South Bank Transforms Former Expo 88 Site Into Brisbane's Premier Cultural Hub

South Bank, the 17-hectare parkland and cultural precinct on the southern bank of the Brisbane River immediately opposite the CBD that was created from the site of World Expo 88 and that has been progressively developed and refined since Expo's closure into one of Australia's finest urban public spaces, provides Brisbane with the cultural, recreational, and waterfront activation that the city centre requires on the river's southern edge. The precinct's combination of the Streets Beach (the man-made lagoon beach that provides the swimming experience in the heart of the city), the South Bank Parklands that extend along the river, and the cultural institutions of the Queensland Gallery and Queensland Performing Arts Centre cluster creates the complete urban amenity that Brisbane's residents and visitors use across all days and all seasons.

The South Bank Parklands' maintenance and programming, sustaining the market, the playground equipment, the fitness infrastructure, and the event spaces that the public use of the parkland generates across the week, creates the management challenge of a heavily used urban park that requires the investment in maintenance, security, and programming that sustains the quality that the community expects. The annual South Bank Christmas Festival and the regular cultural and community events that the parklands hosts provide the programmed engagement that complements the daily informal use of the parkland space.

The restaurant and dining scene along the Grey Street dining precinct, the riverfront dining that the South Bank promenade provides, and the café culture of the Little Stanley Street strip adjacent to the QPAC create the food and drink infrastructure that the cultural precinct visitors and the South Bank workers and residents use for the dining that a complete precinct requires. The dining scene's variety, from the casual to the fine dining, reflects the diversity of the South Bank visitor market and sustains the all-day activation that the precinct requires to generate the revenue that the private operators need to maintain their South Bank presence.

The South Bank's connection to the City Botanic Gardens via the Goodwill Bridge cycling and pedestrian bridge, and to the CBD by the Kurilpa and the Victoria bridges, provides the active transport and the pedestrian connections that integrate the South Bank into the broader inner Brisbane movement network. The bridges' role as the active transport connection between the riverbanks, and as the walking and cycling infrastructure that the CBD workers who live in South Brisbane and the Kangaroo Point and West End communities use for the work commute, sustains the South Bank's function as an integrated part of the urban fabric rather than just a weekend destination.