Hipsters infiltrate industrial precincts

BOND University students are mapping the ‘hipster-fication’ of Gold Coast industrial areas where workshops and warehouses are being taken over by craft breweries, trendy cafes and artisanal coffee roasters.

The work, being carried out for the Gold Coast City Council, could lead to planning changes that protect and nurture a growing cultural trend embraced by locals and tourists.

Leading the change is the Miami-Burleigh industrial area which now includes the Black Hops and Precinct breweries, Granddad Jack’s Craft Distillery, Paddock Bakery and pop-up burger joints.

Ned Wales, a senior teaching fellow of sustainable environments and planning at Bond University, said the council was getting valuable insights from the survey.

“They’re finding that the industrial areas are far more nuanced than what they thought originally and are also heavily influenced by the immediate culture of those neighbourhoods,” Mr Wales said.

“If you drove through the northern part of the Gold Coast, it tends to be more industries around construction and associated businesses whereas the industrial area in Burleigh is morphing into boutique breweries and coffee roasting – the hipster movement.

“So rather than having a blanket land-use approach for all the industrial areas, they’re exploring how they might modify land uses to better support economic prosperity for each area.”

Griffith University and the Queensland University of Technology are also involved.

“Bond has been asked to do the initial data collection which has involved driving through all of the industrial precincts and recording … each business activity and then matching it against the dataset that the Gold Coast City Council has,” Mr Wales said.

He said the work was a practical learning experience for students: “I’m hoping they will gain a better understanding and make a deeper connection between the built environment and economic activity.”