Now that the first event has wrapped up on “Queens Wharf Plaza” (i.e. the corridor that has been the Bicentennial Bikeway since 1988), it’s time to reflect on what went down, and where we might go from here.

This started out as a single post, but has evolved into a much longer saga:

• Part 1 – the circus rolls in
• Part 2 – bumps in the road
• Part 3 – the issue blows up
• Part 4 – disco on the driveway

Part 1 – the circus rolls in

Although we had been following the Queens Wharf Development for the best part of a decade – including submissions, petitions, attending “consultation” sessions and protests about the planned plaza, the first notification we received about Star Casino’s “Sono Lumo” event was thanks to one of our supporters who reported the arrival of a number of shipping containers—including one labelled Byron Bay Brewing—at the bottom of Queens Wharf Road on 28 November.

A search of the Queens Wharf Brisbane website then turned up an event notification. There we discovered that Star Casino would be blocking cycling along the Bicentennial Bikeway and Queens Wharf Road, for their Sono Lumo event for 10 evenings in December, starting on Wednesday 4th until Sunday 8th, then again 11-15 December. We discovered that event was to include pop-up restaurants and bars and static lighting features across the (commandeered) public realm, plus a nightly light & sound show to be held each hour at 7:30pm, 8:30pm & 9:30pm on the façade of The Star Brisbane.

Importantly, cyclists would be required to dismount and walk for approximately 100m through the crowds of restaurant and bar patrons between the hours of 4pm and 11pm. Obviously that would be incredibly disruptive for the thousands of people who use the Bicentennial Bikeway to get home from work or university, or to get to evening functions in the lead-up to Christmas. It would also have a big impact on the food delivery riders who need to move efficiently to make a living.

Unfortunately this is everything we feared would happen when we were unable to convince Economic Development Queensland (a State Government entity) to stick to the intent of their Master Plan for the Queens Wharf Precinct back in 2017. The Bicentennial Bikeway is one of the most well-used active transport corridors in Australia, and permitting a casino developer to slap an event space on top of it was an incredibly poor decision.

Brisbane CBD BUG immediately contacted the events hotline to express the concern of all the BUGs about the obstruction to the bikeway, and about being asked to dismount – especially during peak afternoon commuting times.

Although the event wasn’t scheduled to start until Wednesday 4 December, by Saturday 29 November, Star Casino’s “Sono Lumo” lightshow had already taken over the Bicentennial Bikeway at Queens Wharf. This was the experience riding through:

Can you imagine something like this being set up on a major road? We feared that if anyone—riding, jogging or walking—changed direction, lost balance, or had a medical episode as a result of the bright moving lights, any resulting crash or fall would be blamed on a “speeding” bicycle or e-scooter rider.

We encouraged anyone who was disturbed by this, and who didn’t think a huge private gambling company should be able to take over public space in this way, to call the event hotline on 07 3306 8691.

It was time to plan our response.

Next: Part 2 – Bumps in the road