Another Brisbane 2032 venue set to go out for tender
Another 2032 Olympic venue has made it through the project validation phase, clearing the way for work to begin on the $205 million Moreton Bay Indoor Sports Centre at Petrie, north of Brisbane.
Located near the site of the old Petrie paper mill, also home to a University of the Sunshine Coast campus, the sports centre was due to be open four years before the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The facility would include 12 multi-sport courts across two separate halls, allowing it to host community sports such as basketball, futsal, netball, boxing, volleyball, badminton, wheelchair rugby and pickleball.
Aerial view of the proposed Moreton Bay Indoor Sports Centre.Credit: Queensland Government
During the Games, it would have a capacity of about 10,000. While sports to be held at the facility had not been confirmed, early plans earmarked the MBISC as the venue for Olympic boxing.
Moreton Bay Mayor Peter Flannery, whose council provided the land for the project, said he was excited to have an Olympic venue in his city.
“We’re the third-largest local government in Australia, we’re one of the fastest-growing in Australia with 240 people a week moving here, so we need this kind of investment,” he said.
“This kind of infrastructure is going to go a long way in supplying those kind of facilities that the community need and want – and also to have the Olympics here is quite amazing.
“Right across the road from the train station, people could walk to this facility from the train station, so it’s ideal. It ticks all the boxes.”
Expressions of interest for the project’s managing contractor and principal consultant – responsible for design and delivery – were expected to go out to market this month. Construction was expected to start in 2026, for a 2028 completion.
Premier Steven Miles, who grew up on nearby Young Street, said it was a “game-changing facility” for his old neighbourhood.
The facility will be built on the site of the old Petrie paper mill.Credit: Queensland Government
“If you’d tried to tell me then that there’d be a university at the end of our street, I would never have believed you, and I certainly wouldn’t have believed you if you said it would be the location for a world-class Olympic and Paralympic venue, but it will be,” he said.
“That’s what we’re going to build here in Petrie. It’s very exciting and I think it goes to our vision for how Brisbane 2032 will transform this whole region.”
The venue’s project validation report (PVR) estimated 178 full-time equivalent jobs would be directly supported by the facility’s construction.
The MBISC is the latest in a string of Olympic venues to pass the PVR stage and go out for tender, following a new sports centre at Chandler in May and, last week, the $142 million Sunshine Coast Indoor Sports Centre.
All these venues were part of the $1.87 billion minor venues program, jointly funded by the Queensland and federal governments, almost half of which were expected to be out to market by the end of the year.