The river rethink
Date: 11月 12, 2023
Category: Insights
The River City
On the whole, there are few opportunities for Brisbanites to engage with their river. In the most egregious instance, the Riverside Expressway separates pedestrians in the city centre from the water entirely. Elsewhere, industrial buildings have been built right up to the water’s edge.
The river should be a destination – a platform for recreation and enjoyment and meeting.
The river should be a destination – a platform for recreation and enjoyment and meeting.
Too often the river is treated like a barrier that cleaves the city in two. This mindset prevents us from seeing its true potential as a transportation network for the city.
While river transport systems do exist, they are not oriented to mass public transit or active transport. And, of course, the Riverside Expressway exemplifies with its enormous concrete bulk the way the city has been divorced from its principal waterway.
Consider the experience of a new arrival to Brisbane. From the airport, you are whisked away from the river through a post-industrial part of town on your way to the CBD – an introduction to a part of the City, but not the River. Instead, imagine leaving the airport from a new ferry terminal and arriving in the heart of Brisbane by water. It would mean a slightly slower trip, perhaps – but it would be a more memorable one. Visitors would glimpse Moreton Island, experience the subtropical air playing over the water, and enjoy the bay breeze. New terminals at the Athlete’s Village, or further out in the city’s western reaches, would expand this network and create opportunities for new public spaces around those public transport nodes.
While river transport systems do exist, they are not oriented to mass public transit or active transport. And, of course, the Riverside Expressway exemplifies with its enormous concrete bulk the way the city has been divorced from its principal waterway.
Consider the experience of a new arrival to Brisbane. From the airport, you are whisked away from the river through a post-industrial part of town on your way to the CBD – an introduction to a part of the City, but not the River. Instead, imagine leaving the airport from a new ferry terminal and arriving in the heart of Brisbane by water. It would mean a slightly slower trip, perhaps – but it would be a more memorable one. Visitors would glimpse Moreton Island, experience the subtropical air playing over the water, and enjoy the bay breeze. New terminals at the Athlete’s Village, or further out in the city’s western reaches, would expand this network and create opportunities for new public spaces around those public transport nodes.
As Brisbane has grown, the river has been treated like something that needs to be contained. With each inevitable flood, it becomes clearer that this tactic is ineffective. And these mistakes become costlier with each rainy season. If we think of the river as a system, a living and complicated thing, we can uncover opportunities to mitigate the conflict between the built city and the natural one, while making Brisbane a better place to live.
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New recreational spaces could be designed in strategic locations to flood and transform into ponds during persistent rain. This would mean, for instance, a park that is useable by people for 11 months of the year, while it acts as a temporary reservoir for the rest of the year. Rivers and creeks that have been channelled and covered should be unearthed and returned to both the public and the river system.
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The river as an answer
