Gateway Bridge Archives

Eagle Farm Tyre Theft Allegation Emerges During Brisbane Hoon Blitz

An Eagle Farm tyre theft allegation has emerged from a wider Brisbane hoon blitz that saw eight people charged, 66 traffic infringement notices issued and two Ford Falcons seized after an alleged long weekend hooning event across Brisbane and Ipswich.

Police have charged eight people and seized two vehicles during Operation X-Ray Antler, a multi-district operation targeting alleged hooning activity across Brisbane and neighbouring policing districts.

The operation disrupted more than 30 vehicles attending an alleged hooning event across Brisbane and Ipswich between 2 and 3 May. Four vehicles are alleged to have participated in hooning driving behaviour.

A 20-year-old man was among those charged after allegedly stealing tyres near one of the hooning events before being chased down by police in Eagle Farm. The allegation forms part of a wider enforcement response to dangerous driving and related offending across the area.

Eagle Farm hoon blitz — Photo Credit: QPS

Police allege some activity connected to hooning events has extended beyond dangerous driving, including thefts and the use of unregistered or unroadworthy vehicles. Tyres used during burnouts were also alleged to have been stolen from businesses across the region.

Two Ford Falcons Seized In Brisbane Hoon Blitz

Two vehicles were seized during the operation: a blue Ford Falcon and a silver Ford Falcon.

A 19-year-old man was charged with driving a motor vehicle without a driver licence and is expected to appear before Brisbane Magistrates Court on 9 June.

The eight people charged so far face a range of alleged offences, including possessing dangerous drugs, stealing wheels, having a face masked or disguised with intent to commit an indictable offence, tainted property, unlicensed driving and driving under the influence of drugs.

Officers also issued 66 traffic infringement notices during the operation. These included 22 notices for spectating without a reasonable excuse in hooning group activity and 19 notices for exceeding the speed limit.

Other notices related to defective vehicles, unnecessary noise or smoke, unregistered or uninsured vehicles, number plate offences and other traffic breaches. One notice was also issued for allegedly organising, promoting or encouraging participation in, or spectating at, hoon group activity.

Gateway Bridge Incident Still Under Investigation

The Brisbane hoon blitz also included an alleged Gateway Bridge incident after one vehicle initially evaded police and was allegedly involved in hooning offences on the bridge.

A Highway Patrol unit responded and disrupted the alleged activity to prevent further offending. Investigations into both the wider hooning event and the Gateway Bridge incident remain ongoing.

Operation X-Ray Antler was led by North Brisbane District Highway Patrol, with support from Highway Patrol units and Tactical Crime Squad units from South Brisbane District and Ipswich.

Police are continuing inquiries into the alleged hooning event, the Gateway Bridge incident and related offences identified during the operation.

Published 7-May-2026

The Gateway Bridge Has a Past Worth Remembering on Its 40th Birthday

Did you know that the Gateway Bridge, which connects Eagle Farm on Brisbane’s north side to Murarrie in the south, was once called the world’s deadliest bridge? It is a little-known chapter in the bridge’s history that hundreds of thousands of road users who cross it on any given day would likely find hard to believe, yet the statistics from its early years told a grim story.

Read: Higher Toll Fees for Brisbane’s Gateway Bridges

This year marks 40 years since the structure most locals simply call “the Gateway” opened to the public. What began as a bold engineering solution to the city’s chronic traffic gridlock would eventually become the site of more than 120 deaths, and a cautionary tale about the cost of inadequate safety measures.

A city crying out for a crossing

Gateway Bridge under construction, Brisbane, September 1984 Queensland State Archives, Digital Image ID 3514

Back in the 1970s, Brisbane had a problem. Drivers travelling between the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast had no practical way to bypass the city. They either crawled through inner-city crossings or queued for slow, capacity-limited car ferries. Freight and commuters alike faced regular delays.

Then roads minister Russ Hinze championed an ambitious bypass plan. A tunnel was considered but ruled out on cost grounds, so engineers looked upward instead, designing a structure tall enough for ships to pass beneath its deck, yet low enough to avoid conflicting with flight paths into nearby Brisbane Airport.

What followed was five years of construction that, by today’s standards, would make a workplace health and safety officer wince. Crews worked high above the river often clad in little more than shorts and thongs, with no harnesses and, in many cases, no hard hats. Remarkably, there were no major incidents.

A public spectacle and a royal quip

Opening day of the Gateway Bridge in 1986 (Photo credit: Facebook/Brisbane Libraries)

When the bridge finally opened on 11 January 1986, Brisbane went a little wild. An estimated 200,000 Queenslanders turned up to walk across the 1.6-kilometre span before it opened to traffic, with thousands of blue, yellow and black balloons marking the occasion. News reporters called it “a once-in-a-lifetime chance to walk the one-and-a-half kilometre world record span.”

Members of the public declared it “the best bridge in the world.” Its 260-metre main span was a world-leading design for concrete bridges at the time, and the deck rises more than 60 metres above the river.

Prince Phillip at the official opening of the bridge (Photo credit: Facebook/Brisbane Libraries)

Prince Philip formally opened the bridge four months later with characteristic dry wit: “I now declare the bridge to be more open than usual.”

Motorists paid $1.50 to cross, while truck drivers were slugged $7. Not everyone was impressed.

A dark chapter

However, the fanfare faded fast. Without adequate safety barriers, just a low wall separating pedestrians from a fatal drop, the bridge became the site of more than 120 deaths from accidents and suicides before 1993.

A television reporter, broadcasting live from the top of the bridge at the time, pointed out to viewers that there were virtually no safety measures in place and that a small wall was the only thing standing between a pedestrian and a fatal plunge below.

In 1993, safety barriers, crisis phones and suicide prevention measures were introduced, fundamentally transforming the bridge’s character. Events like the Bridge to Brisbane fun run later welcomed people back onto the structure in a very different context.

Twin spans and a new name

Gateway Bridge under construction (Photo credit: Public Domain/Paul Guard/Wikimedia Commons)

By the mid-2000s, Brisbane’s booming population had outgrown the original six lanes. A second, near-identical bridge was built just 50 metres away, opening in 2010 at a cost of around $350 million, compared to the original’s $92 million build. It added a dedicated pedestrian and cycling path.

The pair were later renamed the Sir Leo Hielscher Bridges, in honour of the German-born Queensland Treasury chief who helped shape the state’s finances for decades. He called the recognition “a great honour,” though most locals still just say “the Gateway.”

The removal of toll booths in 2009 in favour of electronic tolling also led to an immediate reduction in crashes. Today, motorists pay around $5.50 to cross, with trucks charged closer to $18. Together, the twin bridges now carry up to 160,000 vehicles a day, a staggering leap from the roughly 12,000 vehicles that crossed in its early days.

Read: Should Brisbane’s Tunnels and Bridges Be Toll-Free? More Than 1,500 Drivers Think So

Forty years on, the Gateway’s story is one of transformation, from traffic solution to tragedy, and ultimately to redemption. Not bad for a bridge most of us barely notice on the morning commute.

Published 28-April-2026

New Schneider Road Shared Path Fills Key Gap in Moreton Bay Cycleway at Eagle Farm

Queensland TMR

A new 600-metre shared path connecting the Moreton Bay Cycleway at the Schneider Road underpass in Eagle Farm to the Brisbane Airport precinct at Viola Place is now open, closing a long-standing gap in the cycling network that had frustrated northside riders for years.

The path, completed in late January 2026 after construction began in May 2025, gives cyclists, walkers and scooter riders a safe, continuous off-road connection between Eagle Farm and the airport for the first time. Dozens of cyclists turned out on opening morning to celebrate the new link, with a free pop-up coffee station set up along the path to mark the occasion.

For Ascot and Eagle Farm residents who commute to the airport precinct or connect to the broader cycling network from the northside, the new path removes the last significant off-road gap on this stretch of the Moreton Bay Cycleway. For riders arriving from Brisbane’s southside via the Gateway Bridge, it completes a critical northern link that previously forced cyclists onto road shoulders or into detours to continue their journey toward the airport and TradeCoast Central employment areas.

A Route Through the Gateway Motorway Corridor

The new path begins at the existing cycleway at Schneider Road in Eagle Farm, passes under the Gateway Motorway, and connects to the existing bike lane and footpath at Viola Place inside the Brisbane Airport precinct. The network map shows how the connection slots into a broader web of routes: northbound from Viola Place, riders can continue along Lomandra Drive into the airport precinct, or pick up the Jim Soorley Bikeway toward Nundah, Northgate and the Redcliffe Peninsula. Southbound, the path connects to the Moreton Bay Cycleway running toward Redland Bay and the Gateway Bridge, as well as the Southern Cross Way off-road path and on-road options along Lamington Avenue and Kingsford Smith Drive toward Hamilton and Northshore.

For Eagle Farm and Pinkenba workers, the Schneider Road connection also creates the first direct off-road cycling link to the TradeCoast Central precinct from the south, avoiding the need to navigate Nudgee Road or Sugarmill Road on-road.

What the New Path Includes

The shared path varies between 2.5 and 3 metres in width, comfortably accommodating cyclists and pedestrians travelling in both directions. The path features solar-powered LED lighting along its full length for safe travel at all hours, a reconstructed weir and new waterway crossing where the path crosses a drainage channel near the Gateway Motorway, a kerb ramp at the Viola Place end for smooth access to the airport’s existing bike lane and footpath, and wayfinding signage and line marking throughout to guide riders unfamiliar with the route. Landscaping and turfing are also included, with minor tree removals carried out in consultation with a qualified arborist during construction.

Connecting Eagle Farm to a 150-Kilometre Network

The Moreton Bay Cycleway spans 150 kilometres of Brisbane’s coastline, connecting the Redcliffe Peninsula, the Sandgate and Shorncliffe foreshore, and the Wynnum and Manly foreshore to one another and to major inner-city bikeways. The cycleway links to the Gateway Bridge Bikeway, Kedron Brook Bikeway, Jim Soorley Bikeway and Gateway North Bikeway, and when complete may become one of the longest cycleways on Australia’s east coast spanning three local government areas.

The Gateway Bridge shared path, free for pedestrians and cyclists, is a busy crossing point used daily by commuter and recreational riders connecting Brisbane’s southside to the northside. With the Schneider Road link now in place, a rider can cross the Gateway Bridge from Murrarie, continue through Eagle Farm under the motorway, and reach the Brisbane Airport precinct, the TradeCoast Central employment hub or the Jim Soorley Bikeway entirely on off-road paths. That seamless connection is what active transport advocates in the area have sought for some time.

Around 25,000 people travel to Brisbane Airport each day for work, a number expected to grow by around 20,000 over the next two decades. Brisbane Airport’s draft 2026 Master Plan includes a series of active transport initiatives across the precinct, aimed at giving workers lower-cost and healthier commuting options as the airport precinct expands.

How to Access the New Path

The new shared path is open at all hours. Riders approaching from the south can access the Schneider Road underpass from Kingsford Smith Drive via Lamington Avenue, or from the Moreton Bay Cycleway running north from the Gateway Bridge. Riders within the airport precinct can connect from Viola Place.

More information is available here. The project team can be reached on 07 3178 5413 during business hours, or 07 3403 8888 at any time.

Published 26-February-2026.