How to avoid road and bridge closures for Riverfire

Roads and bridges will be closed and bus services ramped up as almost half a million people descend on Brisbane’s inner city to watch Riverfire fireworks on Saturday.

The Victoria, Goodwill, Neville Bonner, Story and Captain Cook bridges will be affected by closures, including pedestrian-only access on some.

Full details are here.

Motorists can expect traffic congestion caused by road closures in Brisbane city, Fortitude Valley, around Story Bridge, Kangaroo Point, South Bank, South Brisbane, Mount Coot-tha, Mount Gravatt, and along the Brisbane River.

Impacted bike and walkways include the Clem Jones Promenade, Mangrove Walk, The Landing, Eagle Street and New Farm Riverwalk.

At this stage, no Brisbane River ferry services will run on Saturday because of a 24-hour strike by workers engaged in negotiations over pay and conditions with their employer, RiverCity Ferries.

Last year, Riverfire was hampered by public transport woes, with crowd crushes and hours-long waits reported.

But this year, the council said it was prepared, with five times more buses scheduled and back-up buses at the ready should crowds grow.

Queensland Rail said it had scheduled 80 extra services for the night.

There will be free travel on buses from 7.30pm to 9.30pm at the Cultural Centre, King George Square, Mater Hill, Queen Street, Roma Street, South Bank, Woolloongabba, Buranda and Griffith University bus stations.

There will be free travel from the South Bank, South Brisbane, Roma Street and Central train stations.

However, after the fireworks and until 9pm, most buses leaving from the city will skip the Cultural Centre, South Bank and Mater Hill busway stations.

Instead, these stations will be frequently serviced by M1, M2, 555 and shuttle buses to connect people to their route.

The Brisbane River will be closed to vessels without a permit from 5pm to 8.45pm on Saturday between Mowbray Park, East Brisbane and upstream to the Go Between Bridge.

Police have warned flying a drone is banned in the event venue areas as there will be low-level aircraft during practice days on Thursday and Friday, and on the event day on Saturday.

South Bank will be a fenced-off alcohol-free zone, with security doing random bag checks, and no sharp objects, glass, opened bottles or cans will be allowed inside the parklands.

Tolls will be waived on the Clem7 on Saturday from 6.30pm to 8.30pm.

Before Riverfire, the Royal Australian Air Force will do rehearsal flights on Thursday and Friday.

On Thursday, a C-17 Globemaster III will fly over Brisbane about 12.30pm.

On Friday, there will be two individual rehearsal flights about 20 to 30 minutes apart involving two F/A-18F Super Hornets, starting from 12.30pm.

On Saturday, the Globemaster flyover will be at 4.52pm, and the Super Hornets will be at 5.20pm.

The Riverfire fireworks begin at 7pm.

The best places to watch Riverfire include South Bank, Queen’s Wharf, Kangaroo Point Cliffs, the City Botanic Gardens, Captain Burke Park, Wilson Outlook Reserve, Howard Smith Wharves, Mount Coot-tha Lookout and Highgate Hill Park.

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Felicity Caldwell is a journalist at Brisbane Times.Connect via X, Facebook or email.AdvertisementAdvertisement