Piped Rd Improvements

QORF partnered with SEQ Catchments and Sunfish Queensland to develop a robust and consultative plan for improvements to the Piped Road area along the Brisbane River. As part of this process, we are running a survey to collect information from users to help guide decisions made regarding the area and any work that is done to enhance the location for local users and the condition of the area.

The First stage has been completed and a report from QORF regarding the nature of the user group and the findings can be downloaded here:

Piped Road User Survey Report

In short the findings are as follows:

• The location has a largely working-age user group that has a long-standing relationship with the location of two years or more.  These users are relatively well spread across the greater Brisbane area.
• This group tends to frequent the location semi-regularly, at least once every six months and they find the site very important for their recreational needs.
• The main reason this site attracts these users is that it is one of the few unregulated sites left in the city where they can find private space to fish or motorbike.
• The primary use of the site by far was for fishing on the lower Brisbane River, followed by using the site for motorbike riding.
• There was an obvious attraction to dog owners due to the fact that they could let their dogs roam off lead in the area.
• Much of the sentiment was to maintain the rough and free nature of the location, with many people concerned about it becoming too maintained and regulated.
• Of the users surveyed, there is no issue with currently proposed area as long as water access is maintained.

They key sense of this location is that its primary purpose for these users is as a location of no restrictions on its use.  The users, regardless of their actual use, can go there and feel like they are ‘away from it all’, free from the crowds of the city and the rules that go with it.

For the motorbike users this is one of the last locations within close proximity to the city that they can ride their bikes any more.

As such, QORF makes the following recommendations for the improvements on site:

• Any improvements remain low key and unobtrusive to the location’s sense of being a ‘free’ and somewhat ‘wild’ space on the urban fringe.
• Water access along the site should be maintained, as the location’s primary users are fishing from the foreshore.
• If water access in the area currently being considered for protection could be improved, it would be an advantage to the user group.

SEQ Catchments is now working on developing a plan to make improvements at the site and will release details shortly.

In partnership with: