Olympics body gatecrashes Save Victoria Park event to erect fences

The Olympic infrastructure body charged with delivering 2032 Games venues has been accused of intimidatory behaviour after it gatecrashed a Save Victoria Park event on Tuesday morning to erect fencing.

Save Victoria Park had called media to the parklands to release a hydrology report on the site’s natural springs – at the very moment the Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority fenced off an adjacent area for more testing.

The workers waited until the media conference was under way to begin work.

Aboriginal elder Gaja [Aunty] Kerry Charlton, whose lineage extends to the site’s original inhabitants, said it was an obvious act of intimidation and a show of disrespect on National Sorry Day.

“You cannot say it’s anything other than a wilful, deliberate act of intimidation and harassment, and it’s an abuse of power,” she said.

“It’s an abuse of our rights, to shut down our voices – that’s what it’s for. It’s just crazy.”

Comment was sought from GIICA, which referred questions to Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie.

“Everyone deserves to be safe and treated with respect when they’re just doing their job,” Bleijie said.

“GIICA contractors have been undertaking site investigation works at Victoria Park for months and were left shaken today after they were confronted by protesters.”

That confrontation, witnessed by this masthead, amounted to requests to delay the fencing installation until the conclusion of the media conference, and protesters holding fence sections on a trailer to prevent them being put up.

Charlton said she expected more confrontation next Monday, when GIICA takes ownership of the land.

Encampments of First Nations people and their allies, who opposed the Brisbane Stadium and National Aquatic Centre, are expected to be forced off the site.

“I don’t have any fear of confrontation,” Charlton said.

“I expect there will be some confrontation and First Nations people have got the rights to reoccupy the land – I prefer to say occupy more permanently – because that’s what we did for thousands of years.

“We didn’t go away, we were displaced and moved.”

When asked if the encampments would be moved on before the June 1 handover date, Police Minister Dan Purdie said he would not discuss operational matters.

“I understand they’ve been offered housing – and they’ll continue to be – but anyone trying to protest and make a political point shouldn’t be doing that in a construction site and that’s what it’s about to be,” he said.

Charlton bristled at the suggestion the camps were full of homeless people needing assistance.

“There are very hard-working people down there and I know they are doing a mighty job to maintain the space, just like our ancestors did,” she said.

“It’s being kept hygienic, it’s clean, it’s care and looking out for each other.”

Central to the Indigenous use of the site, known to First Nations people as Barrambin, were the springs that flowed through the hilly landscape.

Hydrologist Ned Hamer said the importance of permanent spring-fed freshwater sources to Aboriginal people and early settlers was undeniable and central to the site’s cultural heritage.

Hamer said he feared the developments – and their associated excavation work – could cause irreversible damage to the subterranean aquifers that flowed into York’s Hollow.

“There were three or four really significant springs that provided the water source for the settlement of Brisbane – Roma Street, Milton, Spring Hollow, which became renamed to Spring Hill, and York’s Hollow, which is a much bigger system than Spring Hollow,” he said.

“This is the last one still functioning because we’ve still got an intact recharge catchment area – the park, where water can get in.

“We’ve capped, or covered over, all the other spring systems. Some of them are still flowing in culverts and storm water drains – this one’s still flowing above the ground.”

Citing earlier concepts for the site, such as Archipelago’s Brisbane Bold proposal, Save Victoria Park spokeswoman Sue Bremner said she expected more of the land to be handed over to private developers for bars and restaurants around the stadium – with residential offerings above.

“We know private developers have been after this as a money-making exercise – they truly see it as vacant land, as empty space,” she said

“In 20 or 30 years’ time, our kids are going to be dealing with a whole lot of shoddy buildings that have managed to get through the gates that have been opened by this government.”

Premier David Crisafulli said on Tuesday he could “absolutely” rule out more of the land being handed over to developers.

“My commitment is that parkland has to be available for free for every Queenslander every day,” he said.

“Part of the design work, which is why I think it will be quite special, is the location of the stadium near the university will enable a large amount of green space to be delivered.”

Earlier this month, Crisafulli said about two-thirds would remain parkland. On Tuesday, he said it “might be a little better” than that.

“Early designs are positive,” he said. “A minimum of two thirds – and that has to be public, open, green space for everyone.”

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