MEDIA RELEASE

5th Dec 2025

Olympic Stadium to Destroy Sacred Land

Creative Action targeting IOC - ‘Honour Your Contract with People of Brisbane’

Over 300 local residents will participate in a creative collective action targeting and appealing to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to honour their contract with the people of Brisbane and stop the destruction of 64 hectares of culturally protected, sacred parkland.

A Creative Action Targeting the IOC

Saturday 6th December, 2025 (see program below - 10.00am-12.30pm)

Barrambin/Victoria Park, 309 Herston Rd, Herston, Brisbane, Australia (signed from Herston Rd carpark)

The IOC Host Contract 2032 clearly states that no new Olympic venues are to be built on a "statutory nature (or) cultural protected area". Host City Contract Clause 15.3, Page 18, 

The IOC have given the go-ahead to the Qld State government to build a massive Olympic stadium on Barrambin, despite a State heritage order across all 64 hectares of Barrambin / Victoria Park, passed in September this year, that would directly contravene the IOC Host Agreement. 

Barrambin, the First Nations name for Victoria Park, holds deep cultural and spiritual significance to the First Nations Yuggera and Turrbal peoples. Barrambin was one of the area's largest and most important aboriginal meeting places for corroborees (gatherings), physical tournaments, dancing and hunting. Over 1,300 local residents have written to the IOC to stop the destruction of Barrambin and to honour their Contract with the people of Brisbane, not to build on cultural heritage land.

QUOTES

Local Brisbane City Councillor Seal Chong Wah

“The IOC have made a written contract with the people of Brisbane not to allow an Olympic stadium to be built on culturally protected land. Despite this clear written contract, the IOC is destroying the lungs of our city, an iconic and historical park, that would be like putting an Olympic stadium in New York’s Central park. Not only is this land cultural heritage and sacred to First Nations, it also holds 4,000 trees and 5 critically endangered species.”

Associate Professor Ray Kerkhove, Historian (Research Fellow) University of Queensland 

”Barrambin is one of the two most important indigenous sites in inner Brisbane, as well as the largest and longest continuously used camps in the Brisbane region.”

Gaja Kerry Charlton, Yagarabul Elder & YMAC Spokesperson: 

“Barrambin is a living Country, possessing sacred, ancient and significant relationships within our cultural heritage systems. Barambin is alive due to thousands of years cultural custodianship.  Plans to destroy this precious cultural heritage site denies our human rights to protect her from disrespectful colonial violence.”

Link to CR Chong Wah’s Campaign & Link to Save Victoria Park’s Campaign Page

Agenda, Sat 6th Dec (AEST time) 

10.00am to 11.30am (AEST) Living Sacred Country: Australian First Nation Elders & Historians will speak on the sacred importance of Barrambin / Victoria Park.

11.30am – 12:30pm (AEST)

Creative Action targeting the IOC: Over 300 residents will be part of a ‘creative collective action’ led by First Nations symbolically linking some of the oldest trees across the park with red thread and will then form a massive human outline of the ‘Olympic Rings’ as an urgent appeal to the IOC to honour their contract and protect this heritage land.

Media conference: 

• Gaja Kerry Charlton, Yagarabul Elder & YMAC Spokesperson: YMAC have lodged an application under the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act (ATSIHP) to declare the long-term protection of Barrambin / Victoria Park.

• Cr Seal Chong Wah, Paddington Ward Councillor, Brisbane City Council: Seal has been representing her residents in the campaign to save Barrambin.

• Brett Leavy: Brett’s award winning 3D ‘Virtual songlines’ recreates the Aboriginal arts, culture and heritage landscape & has been embraced in galleries & museums around the world. 

• Professor Ray Kerkhove, Adjunct Associate Professor at University of Southern Queensland, Indigenous Historian University of Queensland’s Department.

BACKGROUND

A Major Violation of the IOC Host Contract & Olympic Principles

• In April, 2025, the Queensland Government announced plans to build a 63,000 seat Olympic stadium as well as an National Olympic Aquatic Centre at Barrambin / Victoria Park, an iconic historical inner-city park that is considered to be one of Brisbane’s most important First Nations sites".
• In May 2025, the State Government’s own Environment department supported extending the existing heritage status to the whole of Barrambin / Victoria Park. 
• In June, 2025, the State government introduced special legislation specifically for the Olympics to bypass 15 pieces of planning and environmental protections, and Aboriginal cultural heritage laws.
• In September 2025, the Qld Heritage Council approved extending an existing heritage order across all 64 hectares of Barrambin / Victoria Park’s 64 hectares of statutorily protected under the Queensland Heritage Register (entry 602493) due to cultural and heritage significance.
• The State legislation, passed in June 2025, to enable construction of the stadium on Heritage land doesn’t remove the contractual and ethical obligations in the IOC host agreement with the Brisbane City Council and the Queensland State Government, clause 15.3, page 18 which stipulates that no new Olympic venues are to be built on a "statutory nature (or) cultural protected area".

A Significant Cultural Heritage Site

• Barrambin, the First Nations name for Victoria Park, holds deep cultural and spiritual significance to the First Nations Yuggera and Turrbal peoples. This area was a campground and meeting place for corroborees, dancing, hunting and gathering, and a place for First Nations people from neighbouring regions to visit and stay. 
• It is also a key site of European contact and colonial conflict, as well as an important place for early industry and military use during World War II. In 1875, the land was gazetted and gifted to the people or city of Brisbane as a public parkland, and there is a Deed of Grant In Trust in place requiring the site to be used for parkland.

Loss of Critical Inner-City Greenspace

• Barrambin / Victoria Park is often called the ‘lungs of the city’. The park is one of the last remaining large greenspace areas in Brisbane’s inner-city. It is vital for improving air and water runoff quality and it mitigates the urban heat island effect and other climate change impacts. It provides a large urban habitat for wildlife to take refuge. 
• In 2019, Brisbane City Council began a master planning process which included 80,000 points of engagement with local residents. The project would “restore the natural landscape, revitalise the park’s wetlands and waterholes, increase tree canopy to cover 60%.” Despite tens of millions already spent, this project has now been abandoned.
• The loss of this parkland comes as the Brisbane City Council have rushed through changes to the City Plan that would allow a reduction of 290 hectares of greenspace on a per capital basis over the next 11 years.
• Losing Barrambin’s 4,000 mature trees to an Olympic stadium would be an environmental disaster, eroding our tree canopy at critical climate crisis.

Media contact: Gabriel Reese, +61 (0) 432 666 943 or [email protected]