Victoria Park / Barrambin Master Plan

Victoria Park / Barrambin sits across Herston, Kelvin Grove and Spring Hill. The Inner City Bypass (ICB) and railway runs through the southern section of the park.

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner announced on 9 June 2019 a proposal to transform the Victoria Park Golf Course into a new 64-hectare inner city parkland to make it more accessible to the Brisbane community. 

Yes, part of Victoria Park / Barrambin is a Queensland Government heritage-listed park and was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 3 December 2007. Part of the park is also listed as a Local Heritage Place under Brisbane City Plan 2014.

The park is a known place of high significance to the Aboriginal people of greater Brisbane. 

Barrambin (meaning ‘windy place’) and Walan / Woolan (meaning ‘bream’) comprised the areas now known as Herston and Bowen Hills. The land was undulating, with hills punctuated by a chain of waterholes and gullies. Barrambin and Walan were meeting and gathering places for groups travelling to and from other parts of South East Queensland, as well as dance and corroboree sites, and hunting and fishing lands for local Aboriginal people of Brisbane.

The area now contained within the park was an extensive Aboriginal camp and is a significant European contact and cultural site. In 2008, Victoria Park was given the dual name of Barrambin following engagement with the local Turrbal group.

The park is a popular location for organised sport and informal recreation containing many sporting facilities such as cross country, cricket nets, tennis courts, bikeways and a swimming pool. Golf is no longer a permitted activity in the park outside of the driving range.

The golf course closed when the greenspace opened as public parkland. The driving range, putt-putt mini-golf, function centre and bistro remain open.

The final Victoria Park Vision was released in December 2020 following two extensive rounds of community engagement. More than 35,000 people viewed the draft vision online with more than 2000 submissions, surveys and pieces of feedback. Overall there was 86% community support for the vision for the park.

The Draft Master Plan was released in September 2022, receiving 78% overall support from the community following five weeks of extensive community engagement.

The Victoria Park / Barrambin Master Plan was released on 14 June 2023.

The Master Plan for the park is a more detailed plan for the park’s future. 

The community-led Victoria Park Vision was the starting point for the transformation of the park, providing an aspirational framework for its future design. This Master Plan builds on the vision, with the results of technical investigations, and includes artist impressions of what the park may look like and spatial maps that show key features, spaces and connections that will be delivered throughout the park.

Community consultation for the Draft Master Plan was open from 27 September and closed on 30 October 2022.

The Master Plan incorporates community feedback from the Victoria Park Vision and Draft Master Plan, and detailed technical site investigations, to bring the shared vision for the park to life.

Community feedback influenced key changes reflected in the Master Plan.   While some elements have been removed or designs refined, many of the key elements that received strong community support in the Victoria Park Vision have been retained in the final Master Plan.

You can read about the key changes to the Master Plan resulting from community feedback, in the Draft Master Plan Community Engagement Report.

Council has no authority or plans to allow high-density living within the park. The land on which Victoria Park / Barrambin sits is mainly owned by the Queensland Government and Council is the trustee of the land under a Deed of Grant In Trust (DOGIT). The primary purpose of the trust is for park and recreation purposes. The land is under Council’s custodianship and under the Land Act the trustee is not authorised to dispose of the trust land.

The park has been named as the temporary venue for the equestrian cross country and BMX freestyle events.

The Master Plan is a long-term plan and roadmap for future elements and features in the park.

Council has progressed works in the park to create more to see and do sooner. Furniture, shelters and the opening of an entrance into the park from the QUT Kelvin Grove busway station were delivered in 2023, with construction of Spring Hill Common and the urban pump track completed in 2024.

Council has released the final Master Plan and also endorsed a Local Government Infrastructure Designation (LGID) as the planning pathway for the park. The LGID will facilitate the redevelopment of the site for an inner-city park to service the broader community through the provision of various recreational spaces, sporting facilities and other community orientated spaces.

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