Brisbane's resort and casino precinct opens

Brisbane's contentious resort and casino precinct has opened, nearly a decade after the proposed development was first announced by the Queensland government.

The $3.6 billion Queen's Wharf precinct includes four towers situated atop a seven-storey podium and a five-level basement. The towers take shape as distinct entities, before uniting approximately 30 storeys above ground level via a sky deck that overlooks the Brisbane river, the CBD and Mt Coot-tha.

The precinct is mixed-use, featuring several hotels, the Brisbane Star casino, retail tenancies, an event centre with ballroom, a public art gallery, and dining and beverage establishments.

The design prioritises access to the riverfront and the adjacent riverfront precincts. A new footbridge, named Neville Bonner after the first Indigenous Australian to sit in Australian Parliament, is suspended above the river, connecting Southbank to Queen's Wharf.

The project's design partners include Jerde Partnership (lead design in masterplan, urban design and place-making), Cottee Parker (lead architects for integrated resort development), ML Design (heritage architects), Grimshaw (Neville Bonner Bridge architects), Urbis (landscape architects, heritage specialists, town planners and urban designers) and Cusp (landscape architects).

The project has received considerable backlash since it was first proposed, due to the site's history as a former government precinct. Frequently regarded as the birthplace of Brisbane's colonial history, the site was home to several historical government buildings - some of which have now been retained as part of the development, while others have been demolished.

The Neville Bonner Building, designed by Davenport Campbell and Partners in collaboration with Donovan Hill and Powell Dods and Thorpe, is among the now-demolished structures, despite the building having won the FDG Stanley Award for Public Architecture at the 1999 Queensland Architecture Awards.

In a communique announcing the precinct's opening, chief executive officer of the Star Brisbane Daniel Finch said the new precinct aims to contribute to the tourism sector and the cultural fabric of Brisbane. "Once fully operational, The Star Brisbane and broader Queen's Wharf precinct are expected to attract approximately 1.4 million additional visitors to Queensland each year," Finch said.