# Victoria Park passes to the Games authority as stadium works begin The Games infrastructure authority took possession of Victoria Park on 1 June 2026 and began preparing the site of Brisbane's 63,000-seat stadium. What changed, and what follows. --- The Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority, known as GIICA, took possession of the stadium site at Victoria Park on Monday 1 June 2026, according to the Queensland Government's Delivering 2032 update published the same day. The authority says the first phase covers site investigations, early enabling works and the setting up of construction areas for the new Brisbane Stadium. InDaily Queensland reported on 2 June that police moved the last protesters from the park before dawn on the Monday, that fencing and machinery followed, and that Premier David Crisafulli turned the first sod. For the inner-north suburbs that ring the park, six years of building has now started on the ground.
63,000seats planned for Brisbane Stadium
$7.1bvenues program, 17 venues statewide
10federal heritage applications lodged, two rejected

Delivering 2032 update of 1 June 2026; InDaily Queensland and National Indigenous Times, 2 June 2026.

## What changed on 1 June Until this week, the stadium was a plan on paper and a set of investigations. From 1 June the stadium site is a construction site under the control of the authority that has to deliver it. The Delivering 2032 update describes the opening phase in modest terms: preparing the site for construction, continuing ground investigations, early enabling works and establishing the areas builders will work from. GIICA's own venue listing places the stadium at Victoria Park in Herston. No main building contract has been signed yet, and this first phase is about getting the ground ready, not about pouring a grandstand. The timing was flagged well ahead. In its one-year progress note of 26 March 2026, GIICA listed early works at Victoria Park "commencing mid-2026" among its next milestones, and its announcement of 9 April 2026 on the stadium builders gave 1 June as the day it would take possession. ## How the land came to the authority The handover rests on a change to the law. InDaily Queensland reported on 16 February 2026 that amendments to the Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games Arrangements Act 2021 had passed State Parliament the previous week. According to that report, the amendments convert Victoria Park from trust land, which could only be leased, to freehold land from 1 June 2026, and transfer the tenure to GIICA. The same report notes that Games venues were already exempt from most planning and environmental controls under the Act. Put together, the two measures mean that the authority holds the land and does not need to go through the ordinary development assessment a private project of this size would face. That is the part of the story that has drawn the sharpest criticism. InDaily quoted a spokesperson for the community group Save Victoria Park objecting that the amendments passed without referral to a parliamentary committee, and reported the group's concern about what freehold tenure could allow on the site in future. Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie, the minister responsible for Games infrastructure, said at the time that the changes would cut through delays and make sure the venues were delivered. For property owners nearby, the practical point is narrow but worth understanding. The usual signals of a large project, such as a development application, a public notification period and appeal rights in the Planning and Environment Court, do not apply in the usual way to a Games venue. Information comes instead through the authority's notices, the Government's delivery updates and the precinct planning described below. ## What is being built and what it costs The stadium is the centrepiece of the 2032 Delivery Plan that the Queensland Government released on 25 March 2025. The Delivering 2032 update gives its capacity as 63,000 seats, rising to 70,000 for concerts. It is to host the opening and closing ceremonies and the athletics in 2032, and afterwards become the home ground of the Brisbane Lions in the AFL and of cricket's Brisbane Heat and Queensland Bulls, as well as a venue for international cricket. On cost, the independent 100 Day Review that preceded the plan estimated the stadium at $3.785 billion, excluding associated precinct and transport infrastructure. Press reports this week, including InDaily's, round that to $3.8 billion. The stadium sits inside the $7.1 billion Games Venues Infrastructure Program, which the Delivering 2032 update says is jointly funded by the Australian and Queensland governments and covers 17 new and upgraded venues across the state. The authority doing the building is itself new. GIICA was created on 29 November 2024, according to the Delivery Plan, and says it is delivering seven new venues and ten upgrades. Its venue listing names Stadiums Queensland as the stadium's future owner, which means the freehold now held by the delivery authority is expected to end up with the State's stadium operator once the venue is handed over. In its progress note of 26 March 2026 the authority said it had appointed a delivery partner and a principal architect team for the stadium. The stadium will not stand alone. The Delivery Plan puts the National Aquatic Centre on the Centenary Pool site at the Spring Hill edge of the same park, and the main athlete village a short distance away at the Brisbane Showgrounds in Bowen Hills. Three of the largest Games projects are therefore concentrated in one corner of inner Brisbane.
From plan to possession at Victoria Park
  1. 25 March 2025The 2032 Delivery Plan names Victoria Park as the site of a new 63,000-seat stadium.
  2. February 2026Parliament amends the Games Arrangements Act, converting the park to freehold from 1 June.
  3. 9 April 2026GIICA narrows the builders to two joint ventures for an early involvement phase.
  4. 1 June 2026The authority takes possession and begins site preparation.
  5. 2027Main stadium construction is due to start, according to GIICA.
## How much of the park stays green The Government's answer to the loss of parkland is a commitment on proportion. Its Delivering 2032 update of 12 May 2026 states that around two thirds of the park will be green space, including open parkland and restored waterways and waterholes such as York's Hollow. InDaily reported that the Premier repeated the pledge at the sod-turning, putting it at more than two thirds. The same 12 May update says a master plan for the wider precinct is being prepared by the engineering and design firm Arup, and that consultation would open "soon" so that residents can help shape the public spaces. No date for that consultation has been published. GIICA's chairman, Stephen Conry, was reported by InDaily as committing the authority to care for the park during construction and to return it with improved green space by 2032. Those are commitments to hold the project to as it proceeds, and the master plan will be the first document against which they can be measured. ## The heritage applications still open The park is known as Barrambin to the Turrbal and Yagara peoples, and the campaign against the stadium has not ended with the fences. InDaily and the National Indigenous Times both reported on 2 June that the federal Environment Minister, Murray Watt, has received 10 applications under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act seeking protection for areas of the park said to be under threat of injury or desecration, and that two have been rejected so far. Both outlets report the minister's view that a declaration, if one were made, would set conditions on development and would not by itself stop the project. An earlier application under the Act's emergency provision was refused, with the minister appointing an independent mediator to work with the authority, Indigenous representatives and community groups, according to an AAP report of that decision. The National Indigenous Times quoted Yagara Elder Aunty Kerry Charlton saying the contest would now move to the federal heritage process and to public opinion, and describing burial and ceremonial areas, old trees and a natural spring within the park. Campaigners have said they will keep protesting outside the fence line. This matters for anyone trying to read the timetable. The remaining applications are a live legal process run by the Commonwealth, separate from the State's planning exemptions. Their outcome is not known, and it would be wrong to assume it either way. ## What the surrounding suburbs can expect next The next steps that have been announced are few and specific. On 9 April 2026 GIICA said two joint ventures, Built with Sacyr and John Holland with BESIX Watpac, had been chosen after a five-month assessment to take part in a three-month early contractor involvement phase, with the final selection due later in 2026 and construction to start in 2027. The National Indigenous Times reported this week that major construction contracts are expected to be named within months, with a draft master plan for the precinct to follow. For households in Herston, Spring Hill, Kelvin Grove and Bowen Hills, the published material does not yet answer the everyday questions: truck routes, working hours, which paths through the park stay open and for how long. Those details normally arrive in construction notices once a contractor for each stage is appointed, and none had been published for the stadium at the time of writing. What can be said is that the direction is now fixed in law and on the ground. The land belongs to the delivery authority, the site is fenced, the builders are down to two, and the first formal opportunity for neighbours to influence the result will be the consultation on the precinct master plan.