Vision Unveiled for Brisbane’s Mount Coot-tha Precinct

A futuristic, Singapore-inspired masterplan is in progress for Brisbane’s Mount Coot-tha precinct.

West of the Brisbane CBD and home to the Brisbane Botanic Gardens, Mount Coot-tha, the Summit Lookout and the Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium, the precinct is a popular southeast Queensland landmark. 

It attracts a million visitors a year, according to the Brisbane City Council. 

The gardens and planetarium were built in the 1970s, and the ageing infrastructure of the precinct has long been earmarked for redevelopment. 

Now, the city has appointed its wholly owned subsidiary the Brisbane Sustainability Agency to progress plans for the area. 

The agency is already at work on a $100-million lifestyle and leisure scheme planned for Oxley Creek, a tributary of the Brisbane River. 

At Mount Coot-tha—its name comes from the First Nation word ‘ku-ta’ which means honey—the council is considering, among options, a 170km wilderness walking trail with overnight huts and glamping.

▲ Rendering of a concept for the Tropical Dome at the botanic gardens.

The agency is also investigating a redevelopment of existing attractions, and the council’s 2025-26 Budget includes funding to plan and design an upgrade of the 50-year-old Tropical Dome attraction. 

Improvements to the summit lookout, a “re-imagining” of the planetarium, and new and improved picnic areas and mountain bike tracks are also being considered. 

The project will also lay out a long-term plan to transform the Mount Coot-tha quarry, which has been in operation since the mid 1890s. 

Attempts to redevelop the Mount Coot-tha precinct were floated in 2017 when the-then mayor Graham Quirk floated plans, including an ecotourism zipline, part of a $15-million investment in the precinct.

While initially approved by the council, the zipline project was canceled in 2019.

More recently, a proposal for the precinct’s quarry was submitted last year headed by Prax Studio that responded to the council’s request for ideas with a “once-in-a-generation” lagoon plan.

▲ Prax Studios proposed a lagoon focused redevelopment for the Mount Coot-tha quarry last year.

But the quarry is still in operation and it could continue for another decade due to “increasing use of recycled material in road base”, the council said. 

According to the Brisbane City Council, the quarry supplies 96 per cent of asphalt aggregate for city roads.  

Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said Mount Coot-tha was a “jewel in the crown” of Brisbane’s tourism attractions, and the new plans were inspired by the likes of Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay.