Brisbane City Council to spend millions on new sport fields

As part of the flood mitigation buy-back scheme, Brisbane City Council will spend millions to turn the unusable land into sporting fields.

The 2018-19 budget revealed the council would spend $40 million over three years to deliver new facilities in at least six suburbs.

A commitment that was made during the 2016 election, Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said the council purchased land is a necessary move.

“We can now re-use those lands for important sport and recreation facilities,” he said.

A synthetic surface will be used at four of the locations to minimise costs to look after the grounds.

“They [synthetic] don’t go well with flooding areas [so] we’re making sure in those locations where we’re doing them they are fairly flood free,” he said.

$2.7 million was allocated for the synthetic fields in the budget with $2.2 million to be spent in 2018-19.

There was $11.1 million allocated over three years for the sports and community parks with $2.2 million for 2018-19, $5.5 million for 2019-20 and $3.3 million for 2020-21.

The council’s figure of $40 million for sporting fields includes more than $22 million for a new golf course at Cannon Hill.

Locations of new sports facilities: