About Birkdale Community Precinct

Redland City Council secured the Birkdale site in two transactions.

In 2016, Council purchased the 8,164m² Willards Farm property for $1.45 million, saving the historic farmhouse from demolition. The property has been restored as an important reminder of the farming heritage of Redlands Coast.

In December 2019, Council bought the adjoining 61.78 hectares, the former World War II Radio Receiving Station, from the Australian Government for $4.1 million. The land was at risk of being subdivided into up to 400 residential blocks. Instead, it became the heart of what is now Birkdale Community Precinct.

The Birkdale Community Precinct Master Plan (2023) is the result of two years of community consultation. It reflects what Redlands Coast residents value – conservation of habitat, celebration of heritage and the social and recreational life of the community.

The precinct will be organised around seven interconnected hubs, each offering its own experiences and uses:

Cultural Hub – a meeting point and launching pad for all the precinct offers.

Willard’s Farm Food Hub – a celebration of farming heritage with a restored Willard’s Farm, classic gardens, outdoor food markets, restaurant, cafe and cooking school.

Innovation Hub – an exhibition space showcasing future farming techniques, agricultural technology and food production.

Entertainment Hub – outdoor spaces for local performers and touring artists, barbecues and picnic areas.

Communications Hub – memorial and contemplation space paying homage to war and peacekeeping services, anchored by the former US Army-built World War II Radio Receiving Station.

Recreation, Resilience and Adventure Sports Hub – the city’s first public lagoon, the Redland Whitewater Centre, an adventure playground and running track.

Conservation Hub – Walking trails, interactive tours, wilderness experiences and enhanced koala habitat.

Council has continued to refine concepts with the Birkdale Community Precinct Master Plan to ensure delivery of strong environmental outcomes and improved operational efficiency.  

The project has been designed with nature integrated from the outset, and refinements continue that commitment.

Sixty-two per cent of the 62-hectare site, or nearly 39 hectares, sits entirely outside the development footprint and is designated for conservation, protection and ecological enhancement.

All development remains contained within a less than 20-hectare disturbance footprint.

The refined design repositions the public swimming lagoon, children's pool and water play area further north on the site, directly adjacent to the Redland Whitewater Centre. The lagoon is expected to attract close to 400,000 visitors annually and will sit at the heart of the precinct's recreational offer. The co-location creates a more integrated water recreation precinct, where visitors can move between the Olympic-grade whitewater course, beginner paddling areas and a calm lagoon offering tubing and water play.

Car park layouts have been reconfigured to provide safer and more accessible entry to the parkland, improve traffic flow, optimise bay configurations and provide more shade trees throughout.

Stormwater drainage has been redesigned for greater climate resilience, and the internal ring road has been reconfigured to reduce the overall environmental footprint.

These refinements preserve all seven hubs that define the precinct's vision: Cultural; Food (Willards Farm); Innovation; Entertainment; Communications (World War II Radio Receiving Station); Recreation, Resilience and Adventure; and Conservation.

Every update has been made within the original Master Plan framework established following community consultation in 2022 and 2023, which engaged thousands of residents and considered more than 1200 survey responses and 1921 face to face conversations.

Birkdale Community Precinct is a 20-year inter-generational project. The Redland Whitewater Centre, anticipated to open in 2030, will serve the community well before, during and long after the 2032 Games, offering families and athletes year-round activities from beginner paddling and calm-water tubing, to competitive rapids running in kayaks, canoes and rafts. Emergency services personnel from across Queensland and beyond will also use the facility for essential swift-water rescue training.

The precinct will secure Redlands Coast as a place for all ages and abilities to enjoy a quality lifestyle with environmental, social and economic prosperity.

Redland City Council recognises and acknowledges the Goenpul, Ngugi and Noonuccal First Nations Peoples of the Quandamooka region as the Traditional Owners of the lands, winds and waters we call Redlands Coast. Council continues to work alongside Traditional Owners in the evolution of the Birkdale (Cullen Cullen) precinct into community and recreational space.

The development footprint, comprising less than 20 hectares, sits almost entirely on land that was cleared decades ago for farming and wartime military use. Where vegetation is affected, it will be replaced at a scale that far exceeds what is removed.

As part of Council's EPBC Act referral, and proposed as part of the environmental management plan for the precinct, more than 10,000 native trees will be planted across the Birkdale Community Precinct as part of one of the most significant habitat restoration programs ever undertaken on Redlands Coast.

The proposed planting program will establish two north-south green spines running through the centre of the precinct, connecting the conservation area along Tingalpa Creek to habitat in the north. These corridors are designed to do more than replace what is lost – they are being planted specifically for the wildlife known to use the site.

Plant species have been selected to provide foraging and shelter resources for each of the nationally protected species assessed as part of the federal referral. Koala food trees, including locally important species identified by Australian National University research, will be planted throughout the corridors to strengthen foraging resources and connectivity for the Birkdale koala population. Winter and spring flowering species will support the grey-headed flying-fox, which depends on these resources across the broader landscape. Black she-oak will provide foraging habitat for the south-eastern glossy black cockatoo.

The green spines also address a specific challenge identified by ecologists: at present, koalas moving between the northern and southern parts of the site must cross open ground with limited tree cover. The planted corridors will close that gap, creating a connected network of canopy that allows koalas and other wildlife to move safely through the precinct without exposure in open spaces.

That safe movement extends above ground too. While years of research shows that koalas do not traverse the land where the internal roads will be located, fauna rope bridges will be installed across internal roads within the precinct, giving arboreal species an elevated route across vehicle corridors. Combined with speed limits of 10–40 km/h, traffic calming devices, wildlife movement signage, and exclusion fencing around the whitewater facility, the precinct has been designed to move people and vehicles through koala country without the risks that come with conventional development.

Large old trees with natural hollows are critical habitat for many native species. Where hollow-bearing trees cannot be retained, nest boxes will be installed at a minimum ratio of three boxes for every hollow lost, to maintain habitat availability for hollow-dependent species throughout the Conservation Area. This approach maintains continuity of shelter and supports the long-term health of the wildlife that relies on these structures.

The precinct's nearly 39-hecatre conservation area will undergo active and ongoing weed management to allow native vegetation to recover and expand. Pest fauna, including the European red fox, will be eradicated from the site. This work will continue throughout construction and operation of the precinct.

The precinct has been designed with water-sensitive urban design principles at its core. Bioretention basins, vegetated swales and a constructed wetland will capture and treat stormwater before it leaves the site. Water released from the precinct is expected to be of higher quality than current conditions.

A degraded patch of Coastal Swamp Oak Forest, a nationally threatened ecological community, sits within the conservation area. The project includes a targeted rehabilitation program aimed at restoring this patch to full ecological community status, extending the extent of a rare and protected ecosystem.

Seven years of targeted koala surveys have been conducted across the site using detection dogs, GPS collar tracking, drone-based thermal imaging, and genetic analysis of scat samples.

One of the most important design and planning decisions made for the precinct was where to put things. The development footprint was deliberately placed on land that had already been significantly cleared for historical farming and military use, land with far lower ecological value than the surrounding bushland. That cleared area is where koalas rarely venture.

The conservation area, which covers 62 per cent of the site and contains the remnant bushland koalas depend on for food, shelter and breeding, is permanently protected and sits entirely outside the development footprint. No breeding females were detected in the development area during seven years of surveys.

Council’s koala monitoring partnership with the University of the Sunshine Coast is now in its fifth year. Monthly population and health monitoring, with veterinary intervention for injured or diseased individuals, is built into the precinct’s long-term management framework. The program uses GPS collar tracking, detection dogs, and thermal imaging – methods that provide precise, real-time data on individual animals.

Council also maintains a research partnership with the Australian National University on koala food sources, and with the Detection Dogs for Conservation program. This monitoring program has real consequences for real animals.

Chlamydia is the bacterial disease that affects koala populations across South East Queensland and is also sadly present in the Birkdale population. When diseased or injured koalas are detected during monitoring, they are captured, assessed, and treated by a veterinarian before being released back to the site.

Since the program began in 2021, koalas from the Birkdale site have been monitored. Any animal requiring hospital care is transported to the nearest South East Queensland Wildlife Hospital Network facility.

Rather than worsening water quality, the precinct’s water management design is expected to improve on current conditions. Stormwater will be captured and treated through bioretention basins, vegetated swales and a constructed wetland before leaving the site, removing nutrients and sediment that currently enter the catchment untreated from the cleared paddocks. Existing groundwater on site shows elevated nutrient concentrations from decades of agricultural use – the precinct’s water management infrastructure will reduce this contamination over time.

A specific concern raised by residents was whether the whitewater facility’s channels would interact with groundwater. The assessment confirmed they will not. All channels and basins will be fully lined, preventing any exchange between course water and the surrounding groundwater system. The local groundwater system beneath the site is shallow, low-yield and has limited connectivity to Tingalpa Creek and the broader catchment.

The Moreton Bay Ramsar wetlands are approximately three kilometres north of the precinct. The assessment confirmed no measurable hydrological, water quality or ecological impact to the Ramsar wetland is expected because of the precinct development.

Understanding what flora and fauna lives on and adjacent to a site, and precisely where they move, shelter and feed, is the foundation of responsible planning.

The survey program at Birkdale is far more than a compliance requirement. It has directly shaped the precinct’s design evolution, prompting shifts in the development footprint, the retention of key habitat trees and the careful placement of wildlife corridors to protect movement and connectivity.

The Master Plan you see today is not the first iteration; it has been refined multiple times in direct response to what the surveys revealed and Council’s commitment to environmental stewardship and long-term habitat protection.

The ecological assessment program has employed a comprehensive range of methods across multiple seasons and years. These include targeted fauna surveys using detection dogs, GPS collar tracking, drone-based thermal imaging, camera trapping, acoustic bat detectors, spotlighting, Elliott and pitfall trapping, active diurnal bird searches and targeted habitat and hollow assessments. Flora surveys, weed mapping and vegetation community assessments have also been completed across the site.

Surveys have been conducted by multiple independent ecological consultancies including Raptor Environmental, 28 South Environmental, Ecoteam Environmental Scientific Services, Cardno and the University of the Sunshine Coast. The involvement of multiple organisations provides independent verification of findings across the program.

Seven nationally significant species and ecological communities were identified as potentially present or known to occur on site: the endangered koala, the endangered greater glider, the vulnerable south-eastern glossy black cockatoo, the vulnerable grey-headed flying-fox and three threatened ecological communities including Coastal Swamp Oak Forest.

Koalas are confirmed present, with core koala habitat is concentrated in the conservation area.

Across all survey phases in 2020, 2022 and 2025, a total of 91 fauna species were identified within the Project Area.

The surveys also identified 104 flora species within the development footprint, including 28 exotic species, and mapped eight restricted weed species requiring active management.

The greater glider was assessed as unlikely to occur on site. The south-eastern glossy black cockatoo was assessed as possible but has not been directly observed or confirmed breeding on site. The absence of confirmed records for these species is not a gap in the evidence – it is the outcome of a rigorous, multi-year, multi-method survey program conducted by independent ecologists.

The surveys were specifically designed to maximise the likelihood of detecting species if they were present. When a species is not detected despite targeted effort, that result carries scientific weight. The assessment program meets or exceeds Queensland Government guidelines for ecological surveys, providing a high level of confidence in the findings.

The ecological assessment program does not end when construction begins – it remains a core part of how the precinct is managed.

Monthly monitoring of the koala population and their health will continue throughout both the construction and operational phases, with adaptive management responses built in to ensure their protection as conditions change.

A 90 per cent survival rate for all planted trees by the time of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games is a binding commitment within the precinct’s management framework, reinforcing Council’s long-term responsibility to restore, strengthen and safeguard habitat.

Council opened the site to the public for the first time and invited the community to imagine its future. More than 5,400 people participated across surveys, open days, pop-up sessions, a stakeholder forum, and youth workshops. The Your Say platform recorded over 13,000 visits and 1,680 completed surveys, with 88 per cent of respondents from the Redlands Coast.

The results were clear. Environment and ecology was the highest-rated theme, with an average importance score of 4.22 out of 5. Strong support emerged for wildlife tourism, preserved natural landscapes, kayaking and canoeing, walking and cycling paths and access to Tingalpa Creek. The whitewater and adventure sports facility was among the top ten preferred options, with nearly 70 per cent of survey respondents agreeing or strongly agreeing with the concept of a recreation and adventure sports hub.

Council adopted the Birkdale Community Precinct Vision at its General Meeting on 18 August 2021.

Council released the draft Master Plan and returned to the community for feedback. Over five weeks, the Your Say platform recorded more than 7,500 visits and 1,203 completed surveys. Council hosted 26 pop-up events across Redlands Coast, with staff holding approximately 1,921 conversations, more than 600 hours of direct engagement. The engagement was supported by a marketing campaign across digital, radio, cinema and print, generating over 800,000 impressions.

Survey results showed 73.9 per cent of respondents agreed the plan met the needs of the Redlands Coast community, and 82.1 per cent agreed it would enhance recreation, sport and wellbeing opportunities. Community feedback from this phase directly informed design refinements incorporated into the final master plan.

Following endorsement of the final Master Plan in March 2023, Council undertook statutory consultation under the Local Government Infrastructure Designation process, the planning pathway specifically designed to protect the environmental and heritage values of sites like Birkdale. The submission period ran for 20 business days, exceeding the statutory minimum of 15.

The Your Say portal recorded 2,300 visits during this period. Council received 172 formal submissions. The volume of submissions relative to site visits, 7.5 per cent, is consistent with high levels of tacit community support; those who felt their views were already reflected in the final master plan had no need to submit further.

Community feedback raised specific concerns about hydrology and groundwater impacts. Council responded by commissioning an independent groundwater assessment by SLR Consulting, which directly addressed the concerns raised, and confirmed no measurable impact to Tingalpa Creek or the Moreton Bay Ramsar wetlands. That groundwater assessment is now part of the formal evidence base lodged with the Australian Government.

Community feedback on heritage, First Nations values, accessible design, traffic and wildlife were each addressed through commitments built into the Master Plan, management plans and design specifications.

Engagement on the Birkdale Community Precinct does not end with the Master Plan. Council is committed to ongoing, two-way communication as the precinct moves through design and delivery. This includes continued opportunities for residents to stay involved through the Your Say portal, the Local Partnerships Program, and the precinct’s Activation Framework, ensuring the community remains an active partner in shaping how the precinct evolves over time.

The Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority (GIICA) also conducted a community sentiment study in September and October 2025 to assess awareness, support, and concerns for Games and legacy venues, inclusive of Redland Whitewater Centre at Birkdale. The study ensured robust representation across Queensland, with a focus on local perspective. 

The study explored:

• Awareness and support for the Redland Whitewater Centre, both locally and statewide.
• Key drivers of support and concern.
• Information needs and community priorities for the venue’s development and legacy.

The data showed strong support among the 22% of Queenslanders, and 67% of locals, aware of the project, aligning with Queensland’s vision for an inclusive, lasting Games legacy. Among those who are aware, 56% of Queenslanders and 59% of Birkdale locals support the project. Concern is relatively low (23% statewide, 24% locally).

GIICA is progressing a plan to support regular engagement and communication with stakeholders and the community, acknowledging that access to information supports greater understanding and confidence in the project.

The Birkdale Community Precinct sits within the Country of the Quandamooka People, the Traditional Owners of the land, waters and seas of the Redlands Coast. Council acknowledges the Quandamooka People and their Elders, past and present, and recognises their continuing connection to this place.

Tingalpa Creek, which forms the southern boundary of the precinct, has been a focus of occupation for Quandamooka People for thousands of years, a place of fresh water, food resources, camping and ceremony, connected to the wider cultural landscape of Moreton Bay. Contemporary Quandamooka People maintain a strong and ongoing connection to this area.

In 2018, Quandamooka Yoolooburrabee Aboriginal Corporation (QYAC) commissioned a formal Cultural Heritage Study of the site, conducted by Everick Heritage Consultants. The study found artefact scatters, isolated stone artefacts and a potential scar tree along the Tingalpa Creek boundary. All known cultural heritage sites sit within the Conservation Area, outside the development footprint, and will remain undisturbed. During construction, a finds procedure will be in place: if any cultural material is uncovered, work stops and QYAC is notified before anything proceeds.

The precinct’s Cultural Hub will be a space to recognise and celebrate this deep history. Council is committed to working with the Quandamooka People to shape how that story is told.

The homestead at Willards Farm is believed to date to around 1876, when James and Margaret Willard took out a mortgage on land their family had farmed since 1865. It is one of the oldest surviving farming properties on Redlands Coast.

The original homestead and outbuildings, milking shed, creamery, inground well, elevated water tank, were built using simple bush carpentry techniques, with timbers felled on site including white beech, swamp beech, cedar and pine. The property carries stories that extend well beyond the Willard family, including connections to South Sea Islander labourers who worked the land.

By 2016 the farmhouse was facing demolition, subject to a development approval for residential lots. Council purchased the property for $1.45 million to protect it, the first of two acquisitions that would eventually form the precinct.

Restoration works, overseen by Australian Heritage Specialists and carried out by local company Baroque Group, were completed in early 2024. The buildings have been beautifully restored, and the property will soon be open to visitors as the first completed stage of the precinct. 

The former World War II Radio Receiving Station was built in 1943 by the United States Army Signal Corps on land requisitioned from Willards Farm. Constructed with 18-inch thick imported brick walls reinforced to withstand a bomb blast, it was one of several receiving stations established around Brisbane as part of the US Army Command and Administrative Network.

The station gave General Douglas MacArthur a direct, secure link to Washington DC, allowing encrypted teletype communications within minutes, replacing the slower relayed Morse code the network had depended on. It is believed to have been one of the first places in Australia to receive the message in August 1945 that Japan had surrendered and the war was over.

After the war, the station was used for a further 75 years by the Postmaster-General’s Department and later Telecom, before passing to the Australian Communications and Media Authority. The site remained off limits to the public for most of that time. When Council purchased the surrounding 62 hectares from the Commonwealth in December 2019, the receiving station came with it.

The station is now state heritage listed, one of only a handful of US Army-built radio receiving stations remaining in Australia. Essential repairs have been completed, including roof and gutter restoration overseen by heritage specialists. The four rhombic antenna arrays that once stood to the east of the building are being carefully restored and will be returned to their original positions.

In the completed precinct, the receiving station will be the centrepiece of the Communications Hub, a memorial and interpretive space commemorating Redlands Coast’s contribution to the war in the Pacific and the history of global communications.