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February 24, 2026 — 6:00am
When plans were drawn up to transform the heart of Brisbane’s bustling cultural precinct to accommodate a new Metro stop, the council told residents it would include a new pocket park.
Four years on, instead of the lush gathering space pictured in publicity material for South Brisbane’s redeveloped Cultural Centre, the site contains little more than a raised patch of overgrown grass and a handful of car parks for Queensland Rail workers.
Behind the failure to deliver the park is a long-running stoush between the council and state government about what should happen on the prime piece of inner-city land.
Queensland Rail still owns the site at 125 Grey Street in South Brisbane, which adjoins the train station.
For years, its future has been the subject of squabbles between state and local government, which began during planning for the LNP-run Brisbane City Council’s flagship public transport project, Brisbane Metro.
In mid-2019, the Labor state government pushed back on the council plan to build an underground station at the intersection. Instead, the state wanted the station to be built further along the busway, underneath the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.
The state government released its own vision of what the Grey and Melbourne intersection could look like under its plan. That vision included a park on the corner near the museum, and new buildings on the vacant land near the station.
In June 2020, Labor MP Jackie Trad said she was worried a “huge Metro station” outside the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) would spoil the cultural precinct, and argued for better use of the space.
Trad emailed constituents on September 30 that year to announce the site at 125 Grey Street would become a park after construction of the Metro.
“Our community can’t be disadvantaged by Brisbane City Council’s Metro project, so we are making sure … that a number of wins are locked in as part of the agreement between the state and the council,” she wrote.
“More public parkland will be delivered right next to the beautiful heritage-listed South Brisbane station.”
Shade for the Victoria Bridge was to be installed as part of the state government’s conditions for giving the Metro project the green light. But that $5 million plan was shelved too.
Plans for a “brand new pocket park” on Grey Street were still alive in August 2022, when they featured in a press release from Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner about the Cultural Centre station redesign.
An artist’s impression released by the council showed wide footpaths, large shade trees and an expansive grassy area on Grey Street, with the South Brisbane train station just out of view.
When Metro construction hoarding and equipment disappeared from 125 Grey Street, and a new third busway platform opened last June, the land was returned as a car park, not a pocket park.
It even got a fresh layer of pavement.
A council spokeswoman said the former state government retracted the agreement to transfer the land to council in 2023, and there were now no plans to build a park.
A Queensland Rail spokeswoman did not comment on the previous agreement with the council.
Instead, she said a licence was granted to the contractor for the Metro project for temporary access to use the land as a construction site compound.
“The site was handed back to Queensland Rail in October 2025 and, as part of the condition of that arrangement, the contractor reinstated areas of bitumen and line marking in the car park area,” she said.
“Queensland Rail is considering its current and future operational requirements for the site, which is primarily used for car parking for South Brisbane station operators.”
There have previously been calls to enliven the “dead zone” in South Brisbane with wider footpaths and pop-up markets, with an architecture expert saying Melbourne Street connected buses, trains, Metro and road traffic, rather than acting as a destination.
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