There is a saying by residents of Queensland, Australia: it’s beautiful one day, perfect the next.

But for some Brisbane residents (the state’s capital city), beauty turned to anguish when the mighty Brisbane River broke its banks on 12 January 2011, inundating thousands of homes, disrupting lives and businesses. This extreme weather event severely damaged or destroyed seven of Brisbane’s ferry terminals.

In August of the same year, Aurecon and Cox Architecture won an open design competition which attracted 65 submissions from around the world to design new ferry terminals that would be more resilient to flood events and fully accessible to all passengers.

What began as a project to replace damaged infrastructure became a bold design concept to transition from previous ferry terminal design convention to improve aesthetics, flood resilience and accessibility for all. The design ushers in a new generation of terminals that enhance people’s connection with the main waterway through Brisbane, integral to everyday life in this capital city. Aurecon delivered all design elements including: maritime, industrial, mechanical, structural, services, lighting and geotechnical engineering.

Less than seven years after the terminals were originally constructed, the Brisbane River experienced a flood event in early 2022. The way the network infrastructure responded to this event demonstrated the success of the flood resilient concepts. Gangways automatically detached and floated, while the single piers securely tethered the pontoons during the flood and deflected significant flood-borne debris.

This video explains how Brisbane's new generation of flood resilient ferry terminals work.

The flood event in 2022 presented a significant learning opportunity regarding how the infrastructure, mechanics and the way individual components function. Aurecon worked closely with Brisbane City Council during the terminals' recommissioning to fine-tune the terminals' performance to become even more resilient to future flood events.

Flood resilient, accessible, elegant

The design objectives of the new generation of ferry terminals designed by Aurecon and Cox Architecture delivers to the community:

Improved flood resilience
Wheelchair and mobility aid accessibility
A modern, ambitious and elegant architectural design in the maritime environment that eliminated the traditional array of pontoon guide piles

The challenge of integrating these competing design objectives required deep collaboration between the maritime, industrial, mechanical and architectural disciplines. The depth of this collaboration is at the core of the project’s many innovations.

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