I’ve spent a decade working in the heart of Fortitude Valley. First at Brisbane Powerhouse, then leading QMusic from our offices on Brunswick Street. I’ve watched this place breathe; its chaos and creativity, its late nights and early mornings, its extraordinary capacity to surprise you.
So when discussions began about a new growth plan for the Valley, I felt two things simultaneously: genuine excitement, and a familiar dread.
The excitement is easy to explain. The Valley is on the cusp of something remarkable. With Brisbane 2032 approaching and a generation of creative people choosing to plant themselves here, this is genuinely the right moment to invest.
The dread, though, comes from experience. I’ve seen what happens when planners decide a place like this needs to be tidied up, made more palatable, smoothed at the edges. I’ve seen what happened to King’s Cross in Sydney. What was once Australia’s most electric neighbourhood is now just another block of high-rises. The soul — gone. And once it’s gone, it doesn’t come back.
Forgive my obvious music analogy, but the Valley doesn’t need fixing. It needs amplifying.
Start with something simple: people don’t flow through this precinct the way they should. Howard Smith Wharves, James Street, Brunswick Street, Chinatown — these feel like separate destinations rather than one connected place. The bones are extraordinary. The train station is world-class. What’s missing is the connective tissue, the sense that you’re moving through one remarkable neighbourhood rather than stumbling between disconnected pockets.
Chinatown Mall needs an honest conversation. It’s struggling, and pretending otherwise helps no one. But the answer isn’t to sanitise it, it’s to activate it. A performance stage maybe, and better connections to neighbouring streets. Give people a reason to walk through, and they will.
The Valley also needs to be understood as a daytime destination, not just a nightlife one. James Street at breakfast. Brunswick Street coffee culture. The emerging King Street strip. These things exist — they just need strategic support and genuine investment.
My biggest pitch is this: let’s build a genuine daytime destination in the Valley. A museum, an exhibition space, a creative hub celebrating our state’s extraordinary contribution to music and screen culture. A genuine destination that draws visitors all day, every day, and tells the world that Brisbane is a serious creative city — with the Valley at its heart.
But above all: protect what makes this place special. The live music venues here aren’t a problem to be managed around new apartments — they’re the reason people want to come. New residents are welcome, enthusiastically. But they should come knowing they’re moving into the music, not beside it.
The Valley works because it’s real, because it’s alive. Because it tells a story you simply cannot find anywhere else in this country.
Don’t sand it smooth. Amplify it.
