Facebook group stands in the way of Brisbane’s 2032 Olympic stadium

An unlikely online grassroots movement is becoming an obstacle to plans for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games.

The Queensland government has proposed building a new $3.6-billion Olympic stadium in Victoria Park, just north of Brisbane’s city centre. However, a growing group of online protesters, known as Save Victoria Park, is pushing back, arguing that the development would damage what they consider one of the city’s most iconic, heritage-listed green spaces.

The stadium proposal for this area came from a 100-day independent review commissioned by the Brisbane 2032 Local Organizing Committee (LOC), which explored potential venues, infrastructure and transportation plans for the 2032 Games. Under the review, Victoria Park would be the home of the main Olympic stadium, which would stage the opening and closing ceremonies, athletics and rugby events, in addition to a separate aquatics centre. Combined construction costs for the two venues are estimated to exceed $4 billion.

While the parkland was previously a golf course, and before that, a landfill, the area has since been restored and is now valued for its open green space, trees and wildlife. Following the Games, the LOC said the stadium would become Brisbane’s primary sporting venue, potentially serving as the home of the Brisbane Lions of the Australian Football League (AFL) and several international cricket matches.

The Save Victoria Park group was founded in 2020 and has since grown to more than 5,000 members. The group says it is fighting to preserve the park as a shared community space. It also argues the site is fundamentally unsuitable for a stadium of this scale, citing the park’s hilly terrain and complex ground conditions. According to the group, moving forward with construction would create significant economic risks and long-term ecological damage for the city.

Last week, the government and LOC released sketches of the stadium in the park, which drew attention, online comments and protests from the Facebook group. “This latest tranche of greenwashed computer imagery is not real,” Save Victoria Park spokesperson Rosemary O’Hagan told ABC News after the stadium sketches were released. “What’s real are the ancient trees, rolling hills, and native wildlife the government intends to obliterate for what could become one of history’s most environmentally disastrous Olympic Games.”

The local organizing committee has pushed back against the criticism, arguing that development and preservation do not intertwine. In a Jan. 6 statement, the LOC said Brisbane “can have both stadiums and a heritage park—just not in the same place.”

Tensions rose to a high when Queensland’s deputy premier Jarrod Bleijie called the Facebook group “loopy” and labelled its members as NIMBYs, “not in my backyard” protesters, who don’t want anything to happen.

The Facebook group responded by saying it has no interest in trading insults, and that its focus remains on protecting a place it believes holds significant environmental and community value.

It has been 25 years since the Olympic Games were last held in Australia, and Brisbane 2032 will mark the event’s return to the island continent. Under a deal struck between the federal government, the state of Queensland, and the LOC, the Australian government has reportedly agreed to cover roughly half the cost of constructing venues for the Games.