QPAC — Queensland Performing Arts Centre

QPAC — Queensland’s flagship performing arts venue

The Queensland Performing Arts Centre — universally known as QPAC — is the principal performing arts venue in Brisbane and the headquarters of cultural performance in the state. The complex sits at the southern end of the Cultural Centre on South Bank, on a site shared with the Queensland Art Gallery, the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), the Queensland Museum and the State Library of Queensland. QPAC opened in 1985 to a Robin Gibson design and has been progressively expanded since, most recently with the 2024 New Performing Arts Venue (NPAV) addition that brings a fifth performance space to the complex. It is the home of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Theatre, Queensland Ballet (mainstage seasons), and the touring point for Opera Australia, The Australian Ballet, Bell Shakespeare and the major musical-theatre tours.

The rooms

• Concert Hall — 1,800 seats. The Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s home, also used for choral, organ recitals (the Concert Hall houses an 84-rank Klais organ, the largest mechanical-action instrument in the southern hemisphere), and the touring orchestral acts. Acoustically warmer and more enveloping than Hamer Hall in Melbourne — the room rewards Romantic-period repertoire particularly well.
• Lyric Theatre — 2,000 seats. The principal mainstage for opera, ballet and large-scale theatre. Queensland Ballet’s full-length productions, Opera Australia’s Brisbane touring opera, and the major musical-theatre tours all use this room. Excellent sightlines for the size of the room.
• Playhouse — 850 seats. Queensland Theatre’s principal mainstage. Used also for smaller-scale dance and chamber-format opera.
• Cremorne Theatre — 350 seats. Configurable space for contemporary theatre, cabaret, and small-scale touring work.
• Studio (the new 2024 NPAV venue) — 1,500 seats, configurable. Designed as a flexible mid-scale space to fill the gap between Lyric and Playhouse capacity. Used for international touring contemporary work, mid-scale musical theatre, and large-scale dance and circus.

Acoustics and seat selection

Concert Hall: front-half stalls or circle middle. The rear stalls hold up better acoustically than the equivalent Hamer Hall position; the room is shallower. Choir stalls behind the orchestra are the cheap-seat option.

Lyric Theatre: front-half stalls and dress circle middle. The room is well-engineered for opera and ballet but the dress circle has a slightly better sound balance than the stalls for symphonic-scale opera (Verdi, Wagner). Avoid the upper levels at the side.

Playhouse: smaller and more intimate; excellent sightlines throughout. Stalls front-half is ideal.

Getting there and what to do nearby

Train to South Bank (one stop from Roma Street, three from Central) — five minutes’ walk to QPAC entry. Bus on the Cultural Centre busway. Walk across Victoria Bridge from the CBD (10 minutes). The on-site car park is the easiest option for a Brisbane visitor — book online. CityCat ferry to South Bank is the most pleasant approach if you have time.

Pre- and post-show dining: the on-site QPAC restaurants (Lyrebird Restaurant, Ristorante Da Andrea on Grey Street) are the standard pre-curtain options. South Bank’s Grey Street and Little Stanley Street precincts are dense with restaurants — Stokehouse Q on the river, OTTO Ristorante (15 min walk to the Riverside), and the casual Eat Street Northshore market on weekends. The Treasury Brisbane and W Brisbane hotels are five minutes’ walk for a pre-dinner cocktail.

Good to know

QPAC’s accessibility programme is one of the most developed in the country — comprehensive Auslan, audio-description and captioning across the main-stage seasons, hearing loops in every space, and excellent wheelchair access. Backstage tours run on selected days; book through the website. The Cultural Centre precinct location means a single-day pairing easily covers QPAC matinee, GOMA exhibition, and the Queensland Art Gallery in walking distance. The on-site QPAC bar service opens 90 minutes before curtain; pre-order interval drinks online for the major productions to skip the queue.