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The state’s decision to pre-emptively sign off on the name for the new Glasshouse Theatre, months before the public was seemingly given the decision, might have come down to marketability, the premier says.
The state opened a public vote in April last year to name the new 1500-seat Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) venue, offering four pre-selected options or the chance to write in a fresh suggestion.
However, documents seen by Brisbane Times show the arts minister had already greenlit the Glasshouse moniker – and one name proposed by a QPAC board was never offered to the public.
In an email sent on January 29, 2025, a government advisor said Arts Minister John-Paul Langbroek was “set on ‘Glasshouse Theatre’”.
The minister authorised the decision to name the theatre on February 3, 2025, and about the same time QPAC chair Rachel Healy was informed of the preference.
Writing back two weeks later, Healy said QPAC’s board had concerns because other venues shared the name, including a nationally recognised theatre in Port Maquarie.
Healy suggested multiple other names, and said the board backed “The Watershed”.
QPAC’s Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander advisory group recommended the name Oodgeroo, after activist and poet Oodgeroo Noonuccal.
“The advisory group’s recommendation of Oodgeroo can be seen as an inspirational national example of Queensland creative imagination and leadership,” Healy wrote.
In a parliamentary estimates hearing in August last year, Healy confirmed QPAC had first recommended names for the new theatre to the state in March 2024.
She said the name Oodgeroo has also “stood out” in the view of the advisory group at the time.
The state held the vote in mid-2025 offering the names The Glasshouse, The Watershed, Lantern and Russell Street.
The first two options were linked to local landmarks, including the Glasshouse Mountains and Brisbane River, while Lantern was “inspired by the theatre’s shimmering facade”.
For Russell Street, the brief read: “Theatre located on the corner of Russell and Grey streets.”
Premier David Crisafulli said no one had any issues with the new theatre’s name at its opening gala last Thursday, and maintained the name had come from Queenslanders.
“We asked the people to have a say [and] they had a say,” he said,
“It’s still significant, and it’s a great name.”
“It’s magnificent, people will understand it, they will see it, it’ll make a remarkable ability to market it, and I think the decisions are sound.”
When asked why the name Oodgeroo had not been offered on the public ballot, Crisafulli said: “The name is fitting of what that facility is, it’s clearly able to be marketed across the globe, [and] people know exactly what it is.”
Crisafulli said the state “should find ways” to honour Noonuccal, but said the theatre “was named by Queenslanders for Queenslanders”.
The electorate of Oodgeroo, which includes North Stradbroke Island (Minjerribah) was reverted to its previous name of Cleveland in an electorate reshuffle last week.
The Glasshouse theatre’s opening makes QPAC the largest performing arts centre under one roof in Australia. Showings of Sting’s The Last Ship were set to begin from April 9.
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