source : the age
Plans for a 2000-square-metre lagoon next to the Olympic canoe slalom facility south-east of Brisbane have been released, but the council in charge has refused to say whether key recommendations of an audit into the project have been followed.
The Birkdale Community Precinct will be home to the Redlands Whitewater Centre, paid for by the Queensland and federal governments for the Olympics, as well as a Southbank-style lagoon and other community infrastructure that will be developed by Redland City Council.
The plan has been highly contentious, but the council has forged ahead, releasing plans for the lagoon and adjacent facilities, including a zip line and bushwalking trails, on Monday.
Acting mayor Julie Talty said the lagoon would be connected to the whitewater centre, which the council would operate after the Olympics.
“This investment will deliver a high-capacity, family-friendly place for residents and visitors to swim, play and spend time together,” she said.
A two-storey pavilion, where visitors could buy food and drinks, would be attached to the swimming area.
With construction expected to begin next year, an audit conducted in March warned the project could go over budget and milestones could be missed if steps were not taken to better understand the scope of the project.
It recommended the scope be formalised, and the precinct’s masterplan, business case and program management plan be updated to reflect it.
The council did not answer specific questions about whether those updates had taken place before the council agreed on a contracting plan last week, and released the renders of the lagoon area.
“Council has made progress on all recommendations identified in the review, with implementation periodically reported to the Audit and Risk Management Committee,” a council spokesperson said.
However, the masterplan on the council’s website is from 2023, suggesting it had not been updated before this week’s announcement about the lagoon.
The council spokesperson said the contracting plan was commercial in confidence, and the planning and business case development were ongoing.
Under the plan, parkland around the water projects would be developed for recreation areas, and a historic farm and World War II radio receiving station would be renovated for community use.
According to the 2023 masterplan, the bulk of the work will be completed before 2032, though the audit warned a focus on the whitewater centre put other elements of the project at risk of falling behind.
The audit, which was conducted by the consulting firm Scyne, also said the project lacked holistic risk management, and resource planning had not taken place.
“It is understood that the project management team discuss availability informally and, on an ad-hoc basis without a structured approach to forecasting, allocation and monitoring,” the auditor wrote.
“This approach limits visibility and constrains the program’s ability to plan and coordinate resources effectively.
“Additionally, no evidence of forward planning was observed across the program, including the planning of future resource requirements.”
Hanging over the plan is a call from local environmentalists for federal Environment Minister Murray Watt to halt the project on grounds it will impact local koala populations and groundwater.
Watt initially deemed the project outside the “controlled action” definition that required assessment under new environmental laws, but recently accepted a request to review that decision.
Public submissions to the request closed on Thursday, and it is unknown when a decision will be made.
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