Project Update

The Albert Street Green Spine’s first palm trees have been delivered and planted at the inner-city site, as progress on the new public realm continues.

The palm trees were transported down the Bruce Highway after growing for more than 15 years at Greenstock Nurseries in Elimbah, about an hour north of the inner-city.

The trees are almost fully grown, stretching between six and eight metres tall, and are set to become a signature feature of the main station entrance to Albert Street station.

Greenstock is responsible for growing more than 300 trees across Cross River Rail’s four station precincts at Roma Street, Boggo Road, Woolloongabba and Albert Street, adding to an impressive list of clients which include the Queen’s Wharf Development, Howard Smith Wharves and Anzac Square.

Greenstock Business Development and Design Manager Ted Maguire is relishing the partnership between the nursery and Cross River Rail.

“The opportunity to grow these is just amazing,” Mr Maguire said.

“There’s a lot of love gone into producing what’s in the ground and ready to go out, and when they hit the site it will turn what’s been a raw construction site into something cool and green.

“We see this as the way of the future for the growing of advanced trees, the systems that we’ve come up with and employed to get them from nursery to project with minimal stress and fuss.”

The Albert Street Green Spine forms part of Brisbane City Council’s Albert Street Vision and is a proposal to transform the street into a tree-lined pedestrianised corridor, running from the City Botanic Gardens in the south of the CBD all the way to Roma Street Parklands in the north.