General News
10 November, 2026
Parklands activation a lure for investors: Mayor
ACTIVATING Priors Creek Parklands could help Tablelands Regional Council to lure investors to buy prime land in the Atherton CBD for high-rise buildings that would host retail offerings and inner city living.
The cost of officially opening the new precinct on 10-11 July, as well as the funds required to keep it activated and maintained, has been the subject of much discussion in the community, with council unable to provide the costs until TRC’s meeting on 29 October.
At the July and August meetings, Cr Kevin Cardew, who was then representing Division 1, asked about the cost of the official opening, whether the council had a budget for the activation of the parklands and what the annual maintenance costs would be, but could not get an answer.
The council promised a report would be tabled in October, but instead of a separate report detailing the costs, an update on the opening and activation program to date was included in an overall Performance Report for the first quarter of the financial year.
That report revealed that the opening weekend cost was $73,014 out of an allocated budget for the event of $90,000.
When The Express asked Mayor Cardew about ongoing costs for the activation of the space, he said he was “of the understanding” that the $90,000 budget referred to in the report was to cover all the activation events.
The parklands hosted a special Halloween event on 30 October, which attracted around 1000 people, and has movie nights and markets scheduled until the end of the financial year.
“Attendance (at the Halloween event) was absolutely amazing. I couldn’t believe it. I’m so pleased the community is embracing Priors Creek Parklands, and I thank our staff for the creativity, commitment and enthusiasm they brought to delivering this event,” Mayor Cardew said.
“Priors Creek was built for nights like this. Seeing families queue the length of the parklands in costume tells us the community wants more of it, and we’ll take that into planning for next year.”
Mayor Cardew believes that attracting more people to the area is a lure for developers, with the council trying to sell off three prime lots in close proximity to the parklands.
At October’s meeting, council gave the green light to its own development application to allow for those sites to host developments of up to five storeys in height to cater for retail shops and accommodation.
“As we know, our region is becoming more known in the southern parts of our state and country, and the secret’s out,” Mayor Cardew said at the meeting.
“People are coming here in droves and have been since Covid. We’re expanding at a rate that’s unprecedented and we have to accommodate that.
“As we all know, our town centre and our township is now very congested, and to be able to develop and move forward and expand, logically the option is not going sideways, but up.
“So, this allows for process to happen within the constraints of what we’ve got to work with in our current iteration of the township.”
Mayor Cardew told The Express last week that he saw the activation of the parklands as a step towards getting the eye of developers.
“By activating Priors Creek Parklands and getting momentum in that space, that will be a little bit of a sweetener for developers,” he said.
“By putting a little bit of money into getting people going there and activating it, it’s probably a low-cost investment to try and attract the bigger fish to develop in that area.
“They will see we have people coming to the region and utilising the area. I was as bigger critic of Priors Creek as anybody else, but the reality is that it’s there now, it cost a lot of money, and we have to make it work.”
He said he had recently met with Minister for Tourism Andrew Powell and Minister for Sport and Racing Tim Mander to advocate for grant funding to install a playground at the parklands and to construct a roof over the amphitheatre.
