process, or directly to any Member of State Parliament.  Further information on the project is available at www.northbankbrisbane.com.au .