THE STAR CASINO
QUEENS WHARF BRISBANE
Tourism & Entertainment Precinct Ideation
Pulse Collective 2016
Contributed to early-stage concept ideation for the $3.6 billion integrated resort development, helping shape its positioning as a world-class tourism, leisure and entertainment destination.
The challenge was to explore what it feels like to experience Australia for the first time, translating the spirit of the landscape, culture, story and community into immersive and emotionally resonant experiences across the precinct.
My Role: Creative Director
Ideation and Innovation. Responsible for the origination, development and presentation of all five tourism attraction concepts for the Queens Wharf site.
Ideation 2016 - Completed 2025
THE BRIEF
The Star Entertainment Group was embarking on one of Australia's most significant integrated resort developments at Queens Wharf, Brisbane. The centerpiece of a $3 billion development and Queensland's largest infrastructure project of its type.
The challenge was not simply to create a breathtaking destination.
It was to ask what Australia truly is, and build the answer. Experiences so genuinely authentic that visitors could smell it, hear it, feel it. Attractions that would draw people from across the world, resonate deeply with the local community, and pay meaningful respect to the Indigenous culture of the land it was built on.
CONCEPT
A precinct built around a single question:
What does it feel like to experience Australia for the first time?
Five distinct concepts were developed, each rooted in a different dimension of Australian identity and elements: waterways, fire, ancient stories, diverse land, and its community.
CONCEPT 1
Walking on Water
Walking on Water proposed a floating market walkway along the Brisbane River, its winding path drawn from Aboriginal depictions of waterways, with eco-friendly barges selling wild Australian produce.
THE OUTCOME
Mangrove Walk
Evolved from initial concept ideation into a realised 450m elevated riverfront boardwalk, connecting key precincts while embedding Indigenous storytelling, environmental interpretation and layered visitor experiences within the mangrove setting.
CONCEPT 2
Aflame
Aflame envisioned a rooftop fire restaurant with a two-storey interactive fire wall and sunken fire pits under open sky. The client loved it and Jock Zonfrillo was consulting on the concept. Over the years of development, safety and execution requirements shaped its final form into what is now the Sky Deck, one of Brisbane's most celebrated rooftop experiences.
THE OUTCOME
Sky Deck
Ultimately realised as Sky Deck, a landmark elevated destination, with the original fire-led rooftop concept not progressed due to safety and delivery considerations.
The concept formed the foundation of a working relationship with Lauren and Jock Zonfrillo, supporting future hospitality collaboration opportunities.
CONCEPT 3
Dreamtime
Dreamtime conceived an augmented reality sensory journey guided by an Australian child, drawing on Aboriginal stories of creation and country.
It found its form in the Public Art Tour, a trail of sculpture, murals and artworks that bring those same stories into the built environment.
THE OUTCOME
Public Art Tour
Dreamtime found its realised form in the Public Art Trail, a curated journey of sculpture, murals and installations that bring these stories into the built environment.
CONCEPT 4
Pop-Up Providores
Pop-Up Providores imagined a living, forageable rooftop garden with a chef's table, children's program and indigenous pharmacy. It seeded the vibrant market culture that now animates the precinct.
THE OUTCOME
City Markets
The concept formed part of the early creative thinking that helped inspire the vibrant local produce and makers culture now embedded within the precinct, creating a space embraced by locals and visitors alike.
CONCEPT 5
Secret Garden
The Secret Garden designed an amphitheatre in the shape of an Australian Trochidae shell, found on Brisbane River. A place for locals and visitors to gather and connect around food, performance and community. It became the Leisure Deck, a vibrant entertainment space for everything from outdoor cinema to New Year's Eve celebrations.
THE OUTCOME
Leisure Deck
The Secret Garden evolved into the Leisure Deck, transforming and continuing with the original vision of a vibrant open-air destination filled with music, cinema, celebration and community gathering beneath the city skyline. Both day and night.
HIGHLIGHTS
Highlights include creative lead across five major tourism and entertainment attraction early concepts for the $3.6B Queens Wharf Brisbane development
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Developed experiential concepts grounded in Australian identity, Indigenous storytelling and immersive placemaking
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Multiple concepts evolved into realised precinct experiences including Sky Deck, Mangrove Walk, Leisure Deck and the Public Art program
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Contributed to one of Australia’s largest integrated resort developments and a city-shaping transformation of Brisbane’s riverfront
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Marked a pivotal career project in large-scale tourism, entertainment and destination precinct ideation at city-shaping scale
THE OUTCOME
The Star | Brisbane
Queens Wharf Brisbane became one of Australia’s most ambitious tourism and entertainment developments, with many of the original concepts evolving into realised public experiences that continue to shape the precinct today.
Through story, landscape, food, art and gathering, the project sought to answer the original question at the heart of the brief: what does it feel like to experience Australia for the first time?