Parks, public spaces and biodiversity

If you liked this video, don't forget to check out our Mycelium doco as well.

 

Community Voting 

Interested in having input on footpaths and parks in your area?

Our ward office has a discretionary budget for footpaths, park benches and minor landscaping here in the Gabba Ward. Over the last few years, to determine how this budget is spent, we've run a Community Voting process to test new ways of involving the community in council decision-making.  Here is our latest voting round.

Creating more public green space in Brisbane's inner-south side

The suburbs of West End, South Brisbane, Woolloongabba and Highgate Hill don’t currently have enough useable public green space to support their existing populations (and these areas are still growing rapidly). Public spaces located in close proximity to residential areas and commercial hubs are of immense value to inner-city communities – the biggest challenge is to find the land (or the money to buy the land).

Green Space Strategy

An extremely dedicated group of local residents have put in many hours of unpaid work to produce a comprehensive green space strategy for the Kurilpa peninsula (that's the suburbs of West End, Highgate Hill and South Brisbane, with the 4101 postcode). The strategy identifies existing under-utilised council-owned and government-owned land than can be re-purposed as green space at little cost to ratepayers.  The full 49-page document can be viewed here.

Creating Food Resilient Neighbourhoods

In March 2020, inspired by the surge in people wanting to grow their own food, our office committed a range of resources and local grant budget to support a variety of local community-led food initiatives. including edible verge gardens, seedling hubs, urban farms and community orchards. You can find a summary of these projects as well as the award-winning film 'Mycelium' and a Zine here, that beautifully tell the story of these projects and their shared vision. 

 

Related issues and updates

Email newsletter Thursday, 10 February 2023

  Please note that some of the info in these newsletters (especially event listings) can go out of date quite quickly.   Dear residents, I hope you’ve been coping ok with recent heatwaves. Such eve...

Joint submission into the South Bank Master Plan

South Bank Corporation has produced a draft master plan to guide the future evolution of the South Bank precinct, and sought feedback from the general public and other stakeholders. At the time of ...

New dog off-leash area for Jolly Place Park at 53 Grey St, South Brisbane

For several years now, we’ve been advocating strongly for a new dog off-leash area (‘DOLA’) in the 4101 postcode, because the two existing West End DOLAs weren’t big enough. My office allocat...

Email newsletter Thursday, 8 December 2022

Dear residents, We missed our last fortnightly email, as I had to take a couple days of leave. A few weeks ago on a Friday evening, I tried to calm down a man who was heavily intoxicated, stumbling...

Email newsletter Wednesday, 9 November 2022

Dear neighbours, Lately I’ve been thinking a bit about the radical potential of local government, and how the fact that we’ve had the LNP running Brisbane City Council for such a long time means we...

Email newsletter Thursday, 27 October 2022

Dear neighbours, I had a couple weeks of annual leave recently, so this is our first email newsletter in over a month, and there’s lots to cover. Here’s a list of topics covered in this email - scr...

What should go in the new South Brisbane pocket park at the corner of Grey St and Melbourne St?

Did you know that as part of the Brisbane Metro project, we’re getting a new pocket park in South Brisbane? A small, 1000m2 block of land at 125 Grey Street (corner of Melbourne St) is being u...

Email newsletter Friday, 10 June 2022

Current as of 10 June, 2022 - please note that some of the info in these newsletters (especially event listings) can go out of date quite quickly   Dear residents, I hope you’re coping better than ...

Musgrave Park Toilet Block Murals

I've allocated a bit of my discretionary local budget to fund Aboriginal artists to paint murals on the two toilet blocks in Musgrave Park. Work should start in the next few weeks on the toilet at ...

A public toilet block in Highgate Hill Park?

Looking for the online poll to vote on the proposal for a toilet block in Highgate Hill Park? Click here. Highgate Hill Park already gets a lot of use from people who live immediately around the pa...

Dutton Park trees and parkland under threat from Metro charging infrastructure

Brisbane City Council is currently planning its location for new charging infrastructure to support Brisbane Metro vehicles travelling to the UQ Lakes bus stop. (Some very basic 'official' info abo...

Kangaroo Point Peninsula Dog Off-Leash Area

May 2021 update: Council’s Asset Services team have gotten back to me with the proposed layout of the Kangaroo Point dog off-leash area ('DOLA') in James Warner Park. Hopefully the diagram is relat...

Davies Park fig tree needs to be removed

As a councillor, I tend to take a very hardline position in opposing any unjustified tree removals that are proposed simply to facilitate a new development. However sometimes, it's necessary to rem...

Call for Expressions of Interest from Mural Artists

Expressions of interest for various mural locations in the Gabba Ward close on Monday, 12 October, 2020 Instead of spending it all on concrete and bitumen, we’re allocating a chunk of my local publ...

New Park for Highgate Hill/South Brisbane

Here’s another innovative yet common-sense solution to create more public green space in the inner-city… Let’s cover over the stretch of train line near Gloucester St and Frith St in Highgate Hill ...

Grey Street Park

We've had some important wins with the Brisbane Metro project, including convincing council to make sure the new vehicles run on electricity rather than diesel. As I've explained previously, Brisba...

Koko Apartments Fig Tree Removal

As some of you will be aware, a while back, one of the two large fig trees outside Koko Apartments along Riverside Drive fell down somewhat unexpectedly. It seems this was due to a combination of f...

Carl St Park Concept Design

Council has released the final concept design for the expanded park at the corner of Carl St and Tottenham St in Woolloongabba. After council recently acquired neighbouring properties, we've expa...

Latest News on Upgrade for Queen Bess Park

In February and March 2019, we held a public meeting followed by a community design workshop to facilitate local residents to decide what improvements they wanted to the unnamed park at the souther...

Priorities for the Gabba Cross River Rail Station Redevelopment

December, 2018The State Government is just beginning its next round of ‘consultation’ regarding the Cross River Rail project, with a particular focus on future options for the new station in Woollo...

Redesign of Davies Park

Council has finally released proposed plans for the partial redesign of Davies Park…Here’s what they’re spending money on:- Roughly $200 000 on a large new toilet block (six cubicles including 2 wh...

BCC Budget 2018/19 - Parks and Public Spaces in the Gabba Ward

Thanks in large part to assertive and persistent advocacy from my office, we’ve seen some pretty big budget allocations towards improving public spaces within the ward. This year, the Gabba Ward is...

June 2018 Update on Riverside Drive Basketball Hoop Proposal

6 June, 2018 If you've been wondering what happened to the proposal for a basketball hoop to be installed down along Riverside Drive in West End, here's the text of an email I sent out yesterday to...

State Government-Approved Changes to Mowbray Park, East Brisbane

5 June, 2018 Great news! After a strong pushback from the local community, Brisbane City Council and the State Government have backed down on plans to clear the vegetated under-storey from the bush...

Email to Lord Mayor re: need to masterplan Riverside Drive Parklands

Below is the content of an email I sent on Monday, 9 April asking the Lord Mayor to conduct detailed community consultation in the development of a new masterplan for the Riverside Drive Parklands ...

Who Gets a Say in the Design of Public Space?

Different residents often have different, conflicting views on how particular public spaces should be used. These disagreements can be tricky to resolve in inner-city areas, where the ratio of publ...

Open Letter to Minister Steven Miles re: Destruction of Mangroves as part of the Queens Wharf Mega-Casino Development

Dear Minister Miles, I write to you in your capacity as Minister for the Environment and Heritage Protection to request that you publicly oppose plans to fill in part of the Brisbane River and dest...

Update on the West End Riverside Drive Contaminated Land Remediation

As I’ve explained to residents previously via email and social media, there’s a patch of land along Riverside Drive (just south of the dog park near Hockings St) that has a range of contaminated ma...

Why Brisbane residents should maintain a healthy scepticism towards Urban Renewal Strategies and Neighbourhood Plans

Neighbourhood plans and urban renewal strategies are major catalysts for change. Usually, such documents include a lot of positive elements that the vast majority of residents and local businesses ...

Spring water vending machines in Brisbane? When neoliberalism meets misguided environmentalism

Here's the basic problem: Too many people are buying single-use bottled water products Bottled water is pretty terrible and stupid for a range of reasons. If you still need convincing of that fac...

Understanding Infrastructure Investment Shortfalls

Right now in Brisbane, investment in local infrastructure and services like pedestrian crossings, parks, flood mitigation and public transport isn’t keeping pace with population growth. There are a...

What's going on with the Queen Bess St 'Park' in Woolloongabba?

For years now, residents have been asking that the triangular block of government-owned land at the southern end of Queen Bess Street in Woolloongabba be converted into a public park. There’s a si...

Brisbane City Council 2017 Budget Blog

Brisbane City Council just released its annual budget for 2017/18 June is budget time, and while most of the media attention is on State and Federal Government budgets, Brisbane City Council has al...

What is the State Government’s Role in Approving the Widening of Lytton Road?

The widening of Lytton Road in East Brisbane is a Brisbane City Council project – ‘Wynnum Road Corridor Upgrade: Stage 1’, which involves widening a stretch of Lytton Road between Latrobe Street an...

Proposed major amendments to the biodiversity overlay of Brisbane’s City Plan

Wherever you live in Brisbane, you should probably be aware that Brisbane City Council is proposing a major amendment to the ‘biodiversity overlay’ of the city plan, adding/changing/removing areas ...

My Submission to the Dutton Park-Fairfield Neighbourhood Plan

Thanks for the opportunity to comment on the Dutton Park-Fairfield Neighbourhood Plan. I’d like to thank and congratulate the council officers who’ve put so much time into drafting this plan. Sadly...

Allowing Residential Developments on Sport and Rec Land is Short-Sighted and Lazy

A couple of weeks ago, the Brisbane City Council started pursuing major amendments to the city plan which will allow for the construction of retirement living on land which is zoned for sport and r...

Speech in Reply To the 2016-2017 BCC Budget

A renowned and well-respected philosopher once wrote that “The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate wi...