The Guardian
The future of live music in Brisbane could be shaped by an unlikely legal battle involving a construction titan, a developer who lives in a riverside mansion shaped like a shark and the bass player from Powderfinger.
At stake is the right of live music venues to rock – regardless of new apartments being built around them as the city’s population booms and becomes increasingly dense.
The stoush was sparked last Friday when Hutchinson Builders lodged a notice of appeal at the Queensland planning and environment court against council’s approval of a three-tower, 1,000-apartment, mixed-use development in affluent Newstead, valued at $1.5bn, and marketed as “Little Italy”.
Hutchinson owns the adjoining land and refurbished the old aircraft hangar into the Triffid, which recently celebrated 10 years as a live music venue. The venue owner, John “JC” Collins, was the bassist in one of the city’s most successful bands of all time: Powderfinger.
Scott Hutchinson, the chair of the family-run construction company, and Collins have lodged concerns that the Triffid could be inundated with noise complaints by future Little Italy residents because the city’s council has approved a tower that will be built over the venue without “meaningful” accommodation of the fact it is an existing and celebrated home of live music.
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