Queensland
Location: North Bank Precinct, Brisbane
Threat: Inappropriate development

Significance of Place
This precinct, lying adjacent to the Brisbane River in the Central Business District, has strong associations with the early development of Brisbane. However, it is the area between the Victoria Bridge and Parliament House that is of particular significance, as it is within this area that the major testimonials to the history of Brisbane still remain largely intact - the Former Lands Administration Building and adjacent Queen’s Park, the former State Library Building, the Commissariat Stores Building, former DPI Building, Queen’s Wharf Road, and the former Government Printers complex.

Description of Threat
This important historical and visually pleasing precinct is under threat by the Queensland government’s North Bank Development Proposal. www.northbankbrisbane.com.au/options.html

This proposal aims to turn the area into a mirror of the South Bank Parklands with the addition of several high-rise apartment blocks. This proposal would destroy the existing visual aspects of the heritage buildings as seen from the river-side, as well as masking the all important associations that these buildings once had with the wharves and the Brisbane River - the very reason for their initial placement here.

Further to this, and based on archaeological evidence excavated from the site of the Commissariat Stores in the late 1970’s, and archaeological evidence uncovered during the South Bank developments after World Expo ‘88, the plans will have grave consequences for the archaeological record of the area.

Action Required
It is apparent from the four options ‘mooted’ for the proposed North Bank site that very little regard has been afforded to the existing heritage sites, and that scant attention has been paid to the important visual links between these sites and the river. The inclusion of modernistic designed buildings in this area, to the height proposed, will either hide these areas from the river view or else so shroud them that their significance will be greatly diminished.

Token gestures to the heritage of the past need to be replaced by an alternate plan which is sympathetic to the visual aspects of the heritage sites threatened, especially around the William Street/Queen’s Wharf Road area. This new approach would ensure the whole North Bank development harmonises with its surroundings rather than obscures them. Such an approach would not only preserve the existing structures, it would also ensure the new development became an excellent tourist drawcard, much more so than would a mirror image of the already existing South Bank precinct.