Governor to open $20 million University of Queensland centre

The Governor of Queensland, His Excellency Major General Peter Arnison AC, CVO, will officially open The University of Queensland’s $20 million multi-function UQ Centre tomorrow. (Thursday, September 26).

The opening will be part of the University’s Celebration of Excellence evening, during which the Governor will receive an honorary Doctorate of Laws and Premier Peter Beattie will present the 2002 UQ Foundation Research Excellence Awards.

The UQ Centre is designed to house a wide range of events including graduation ceremonies, the UQ Study Expo and conferences. Its elastic-sprung timber floor is ideal for indoor sports such as tennis, basketball and netball.

It occupies a 3500 square metre site in Union Road, with views to the Brisbane River.

The building comprises two multi-purpose halls, a main hall with 2285 square metres of floor space and a 504 square metre secondary hall. $11.5 million for the project was sourced from outside the University, with the State Government providing $1.5 million.

There is parking for 300 vehicles underneath and adjacent to the main building, while a further 400 parking spaces are available within a 400-metre radius of the UQ Centre.

The 56m x 38m x 10.5m main hall can accommodate 2500 visitors, 1500 on retractable seating for graduation ceremonies, more than double the capacity of Mayne Hall, which will continue to be used as a cultural venue and will become the site of Australia’s first National Collection of Artists’ Self-Portraits.

The major use of the UQ Centre’s 21m x 20m x 6m secondary hall will be as a 550-seat lecture theatre. It has retractable seating for conferences, and for activities such as aerobics, dance and martial arts. Also included will be change rooms for several teams of athletes.

University of Queensland Vice-Chancellor Professor John Hay said the UQ Centre would provide many advantages for the University and be “an important new venue for the Brisbane community.”

"The UQ Centre is a magnificent, state-of-the-art facility that will add significantly to the University`s ability to host events and functions,” Professor Hay said.

"It is designed to give us the capacity for a more appropriate venue for graduations and big events and it also gives us a world-class indoor sporting facility.”

Media: For more information, contact Brad Turner at UQ Communications (telephone 07 3365 2659 or email: communications@uq.edu.au).