The Aboriginal Group launches a legal offer to stop the Olympic Stadium in Brisbane

A root group has launched legal action to stop a stadium with 6,000 seats for the Brisbane Olympics 2032, built on a culturally significant land.

The Queensland government has announced in March that a new $ 3.8 billion stadium ($ 2.5 billion; $ 1.8 billion in British pounds) will be built – with federal funding – at Victoria Park, a 60 -hectare site.

The Aboriginal Corporation Yagara Magandjin (YMAC) and Save Victoria Park Group want the Federal Minister of the Environment to define the park as a culturally significant site that could protect the land from development.

Victoria Park is “of great importance and history” for the indigenous and non-borne population, explained YMAC spokesman Gaja Kerry Charlton.

“We are very concerned that there are ancient trees, artifacts and very important ecosystems. There may be remains of the ancestors.”

A spokesman for the federal government has confirmed that it has received the request for designation of the site in accordance with the Aboriginal Island Protection Act and Torres Strahav.

“The department is currently reviewing this application and will take all the standard steps to progress it, including to engage with the candidate, supporter and government of Queensland,” they said.

If the stadium is built, it will host the opening and closure ceremonies of the Olympic and Paralympics in 2032.

After the Olympics, the stadium will become the home of AFL and a cricket in Queensland.

Infrastructure plans for the 2032 Olympics have become a heated political issue in Queensland in recent years.

Labour’s Annastacia Palaszczuk runs the successful Olympic offer and has announced plans to reconstruct the aging GABA stadium for the games, priced at about $ 3 billion. But the plan was unpopular with the locals who were afraid to be displaced and taxpayers worried at the price.

A review, ordered after she gave up prime minister in 2023, recommended an even more expensive plan, a brand new stadium in Victoria Park. However, against the backdrop of the cost crisis, the new state leader Stephen Miles decided to upgrade the existing places instead to host the game events, a solution that some criticize as an embarrassment for Australia on the world stage.

Months later, he lost elections to the Liberal National Party, which is a promise of new stadiums.

But after the new government’s own review, the new Prime Minister David Krisafuli has adopted the plan to build a place in Victoria Park and have since introduced laws that release new Olympic sites from the rules of planning in an attempt to quickly track development.

However, the plans are filled with protests in Queensland, with some locals concerned about the loss of a large green space of the inner city and others worrying about potential damage to cultural heritage.

State and federal governments have signaled that they will engage in root groups about development plans in Victoria Park.

Brisbane Mayor Adrian Srinner told Brisbane Times that he has strong support for the stadium.

“In the end, it will happen,” he said. “There will no doubt attempts to thwart the project and slow it down.”