As Brisbane prepares for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Greenlife Industry Queensland CEO, Colin Fruk, is calling for urban greening and living infrastructure to be treated as essential city-building – not an afterthought.

In this opinion piece, Colin explores the opportunity for Brisbane to become a global example of subtropical urbanism, and why the success of the Games legacy will depend on more than just stadiums and transport projects.

Opinion: Olympic Cities are Grown, Not Just Built

By Colin Fruk, CEO, Greenlife Industry Queensland

Brisbane likes to think of itself as a relaxed river city. Easy going. Subtropical. A place where jacarandas bloom almost as readily as cranes across the city skyline.

But with just six years until the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Queensland faces a challenge far greater than building stadiums and athletes’ villages. The real test will be whether we can build a greener, cooler, healthier city in the process.

Unfortunately, in major infrastructure projects, greenlife is too often treated like parsley on the plate. Added at the end for decoration, after the “real work” has already been done.

Everyone in the nursery industry knows this. Architects produce stunning renders full of magnificent mature trees. Government departments release fly-through videos showing shaded boulevards and green, leafy glades. Developers promise “world-class green precincts.”

Then, somewhere deep in the procurement process, reality arrives wearing a hard hat and carrying a spreadsheet.

Budgets tighten. And suddenly the trees, garden features and living infrastructure that make these spaces work become “nice-to-haves”, squeezed into whatever time and budget remains, or cut out of the project entirely.

Timelines blow out. Thousands of meticulously grown plants then no longer fit specifications, forcing greenlife suppliers to grow replacements or source substitutes to meet contracts.

Ultimately, the reality becomes a poor imitation of the original vision.

The irony is that the living parts of Olympic infrastructure are often the very things people remember most fondly. The parks. The garden features. The way public spaces invite visitors in for fun, frivolity or relaxation. The sense of a city that is not just liveable, but alive.

Brisbane already offers a glimpse of both futures.

Spaces like South Bank, Roma Street Parklands and Howard Smith Wharves stand out because greenery was embedded at the beginning and delivered effectively. Their shaded walkways, layered subtropical planting and inviting green spaces are not decorative extras; they are the reason people linger there in the first place. The landscape architecture is inseparable from the commercial and social success of those precincts.

By contrast, many newer urban precincts and corridors across South East Queensland still feel spartan, even brutal – dominating nature with hard surfaces and landscaping that can be described as tokenistic at best.

A recent internal review conducted by Brisbane City Council on its own urban greening progress found that shade cover declined from 35 to 32 per cent over the decade to 2019. In a subtropical city preparing to host the world, going backwards on canopy cover is a concern.

The fact remains that green infrastructure still isn’t fully respected as infrastructure. Developers understand the lead times required to build bridges. They understand the complexity of rail. But too often governments, specifiers and project managers still treat urban greening as decoration instead of essential city-building.

Especially in Queensland’s climate, greenlife should not be cosmetic. Urban trees measurably cool streets and suburbs. Well-designed landscaping improves air quality, reduces water runoff and lowers energy use. Access to green space is proven to improve mental and physical health. And locations with more plants consistently post higher property values. These are not “greenie” arguments; they are measurable social and economic returns delivered by living infrastructure.

The public appears to understand this instinctively. Earlier this year, Brisbane City Council’s “Making Our Mark” consultation invited residents to vote on Olympics legacy projects. The highest-voted idea from 56 proposals was the Green Grid: a network of shaded, subtropical walking corridors which would link sports venues, precincts and destinations across the city.

This should be massive confidence boost for Queensland plant growers, yet there is strong concern in the industry that the Green Grid may never become a reality, even if adequate funding is forthcoming.

The green infrastructure supply chain remains highly fragmented. Production nurseries, landscape architects, contractors, planners, developers and governments often operate in silos, despite being integral to one another’s success. Procurement systems frequently prioritise lowest short-term cost over long-term performance. Contractors are often engaged before plant supply is properly understood. Growers, who understand best which plants will thrive where, are rarely brought into conversations early enough.

Unless this changes, there is a real risk that Brisbane 2032’s most popular legacy idea could become our biggest missed opportunity.

Governments and their delivery partners need to start treating the greenlife sector as a strategic partner now, not as an afterthought later. They need to realise that great cities are grown, not just built.

Done well, our Olympic and Paralympic Games could become a global case study in subtropical urbanism. A demonstration that major events can leave behind living infrastructure that genuinely improves daily life long after the closing ceremony.

But if Brisbane wants to become a truly world-class subtropical city, greenlife must be an essential ingredient, not just parsley on the plate.
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