Case Studies

Barcaldine’s Main Street

Design Feature

Type of project
Local Government Initiative
State
Queensland
Location
Rural
Following the death of the politically significant Tree of Knowledge, the Barcaldine Regional Council approached Brian Hooper Architect and architectural firm m3architecture to design a memorial in acknowledgement of the tree and its historical value. This project was implemented as part of a larger revitalisation of the Barcaldine Main Street precinct, which aimed to create a destination for future projects with heritage and cultural value.
Activating Barcaldine's commercial heart
Barcaldine’s Main Street rethinks the functional relationships between pedestrians, the national highway, the railway station and the town’s heritage attractions. Individual projects include the renovation of the Globe Hotel, a new tourist information centre, new interpretive works and facilities to enable public markets. A new project, including relocation of the region’s library to the main street, is currently being developed. 
Barcaldine is built on the Southern side of Oak Street (a national highway), with only the railway station, a park and the Tree of Knowledge (a nationally listed heritage site) on the highway’s north edge. Previously, many visitors to Barcaldine have stopped just long enough to take a photograph of the Tree of Knowledge and left without engaging with the town or local businesses on the opposite side of the street.

To address this, a Masterplan was developed which included several alterations to the site that aimed to prioritise pedestrian movement and destination engagement. Amendments included the relocation of a carpark, the redirection and narrowing of the the national highway and reduced vehicle speeds. It additionally opened view lines to the Tree, created safer places for pedestrians to cross, and reinstated a generous public plaza beneath a new shaded canopy. 
The re-design of the space means that visitors are now required to park their vehicles farther away from the Tree of Knowledge, in the town centre. This counter-intuitive strategy ensures that visitors now interact as pedestrians within the town’s commercial heart.

For Barcaldine, its two main tourist attractions (The Tree of Knowledge and the Visitor Information Centre) are treated as ‘anchor tenants’, separated by a four-minute walk. Subsequently, the local businesses in between these two attractions have been transformed into specialty stores. 
The strategy applied has been borrowed from “retail theory”. At an urban scale this is the equivalent of placing the bread and milk at the back of the shop, making those who enter pass by everything else the shopkeeper has to offer.
Project team
  • The Barcaldine Regional Council. (Client)

  • Brian Hooper Architect and m3architecture. (Urban Designers, Architects and Interior Designers) 
  • Gordon Grimwade and Associates (Heritage Report.  Tree of Knowledge.)
  • Philip Chun and Associates.  (Certifier/Building Surveyor
  • Hoffmann Surveyors.  (Land Surveyor)
  • Bligh Tanner (Structural Engineer. Tree of Knowledge)
  • Hawkins Jenkins Ross (Mechanical/Electrical Engineer. Tree of Knowledge)
  • Viney Traffic Engineering (Traffic Engineer. Tree of Knowledge)
  • Jon Linkins (Photographer. Tree of Knowledge)
  • Optimum Structures.  (Structural Engineer. The Globe)
  • Umow Lai.  (Mechanical/Electrical/Vertical Transport/Hydraulic Engineers. The Globe)
  • Michael Kennedy.  (Heritage Architect. The Globe)
  • Christopher Frederick Jones. (Photographer. The Globe)
  • Steele Wrobel.  (Quantity Surveyor)
  • LG+GJ Feitz (Contractors. The Globe)
  • McNab Constructions (Contractor. Tree of Knowledge)

Project cost
Unavailable. The project has been built across several stages over more than a decade. The reconfiguration of the highway, the construction of the Tree of Knowledge and The Globe have been funded by Federal, State and Local Government initiatives, including the Q150 programme. 
Health value
  • The predominant health value for Barcaldine and its visitors is the urban realm’s new focus on the pedestrian and increased opportunities to walk. 
  • The creation of large areas of shaded communal space both on street edges and around the Tree also adds shade provision for a sun drenched Central/Western Queensland.

Economic value
  • Since the project has been built, new businesses have emerged whilst existing businesses have employed additional staff and rejuvenated their premises.
  • Furthermore, events which may previously have been held out of town are now booked at venues like The Globe.

Environmental value
Sustainable principles are at the forefront for much of this work. Project outcomes which illustrate this include:
  • The retention and repurposing of the existing Globe Hotel building (i.e. adaptive re-use), a building which would otherwise have been demolished;
  • The careful removal and re-use of the existing local paving which forms the character of local streetscapes;
  • The use of recycled timber for the entire Tree of Knowledge memorial project;
  • The new buildings also incorporate water wise strategies, energy saving initiatives such as retrofitting insulation to the existing building and new landscaping and planting.


Social value
  • As an anchor project, the Tree of Knowledge Memorial provides a focal point for both the community and the visitor alike. A place of public gathering once again sits around the tree, created by the diversion of a national highway. The effect of this is a new covered outdoor venue.
  • The basis of the work uses public space and amenity to encourage visitors to engage with (and between) the local community, private initiatives, a place of national heritage significance and local businesses.
  • This adaptation of public amenity as the drawcard for visitors to engage with the town’s commercial heart represents a new way of thinking about heritage places and regional main streets.

Use value
  • Both formal and informal events, such as public meetings, jazz bands and May Day celebrations are held around the Tree of Knowledge.  
  • Likewise, the rejuvenated ‘Globe’ defines two edges of an emerging garden venue and provides space for both a local bank (vital in regional communities) and an art gallery/function space.
  • The availability of the art gallery/functions space has seen a growth in local community and family functions being held in town. Significant birthdays, engagement parties and weddings are now held in and around The Globe.
  •  
  • As a result of this work, community groups also have access to a new venue. The project itself saved The Globe from being demolished, ensuring that some of the town’s social capital (a building that has sat on the highway junction for more than 150 years) is retained for many more years to come.
  • The projects also provide a talking point, bridging the gap between visitors and tourists.

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