For today’s news updates in Brisbane and beyond as they happen, follow us here.
For today’s news updates in Brisbane and beyond as they happen, follow us here.
The middle of the Queen Street Mall is perhaps best known for Hungry Jack’s, but there is now a plan to build “Brisbane’s highest profile 3D advertising device” diagonally opposite the fast food meeting place.
Plans submitted to Brisbane City Council show the owner of 136 Queen Street wants a modern facade with a digital billboard – measuring four metres high, and 12m wide – wrapping around its most prominent corner.
Telstra occupies the main ground floor retail space, and the artist’s impressions show Telstra logos on the building and the billboard.
“The sign is in keeping with the character of the local environment and supports its role as a major retail and activity hub,” the council has been told.
“The pedestrian environment of Queen Street Mall will be enhanced and activated and will retain the fine-grained, highly permeable retail frontage character of the mall.”
Off-contract Brisbane captain Adam Reynolds is still mulling over whether to play on in 2026, but his form suggests he is more than capable of doing so.
A hamstring injury sustained in the 46-24 win over Wests Tigers on Saturday night may rule him out of next week’s home clash with Sydney Roosters.
The 34-year-old Broncos halfback is set for a scan after he left the field in the 45th minute at Suncorp Stadium.
That was a minute after he had scored to give his side a 26-12 lead and put them on the road to victory. He landed four goals from as many attempts and a 42m two-point field goal on the cusp of halftime.
Asked again about his future beyond the 2025 season – currently his last contracted season at the Broncos – he said he would look after this year first.
“I’ve still got a job to do here, so that will sort itself out in the future,” Reynolds said. “I’m enjoying myself. I still feel like I have a lot to give and I still have a big job to do this year.”
The Crisafulli government has today opened the first stage of its $2 billion housing and infrastructure grant program.
Developers and local councils with projects ready to go can now start reviewing the criteria and preparing their applications for the Residential Activation Fund, which the LNP government says is designed to fast-track the development of essential infrastructure including roads, water, and sewerage and “break down the barriers to building more homes”.
“We didn’t want to wait for the budget to then call for applications,” Premier David Crisafulli said yesterday.
“Applications will begin in earnest now and that gives the opportunity for that assessment to be done, so money can flow out the door from the moment the budget is handed down.”
“We want to see more homes on the ground, and we’ll do everything we can to unlock the roadblocks.”
The state government also established a new 890-hectare priority development area in the Redlands on Saturday, where it expects 8000 new homes to be built.
The Australian sharemarket is set to lose more than $100 billion today, as US President Donald Trump’s trade war rattles markets and economies across the globe.
The Australian dollar crumbled over the weekend, losing more than 5 per cent. It was fetching 59.56 US cents at 8.10am this morning, its lowest level since COVID.
The falls have sparked fears of a global recession.
In today’s flashback, here is a photo of Adelaide Street, looking towards Edward Street in Brisbane’s CBD, in 1978.
The photo was taken by Peter Fischmann.
In our top story this morning, we reveal that Brisbane City Council operates about 30 covert cameras across the city to catch litterers.
The small cameras are often camouflaged or tied to trees, and they are catching more than just careless litterers.
What are your thoughts?
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has hit out at Peter Dutton for his “extraordinary position” on work-from-home arrangements and claims the opposition leader is merely pretending to dump the Coalition’s plans to end flexible work for public servants.
Speaking from Melbourne this morning, Albanese said Dutton is pretending his policies do not exist.
“We have the extraordinary position of Peter Dutton, having defended his attack on working from home, is now pretending that that program won’t proceed,” Albanese said.
“He said very clearly that women should just go and job share, that they shouldn’t worry about working full-time.
“Today he’s pretending. He’s pretending that the policies that he announced, including in the budget reply that was two weeks ago, including the cuts to 41,000 public servants just don’t exist, and everyone will just forget about all that.
“This is a new Peter Dutton who’s discovered work rights. Well, if people want to protect their work rights, they need to vote Labor [in] May.”
Turning now to one of our top stories of the morning: A series of covert cameras across Brisbane are netting hundreds of dollars a year in fines, and catching more than just careless litterers.
Images recorded by the Brisbane City Council surveillance program capture a range of bizarre behaviours like one person seen setting fire to a bag of rubbish in a Mount Coot-tha car park in September.
In a separate incident in October, a couple was fined, not for being observed to be “climbing on top of each other” in a car but for leaving a “small pile of paper litter” on the ground when they left.
Up to 30 covert cameras in the program are being used across city hotspots, often camouflaged or tied to trees.
In today’s Perspective, Cameron Atfield explains why Brisbane really is a big country town.
The signs were there, he writes.
“The old Orient Hotel, a classic live music venue where I recall seeing Powderfinger in their grungy formative years in the mid-’90s, had a surprising rebrand about a decade or so ago.
It became Johnny Ringo’s and my initial hopes it was a bar celebrating half the Beatles led to disappointment.
The mechanical bull was the first giveaway something had gone awry. The drawling twang from the speakers was the second. Inner Brisbane finally had a country music-themed bar …
Everyone deserves a place to go and feel at home, and I was happy for Brisbane’s small country music fraternity to have a place of its own.
But it seems I underestimated country’s appeal. Unbeknown to me, that small country music fraternity is actually quite a behemoth.”
Also making news this morning, a measles alert has been issued for parts of Brisbane and the Gold Coast after an infected traveller visited several tourist hotspots.
People who visited the following locations from Wednesday to Friday last week have been urged to monitor for symptoms of measles.
Early symptoms include a fever, tiredness, cough, runny nose, and red, inflamed eyes.
Sand pumping is underway on the Gold Coast this morning in a big to replenish beaches eroded by Cyclone Alfred.
You may remember Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate promised to give every tourist a free beer if the beaches were not open by the Easter break. Well, today is the first day of the Easter school holidays and several beaches (although not all) remain closed.
A special barge called the Hopper Dredge is picking up sand from the Gold Coast Seaway and pumping it onto the beaches at Surfers Paradise, Main Beach and Narrowneck.