James Streets of the future? How these industrial hubs could be transformed

A pair of Brisbane suburbs once best known for their car yards and sprawling industrial hubs could be unrecognisable in a decade or two – but views on how they should be developed are divided.

About six kilometres south of the CBD or 20 minutes by car, Moorooka and Salisbury are home to more than 17,000 residents. Those residents are slightly younger than the average in Brisbane, and most live in freestanding houses.

“People like living here because it’s multicultural and it’s accessible,” Emma, who recently moved to Moorooka with her family, said.

“It’s close to the city, there’s good public transport, there’s good food and there are always people around.”

Hospitals, schools and the government were the biggest employers on the night of the last census, and incomes were roughly in line with the city median.

Both suburbs have been earmarked for major transformation, according to Ross Elliott, chair of the Lord Mayor’s Better Suburbs Initiative.

He sees them as potential Suburban Renewal Precincts, in the vein of council’s current revitalisation efforts in Alderley, Mount Gravatt, Stones Corner and Wynnum.

For Elliott, the industrial hubs along Moorooka’s “Magic Mile” on Ipswich Road and Salisbury’s Evans Road resemble James Street in Fortitude Valley in the late 1980s, and could be similarly redeveloped with new businesses and homes as their existing industries wane.

“If land is locked up for a particular use and all of the users of that land have moved elsewhere because it’s no longer suitable, the logical thing is to change the land use,” Elliott said.

He identified healthcare centres, restaurants and cafes, offices, retirement living, adult education such as TAFE buildings, hotels, and retail as among the possible future uses for both sites to boost services and increase local jobs.

“I’m not saying you kick industry out, but what I’m saying is we should be allowing for new uses to come in, recognising that changes happen over time,” Elliott added.

“Evans Road particularly reminds me of what James Street used to look like ... it was rundown and a really quite redundant part of town.”

Elliott said West Village in West End – where an ice-cream factory was converted into a complex with restaurants, shops, offices and homes in the later 2010s – was the “gold standard” in Brisbane, and could be an example for projects further south.

Residents told this masthead they supported renewal of their suburbs, but had concerns about how it would be managed – with some wary of gentrification, overcrowding and stress on infrastructure.

“We do need more facilities, more medical stuff, more things that are accessible for people that don’t drive … also we probably need more daycares,” Emma told this masthead outside the expanding Woolworths on Beaudesert Road.

“Street parking is already getting pretty hard, and I would be worried about gentrification … it could just push people further and further out.”

Up the street, longtime Moorooka resident Denise worried that development would risk compromising the traits that made the suburb appealing to her in the first place.

“I know they want to go [up], but I don’t like it,” she said.

“I don’t think we need to go that way like every other city in the world has gone … we should keep it as it is with big yards.”

Adrian was less concerned about increased density, but wanted developers and planners to consider the flood risk on the lower side of Ipswich Road when building new apartments.

Elliott said directing new buildings in Moorooka to face Moolabin Creek and giving major roads the “the James Street treatment” with planted trees and wider footpaths would increase the appeal of both suburbs.

“I look at that creek and think what a good opportunity it would be to beautify the corridor, return the environmental quality to it, but also introduce walking and cycling connection so that you’ve got active transport built in. At the moment, it’s kind of used as a tip.”

Labor councillor Steve Griffiths represents the Moorooka ward, which takes in both suburbs. He did not respond to repeated requests for comments, but has previous raised concerns about planning and development under the LNP to this masthead.

Elliott said even if zoning was changed en masse, new suburb-shaping development would take some time because of the economics of construction in Brisbane suburbs.

“You’re not seeing a frenetic wave of activity at the moment,” he said.

“The commercial hubs of suburbs have stayed the same for years and years and years, and that’s where I’m so keen to see our attention fixed.

“I think there’s a realisation across the industry of how rich some of those opportunities might be in terms of creating entire new little communities … you’ve just got to be able to build it and make the sums work.”

Moorooka and Salisbury are two suburbs of many that have been identified as future growth centres, with the majority a similar middle distance from the CBD.

Along with the Suburban Renewal Precincts already under way, Chermside, Caboolture and Cleveland in the City of Redland have been flagged as areas of interest.

This masthead revealed last month there is also a private developer-led push in the works for a renewal plan in Stafford, along a 1300-metre strip between Shand Street and Gamelin Crescent.

“We tend to be fixated on the inner city,” Elliott said.

“Everyone’s captivated by the Emerald City and all the lights at night, and in every news bulletin that goes to air the background is the CBD skyline.

“I keep saying that it’s just such a small part of Brisbane that employs and houses such a minority of people … there’s just so much more to be told about Brisbane.”

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