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About Kooky and Shaka →The Queensland Government announced a $287.5 million rebuild of the Brisbane Showgrounds on Wednesday 5 August 2026, in a statement from Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie headed "Ekka's future secured for 2032 and beyond". The statement names Hutchinson Builders as the contractor and says construction starts after this year's Ekka, with demolition of the Machinery Hill grandstand expected in September.
The works matter beyond the show. The Showgrounds at Bowen Hills is where the Brisbane athlete village for the 2032 Games will stand, and the State's delivery website says about 1,800 homes are to follow on the site once the Games are over. For the inner north, this is the first Games project with a housing number attached.
Queensland Government media statement and 2032 delivery update, both dated 5 August 2026.
What the money pays for
The statement puts the 20,000-seat Main Arena at the centre of the project. Around it sit a new grandstand at Machinery Hill, a new horse pavilion and accessibility improvements across the arena. The State's delivery update of the same day describes the partners as the Royal National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland, known as the RNA, and the developer Lendlease.
| Element | What is planned | Published timing |
|---|---|---|
| Machinery Hill | Existing grandstand demolished, new grandstand built | Demolition expected September 2026 |
| Main Arena | Upgrade of the 20,000-seat arena, with better access | Main works after the 2026 Ekka |
| Horse pavilion | New building | Not stated |
| Heritage grandstands | Restoration of two listed stands | Listed among early works |
Queensland Government media statement and 2032 delivery update, 5 August 2026.
The two sources describe the heritage work slightly differently. The Minister's statement refers to heritage grandstand restoration carried out in the previous year. The delivery update lists restoration of two heritage-listed grandstands among early works that are "already underway", alongside planning and design. Either way, that part of the program began before this week's announcement.
The statement places the $287.5 million inside a larger figure: a $3.5 billion State investment in athlete villages for the 2032 Games. That amount is separate from the $7.1 billion Games Venues Infrastructure Program shared with the Australian Government, which pays for competition venues such as Brisbane Stadium.
Related readState Budget puts $417m into Games venues and $348m into villagesThe Ekka stays, with one gap
The Royal Queensland Show, the Ekka, is the reason the announcement was timed for this week. The statement notes that 2026 marks the show's 150th anniversary.
The Ekka runs through construction, except in 2032
According to the Government statement, the show continues at Bowen Hills while the works are under way. The only year it is not held is 2032, when the site is in Games use.
RNA chief executive Brendan Christou is quoted in the statement saying the project "ensures our iconic Show remains here for another 150 years". That sentence speaks to the obvious question about a site chosen for an athlete village: whether a working showground can also carry a residential precinct and a Games arena without losing the show.
The answer in the announced design is that the arena, the grandstands and the horse pavilion are rebuilt for show use first. Mr Bleijie, in the same statement, said the Government "is ensuring 2032 remains back on track".
Why 2032 is the missing year
The Delivery Plan fixes the Games calendar. The Olympic Games run from 23 July to 8 August 2032 and the Paralympic Games from 24 August to 5 September 2032. A village has to be handed to teams before the first date and stays occupied until after the last, so the Showgrounds is committed to the Games for the whole of the period in which the show would normally be staged.
That is the practical reason for the single skipped year. It also explains the order of the building program. The show buildings are rebuilt first, while the Ekka can still use the ground each year, and the housing that becomes the village has to be complete and fitted out in time for the middle of 2032.
The Showgrounds arena is not one of the seventeen competition venues being delivered by the Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority. That body's published venue list, which covers seven new venues and ten upgrades from Cairns to Toowoomba, does not include it. The Showgrounds works are instead presented by the State as part of the village program, which is why the money comes from the $3.5 billion village allocation and why the announcement was made by the Minister responsible for State Development.
Related readRockhampton's Games rowing course is endorsed; now it needs 1,200 roomsWhere the athlete village fits
The 2032 Delivery Plan, published by the Queensland Government in March 2025, lists three main athlete villages: Brisbane at the Showgrounds, the Gold Coast at Royal Pines Resort and the Sunshine Coast in the Maroochydore city centre. It adds a smaller village at Rockhampton and puts the total at approximately 16,400 beds.
Brisbane's is the largest. The Delivery Plan says it will house more than 10,000 athletes and team officials during the Olympic Games and more than 5,000 during the Paralympic Games. On those figures the Showgrounds carries roughly six in every ten of the 16,400 village beds planned across the State.
The Minister's statement says the village "will overlook" the Showgrounds. That wording points to a layout in which the housing rises beside the arena and the show ring, not on top of it. The delivery website recorded on 1 June 2026 that architects for the athlete villages had been appointed; the announcement of 5 August does not add design detail for the housing itself.
What it does add, through the delivery update, is the after-Games number. Approximately 1,800 new homes are to be developed at the Showgrounds precinct following the Games. The update does not say how many of those are the converted village buildings and how many are later stages, nor what share would be sold, rented or held as social or affordable housing.
What Bowen Hills gains and what it lives through
The Showgrounds sits beside Victoria Park. The draft legacy plan for the Victoria Park precinct, opened for public comment on 3 August, treats the Showgrounds as one of four linked parts, with Brisbane Stadium, the National Aquatic Centre and the parkland.
Related readSunshine Coast Stadium: demolition tender opens as clubs prepare to moveFor owners and tenants nearby, the announced works mean a construction site that starts with a demolition. The removal of the Machinery Hill grandstand, expected in September, is the first visible change. The statement gives no working hours, truck routes or road changes, and none are reported here.
The gain described by the State is a venue in use for more of the year. An arena with 20,000 seats, new stands and step-free access can take concerts and sport as well as the show, and the delivery update presents the Showgrounds as part of "a connected destination for sport, entertainment, recreation and community life".
The longer-term change is residential. About 1,800 homes is a large addition for a single site. Whether that supply arrives soon after September 2032 or over a longer period depends on a conversion program that has not been published.
How a village becomes housing
The idea behind an athlete village is that the buildings are designed as ordinary homes, fitted out temporarily for teams and then finished for residents. The Delivery Plan describes the Brisbane village's "post-Games transformation" as permanent housing, and uses similar language for the Gold Coast, where the village is described as part of a mixed residential development, and for Maroochydore, where it forms part of a new city centre precinct.
Legally, villages are treated a little differently from competition venues. The Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games Arrangements Act 2021, as amended in 2025, makes development to build a listed village lawful despite fifteen State Acts, the Planning Act 2016 among them. A separate section of the same Act, section 53DF, keeps one ordinary step in place for villages: where building work would be assessable development under schedule 9 of the Planning Regulation 2017, a development permit is still required.
Within the State Government, the Delivery Plan gives responsibility for delivering the villages to the Department of State Development, not to the Games venues authority that is building the stadium.
The steps announced so far
The Government's statement and the delivery update give a short sequence.
The 2026 Ekka runs first. Main works follow it, with the Machinery Hill demolition expected in September. The show then continues each August through the construction period. In 2032 the site is in Games use and no show is held. After the Games, the village is converted and the housing program of about 1,800 homes proceeds.
Several things have not been published: a completion date for the arena works, a start date for the village buildings, the split between Lendlease's role and the State's, and the mix of the 1,800 homes. The statement names Hutchinson Builders as "selected contractor" for the Showgrounds works without giving a contract value separate from the $287.5 million project figure.
For now, the fixed points are a price, a builder and a month. The first test of the timetable is whether the stand at Machinery Hill starts coming down in September, once the show has packed up.
Kooky, from Shaka
Kooky edits Queensland Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for Queensland property professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.
