How derelict became desirable: renewal lessons for today

In the now highly fashionable James Street there was a similar industrial flavour. Coca Cola used to have a bottling factory there which – after being abandoned and falling into dereliction - was bought by Kevin Miller’s Property Solutions Group and redeveloped into Centro Place: a mixed use retail, entertainment and office precinct. Other sites with former industrial uses were similarly acquired and converted into more logical uses with real market appetite. Their industrial histories were no longer relevant to the needs of the day. The once markedly industrial flavour of the James Street precinct had passed into disuse and was then revived with entirely different uses.

The same happened across much of the New Farm-Teneriffe-Newstead area, which went from being a run-down neighbourhood of semi-abandoned buildings, crime and poverty to becoming one of Queensland’s most upmarket communities. In the mid 1990s, New Farm was rated as 21^st in the league ladder of median house prices in Brisbane. Today it is #1 with a median house price fast approaching $2million. 

Figure 5 James Street New Farm today.

It now seems logical that refineries, power stations, bulk stores and bottling factories have no place in New Farm, but back then it required some vision and a lot of tenacity to overcome prevailing wisdoms. Trevor Reddacliff – the story goes – once had to be physically pulled away from one particular developer who was digging his heels into the ground over a proposed redevelopment of a disused bus depot. These things were worth fighting for.

It meant recognising that land uses that once suited society don’t necessarily continue to do so. Things change. If we had preserved the industrial land uses of New Farm-Teneriffe hoping for some resurgent industrial activity to miraculously adapt itself into these buildings, we’d still be waiting. New industrial uses need different types of buildings and in very different types of locations. They’ve moved on. It’s not as if ships still come sailing up the river looking for places to dock and load bulk goods, is it? Today, that role is performed by B-doubles – and who wants them trundling around New Farm? They couldn’t fit the road network anyway.

Figure 6  Part of Salisbury Brisbane, today.

Which brings us to many of the legacy industrial sites and precincts which are scattered across our city today. These once made sense to the businesses that operated from them, and the buildings were suited to the nature of activity conducted inside. Saw tooth roofs provided ample ventilation for the heavy equipment and related fumes - let alone heat - of the factory floor. In suburban Salisbury, we once manufactured munitions for World War II. In Northgate we tinned pineapple and other fruits for retail consumption and export (and still do, but to a lesser extent). In Moorooka we devoted an entire stretch of Ipswich Road to motor dealers, in what became known as ‘the Magic Mile.’ In Acacia Ridge, we once manufactured Holdens (the Gemini was produced here). In almost every direction of the compass, you will find legacy industrial buildings and precincts which have simply outlived their usefulness. Some have found a half-life as cheap storage – employing next to no one. Others have very sad looking ‘For Lease’ signs which look as old as the buildings themselves.

In the same way we liberated the industrial land uses which used to dominate New Farm – Teneriffe, we have a similar opportunity to liberate legacy industrial sites across the city. A more contemporary mix of uses, including housing, seems far more appropriate (and market viable) than preserving a land use that is well past its use by date for industrial and manufacturing uses that have either moved on, or disappeared entirely. Holdens are not made in Brisbane anymore. We also don’t make cars in Australia anymore. Let’s move with the times.