Two sites of the Kingsford Smith Drive Upgrade have finally been completed. To celebrate this progress, the Council is hosting a Community Open Day at the improved Cameron Rocks Reserve and the new Riverwalk.
Happening on Saturday, the 22nd of June 2019, the free event for the whole family will run from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Explore this reinvigorated public place with a guided tour from the Nundah Historical Society. Meet the artist Kenji Uranishi whose art beacons, dubbed the “Magnificent Flying Machines,” decorate the Cameron Rocks Reserve.
A series of Pilates class, on the other hand, will be underway at the park next to the mini-golf area. Kiosks will also be installed for these community groups below, as well as the members of the Kingsford Smith Drive Upgrade if want to know more about this project.
Cycling Brisbane
Heart Foundation
Nundah Historical Society
Racecourse Road Business Group
Zonta International
Food and drinks stalls, an arts and crafts area and a fishing section should keep families busy.
A limited but secure car park will be open on Yulestar Street. However, visitors are enjoined to cycle, walk or take public transport to the event.
The Kingsford Smith Drive Upgrade aims to ease traffic congestion and improve the road conditions in one of Brisbane’s busiest traffic network. The project covers Toorak Road (Hamilton), Racecourse Road (Ascot), Theodore Street (Eagle Farm), Cooksley Street (Hamilton), and Breakfast Creek Road (Albion).
A short session on cheese-making is happening in Albion and if you’d like to learn a new and useful skill, this activity is welcome for beginners. However, seasoned cheesemakers may also join in the fun learning experience.
Set for Saturday, the 15th of June, the hands-on cheese-making class will be conducted from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Albion Peace Centre on McDonald Road. In just a short amount of time, participants will learn about the proper milk selection, inoculation and renneting milk for making Halloumi and Feta cheese.
Photo Credit: Queensland Cheese Artisan/Facebook
Think cheese-making is hard? The techniques you will pick up from this workshop will actually allow you to make fresh batches of cheese at home. The class is easy to follow so you will be motivated to whip up the best homemade cheese for your friends and family.
The cheese-making workshop is limited to eight students only. Tickets are at $85 per person and participants have to bring their apron and head scarf, as well as containers for their cheese creations.
Take an evening stroll down Racecourse Road Precinct in Hamilton and enjoy the magical view of trees illuminated by fairy lights.
The street tree bud lighting has been installed to increase night-time amenity and identity for the local shopping precinct and create a vibrant neighbourhood for the local community and visitors.
According to Racecourse Road Precinct Business Group president Kate Peereboom, five different contractors and traffic management crews worked together to install thousands of metres of lights on 40 trees in one month.
Businesses and landlords were supportive of the project so the installation was done smoothly, with little disruption to businesses located in the street. Most of the works were completed at night and the installation of lights were completed ahead of their target completion date.
The lights were first lit in time for the commencement of the Brisbane Racing Club’s winter carnival last month, where thousands of spectators visited the precinct.
To celebrate the success of this project, the “Up in Lights” community event was held at St Augustine’s Anglican Church on 10 May 2019 from 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Locals got to enjoy an evening of live music, street food, pop-up bars, face painting, and kids lantern-making.
The lighting project is sponsored by Bernborough-Lendlease, St. Joseph’s Nudgee College and Brisbane Racing Club.
This is part of the Village Precinct Projects grant funded program, wherein Council will design and deliver public realm improvements, breathing new life into local shopping precincts with the aim of contributing to the commercial vitality of the precinct by creating:
a beautiful precinct – high-quality, attractive public spaces that are accessible, safe and comfortable to walk through; spaces that encourage the local community to meet, linger and enjoy
a precinct for people – streets that are inclusive and inviting places for everyone to shop, socialise and relax
a sense of place – reinforcing the local character and pride, and creating distinctive subtropical spaces for local residents, businesses and visitors to connect with and belong to.
For more information about the Racecourse Road street tree bud lighting project, visit the Brisbane City Council website.
Following a consultation with the Albion community earlier this year, the Brothers Rugby Club has taken the feedback onboard and decided to revise their plans for Crosby Park.
Based on the community consultation held in February 2019, the top three concerns of the residents are the trees, loss of public space, and covered seating.
To address these concerns, the club proposed to reduce the impact on existing trees to an estimated 12. Brothers guaranteed to enhance green space by planting new trees in the area.
In addition to increasing the public green space along Crosby Road, the club proposes to provide covered tiered seating at new grandstand area and more terraced landscaped seating around the fields.
Brothers will conduct further pre-lodgement meetings with Council officers and State government and will do another round of community consultation in the months to come.
Once the revised development proposal is approved, the club will start working on the funding and development of the project.
With more than 4,000 members to date, Brothers decided to come up with enhancements on the fields and facilities to meet the current and future demand of their ever-growing user base.
The upgrade is proposed to take place in two stages over a 24-month period.
Stage 1 includes resurfacing of the existing sporting fields, upgrading Field Two’s lighting, and new seating for spectators.
It also includes construction of a new game and training facility, space for allied use tenancies, and repositioning of the main club parking facilities.
Meanwhile, the second stage will be for the construction of commercial spaces that could be food and beverage, health, sport or recreation-related.
Stage 2 will also include the introduction of car parking spaces off Crosby Road and further repositioning and upgrading the main Club parking facilities to achieve greater efficiency and more parking spaces overall.
Art can be a powerful tool in raising awareness on climate change and this will be highlighted in “Be the Change,” an upcoming workshop in Albion this weekend.
“Be the Change” workshop will be held on 11 May 2019 from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm at Artists Alike, 39 Corunna St, Albion.
The upcoming event puts a retrospective look at climate change and will serve as an opportunity to conceptualise and put into practise creative works that will encourage change. Workshop media will focus on spray paints and street art as a creative outlet.
The workshop is part of the Brisbane Street Art Festival, an annual public art event that seeks to provide opportunities for creative practitioners and the wider community to develop positive partnerships through engagement and collaboration.
This year’s festival will be two weeks full of live mural art, music, theatre, numerous exhibitions, creative master classes and workshops from some of the leading creatives, offering a diverse program of learning, creative development and collaboration.
The city-wide outdoor art festival will also display over 45 street art pieces from some of the best artists from Australia.
“Be the Change” is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland. Tickets cost $10 per participant and can be bought via Brisbane Street Art Festival website. BSAF 2019, which runs from May 4-19, is sponsored by the Brisbane City Council.
With the upgrade at Hercules Street Park officially commencing in January 2019, over 16,000 plants will soon be planted throughout the park, also known as Hamilton Recreation Reserve. The project is part of the $10-million revitalisation of the park at Northshore, Hamilton.
The Hercules Street Park upgrade project will increase the park’s size as well as deliver improvements: fig garden, picnic areas, fitness and recreation areas, village garden, kiosk and bike hub, junior playground, water play area, and a dog park.
Photo Credit: The Queensland Government / haveyoursay.dsdmip.qld.gov.au
“The 16,000 plants will give life to the park’s many facilities such as the barbecue and picnic areas, children’s playground, dog off-leash area and walking paths – which will be fully lit at night,” Minister for State Development, Manufacturing, Infrastructure and Planning Cameron Dick said.
Photo Credit: The Queensland Government / haveyoursay.dsdmip.qld.gov.au
“The design of the park also includes a system where the water used as part of the children’s playground water play facility will be captured and held in a holding tank, then used for irrigation purposes.
Photo Credit: The Queensland Government / haveyoursay.dsdmip.qld.gov.au
“The water play facility will be a hugely popular feature of this park, especially during a hot Queensland summer.
“This is a smart and responsible use of our resources, reusing water to keep the plants and grass healthy, and the park will be greener and greater because of this,” Mr Dick said.
Photo Credit: The Queensland Government / haveyoursay.dsdmip.qld.gov.au
In December 2018, Economic Development Queensland appointed JMac Constructions, landscaping arm of BMD Group, as the official contractor of the Hercules Street Park upgrade project.
“The mass planting is going to add so much greenery to this area and change the face of the entry roads to Northshore,” JMac Constructions General Manager Jason Lindsay said.
Photo Credit: The Queensland Government / haveyoursay.dsdmip.qld.gov.au
The Hercules Street Park revitalisation project is set to be completed before Christmas 2019.
A shareholder class action against the Kingsford Smith Drive upgrade developer, Lendlease Group (LLC), has been filed in the Supreme Court of New South Wales.
The class action alleges that LLC failed to adequately disclose a long-running problem that has been troubling its Engineering and Services Business; resulting in a single-day trading loss of 18 percent.
It was also reported that in the year ending June 30, the Engineering and Services division lost $218 million, driven mainly by its three engineering projects — NorthConnex in Sydney, Kingsford Smith Drive, and Gateway Upgrade North, both in Brisbane.
Construction issues such as weather delays, inability to access ready-planned work, and defective design that required rework were among the reasons cited for costs blow out.
Kingsford Smith Drive Upgrade | Video Credit: Brisbane City Council / YouTube
On 9 November 2018, LLC revealed to the market that it had “identified ‘further underperformance’ in its Engineering and Services Business, which it considered was likely to necessitate a provision of approximately $350 million after tax,” prompting the company to review its Engineering and Services Business.
LLC’s share price considerably declined that day, resulting in a single-day trading loss of more than 18 percent. On 25 February 2019, share prices tumbled further after half-year results showed pre-tax loss amounting to $500 million due to its Engineering and Services Business’ underperformance.
LLC also announced that its Engineering and Services Business is ‘no longer a required part of the Group’s strategy” and is looking at an estimated restructuring cost of $450-$550 million before tax. The following days saw LLC’s share price suffering from further declines.
The shareholder class action filed by legal firm Maurice Blackburn, on behalf of Lendlease investors, alleges that LLC “failed to comply with its continuous disclosure obligations under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and the ASX Listing Rules and engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct in respect of the performance of its Engineering and Services Business.”
Maurice Blackburn encourages Lendlease investors who acquired an interest in Lendlease shares and/or American Depositary Receipts between 17 November 2017 and 8 November 2018 (inclusive) to register by COB 17 May, 2019.
“We will allege that investors who acquired securities in this period paid an inflated price and should be entitled to recover some of their losses through our shareholder class action,” Maurice Blackburn said.
A green bridge designed exclusively for pedestrians and cyclists is proposed for Breakfast Creek, allowing safer and easier travel from Hamilton to Newstead in the years to come.
This new green bridge, which will connect the 1.2-km Kingsford Smith Drive River Walk stretch to Newstead, will be a carless bridge. Currently, pedestrians and cyclists have to cross Breakfast Creek via a busy bridge.
It is among the five bridges announced by Brisbane’s new Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner, who assumed the office after the sudden resignation of Graham Quirk.
Cr Schrinner emphasized that one of the great weaknesses of Brisbane in the past has been the lack of bridges and that the city needs more bridges going forward to help make it easier to get around.
“These bridges will accommodate, in some cases, public transport, but they will also accommodate walking and cycling to get people out of their cars, to reduce traffic congestion and create a cleaner, greener Brisbane,” he said.
The council would fund two-thirds of the cost of the bridges, which are estimated to cost at least $550 million. The remaining funds will be sought from the state and federal governments.
Like the plan for Breakfast Creek, the Council is also seeking to construct a new pedestrian and cycle bridge connecting Kangaroo Point to the CBD. Currently, the council is undertaking a business case to pursue the plans of a new bridge in the suburb.
Apart from pedestrian and cycles bridges in Breakfast Creek and Kangaroo Point, the new Lord Mayor also announced a potential pedestrian, cycle, and public transport bridge for linking Bellbowrie to Wacol, Toowong to West End, and St Lucia to West End.
There were several high profile multi-million property sales in 2018 across Brisbane, and four of the most expensive homes sold were from Hamilton, a testament to the ever-growing demand for prestige homes in the suburb, the latest report from Domain group said.
19 Lawes Street, Hamilton
This 500-sqm L-shaped home is designed to take advantage of the amazing of views to the south across the Brisbane river and the city. It features 5 bedrooms with a study, 3 bathrooms, 2 car parking spaces, grassy and secured backyard, inground pool, reception area, timber staircases, floor to ceiling glass, and centrally located kitchen.
Photo Credit: Domain Group / domain.com.au Photo Credit: Domain Group / domain.com.au
A brand-new house that was sold last November 2018 for $5.25 million to a local Brisbane buyer days before its scheduled listing. The 4-bedroom 4.5-bathroom house offers a sweeping view of the river and the city. It also features a double-garage, a pool, two kitchens, two living rooms, an entertainment room, office, and internal lift.
30 Windermere Road, Hamilton
Set on a 2,024-sqm lot, this 6-beds 4-baths home was sold for $5.95 million last April 2018. The last time it hit the market was in August 2012; selling for $4,685,000. This extremely attractive house, described by its previous owner as a “little resort,” features a main bedroom with walk-in robe and access to a balcony, plenty of entertainment rooms, and ensuite with twin vanities, and a kitchen that overlooks to the living and dining area.
Photo Credit: Domain Group / domain.com.au Photo Credit: Domain Group / domain.com.au
This large property also has a swimming pool, championship-size tennis court, 3,000-bottle wine cellar with an 8-seater table, five car parking spaces, wooden floors, high ceilings, and large sliding doors.
1A Eldernell Terrace, Hamilton
This residence was last sold in April 2008 for $6.1 million before hitting the market again and getting sold last February 2018 for $7.25 million. Sitting on a 910-sqm land, the Harry Poulous designed 3-level five-bedroom elegant home underwent contemporary renovation. It offers fantastic views of the Brisbane river, Gateway Bridge, and the city skyline.
Photo Credit: Domain Group / domain.com.au Photo Credit: Domain Group / domain.com.au
Features of the house include: upper-level master suite with large walk-in robe, marble ensuite, four baths, 4 parking spaces, floor to ceiling glass, new kitchen and butcher’s pantry, and a second kitchen for casual dining.
The house also features a guest retreat area, double New Guinea Rosewood doors, Himalayan sandstone steps, Paul Bangay-inspired garden, and a temperature-controlled wine cellar.
36 Dickson Tce
36 Dickson Tce, or more popularly known as the Christopher Skase house, was 2018’s post-New Year surprise sale, changing hands for $10.138 million when hotelier Steven Shoobridge acquired the property in a hush-hush deal.
Photo credit: www.realestate.com.au
Built by one of Australia’s most notorious businessman in the 1990s, the luxurious mansion is considered to be a bargain at over $10 million, considering that Skase spent $35 million for its construction in 1988. An additional $5 million was spent for its renovation in 1997.
Did you know that Hamilton Hotel, eponymously named after the prominent Hamilton family, became one of the earliest reference points in the area after they established it in 1865 and was instrumental in the naming of the suburb?
In 1865, solicitor Gustav Hamilton had his wooden homestead constructed, on the same site where the current hotel stands, as a meeting place for horse racing identities. Eventually, the Hamilton Hotel became the reference point of the district.
There weren’t a lot of buildings in the area during those days, thus the Hamilton Hotel stood out.
Mr Hamilton’s family was originally from Toowomba, according to a 1906 report. He and his family, however, would often visit the areas in the north bank of the Brisbane River thus he had this building made.
The white building at the back was Hamilton Hotel, circa 1912. Photo Credit: Lost Brisbane/Facebook
Coincidentally, one of the first lessees of the Hamilton Hotel, a Mrs Warren, was also married to another Mr Hamilton. Since most of the occupants of the hotel came from different Hamilton family branches, the family name gradually became the name of the whole district.
As the town progressed, aristocrats and clergy would call Hamilton their home. The suburb became well-known for its wealthy residents.
Gustav would eventually sell Hamilton Hotel after deciding to retire in Toowomba. A man named Sam Hamilton bought the place and capitalised on the hotel’s good name.
The Hamilton Hotel would change owners a few more times. Its previous operators were J.R. Ahern and his wife, and E.J. Stewart of the Stewart Hotels.
In the 1960s, the new owners, Castlemaine Perkins Ltd under a Mr and Mrs A. Cox, rebuilt the hotel into a modern two-storey building with a parking facility to accommodate 225 cars, the largest in any hotel in Queensland at that time.
The newly-renovated hotel had a private bar fronting Racecourse Road, which could accommodate 200 guests, along with a public bar fronting Kingsford Smith Drive, which could have 400 guests.
Hamilton Hotel also had eight cold rooms at the back and an additional three rooms with walls that can be dismantled for other uses. This made it easier for the hotel staff to serve bar guests refreshing drinks and good food.
All the self-contained rooms on the second floor, on the other hand, had their own toilet and bath, Hallstrom refrigerator, television, and telephone. There was also a built-in table in each room so that traveling businessmen can make their quarters their temporary office.
In the 1970s, Hamilton Hotel once again underwent renovations to include the Pioneer Grill Room, the Tally Ho Bar and the River Rooms fine dining area. Here, business seminars, birthday parties, and wedding celebrations were accommodated.
In 2015, Hamilton Hotel celebrated its 150th birthday. Today, the hotel remains popular for locals and tourists. It has kept with the times as a trendy venue offering four bars, a bistro, a restaurant, a child and gaming facility, and a couple of function rooms for elegant parties.
