The Aboriginal group is launching a legal offer to stop the Brisbane Olympic stadium

An indigenous group launched a legal action to stop a stadium of 63,000 seats for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games built on culturally significant land.

The Queensland government announced in March that a new 3.8 billion dollars stadium ($ 2.5 billion; 1.8 billion pounds sterling) would be built – with federal funding – in Victoria Park, a 60 hectare site.

The Yagara Magandjin Aboriginal Corporation (YMAC) and the Save Victoria Park group ask the Federal Minister of the Environment to determine the Park as a major cultural site, which could protect the land against development.

Victoria Park is “of great meaning and history” for the indigenous and non-Aboriginal peoples, said the spokesperson for the YMAC, Gaja Kerry Charlton.

“We are very worried that there are old trees, artifacts and very important ecosystems that exist there. There may be ancestral remains.”

A federal government spokesperson confirmed that he had received the request for the designation of the site under the law on the protection of the heritage of the natives and the islanders of Torres.

“The ministry is currently examining this request and will take all standard measures to progress it, in particular by engaging with the applicant, the promoter and the Queensland government,” they said.

If the stadium is built, it will host the opening and fence ceremonies of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2032.

After the Olympic Games, the stadium will become the AFL and cricket house in Queensland.

Infrastructure plans for the 2032 Olympic Games have become a stormy political problem in Queensland in recent years.

Annastacia Palaszczuk du Labor directed the successful Olympic offer and announced its intention to rearrange the aging Gabba stadium for the games, at the cost of around $ 3 billion. But the plan was unpopular to the inhabitants who feared being moved, and the taxpayers dismayed the price.

An examination ordered after leaving his Prime Minister in 2023 recommended an even more expensive plan, a brand new stadium in Victoria Park. However, in the midst of a cost of living crisis, the new state leader Steven Miles rather chose to upgrade existing sites to host game events, a decision that some have criticized as an embarrassment for Australia on the world.

Months later, he lost an election with the liberal national party which campaigned on a promise of new stadiums.

But after the own review of the new government, the new Prime Minister David Crisafulli adopted the plan to build a place in Victoria Park and has since introduced laws exempting from new Olympic places from planning rules in order to win development.

However, the plans have met demonstrations in Queensland, some residents concerned with losing a large green space in the city center, and others worrying about potential damage to cultural heritage.

State and federal governments have indicated that they would engage with Aboriginal groups on the development plans of Victoria Park.

The mayor of Brisbane, Adrian Schrinner, told Brisbane Times that there was strong support for the stadium.

“In the end, it will happen,” he said. “There is no doubt that there will be attempts to thwart the project and slow it down.”