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Jessica van Vonderen talks to ABC Managing Director Mark Scott after an announcement that the Queensland Symphony Orchestra will be joining the ABC at it's new headquarters at Southbank, due to be finished in 2011.

Source: 7.30 Queensland | Duration: 5min 24sec

Topics: public-sector, human-interest, qld

Transcript

JESSICA van VONDEREN: ABC TV here in Queensland is celebrating a birthday. Next week is 50 years since the national broadcaster began televising in this state. Former and current staff members will get together to mark the occasion. One of the biggest changes for the corporation in the next 50 years will be the building of a new broadcast centre at Southbank in Brisbane; and today an announcement that the ABC will share the building with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. It's been almost three years since the ABC's Queensland headquarters at Toowong in Brisbane were abandoned because of a cancer cluster. I spoke to ABC Managing Director Mark Scott, from Melbourne, about the plans for the future.

JESSICA van VONDEREN: Mark Scott, next week marks ABC TV's 50th year broadcasting in Queensland. I know you weren't around then but what's the legacy of those 50 years?

MARK SCOTT, ABC MANAGING DIRECTOR: Well fantastic programming for Brisbane, for Queensland and programming out of Brisbane and Queensland to the rest of the country. Back in the early days of television we did a lot more local television. Now it's more of a national schedule, but we're very confident around the future that we're going to be able to deliver more channels free of charge into every home. So it's been an important legacy but it's a very exciting future.

JESSICA van VONDEREN: I guess the big question for the ABC now in Queensland at least is its new headquarters for the next 50 years are we still going to Southbank?

MARK SCOTT: Absolutely. Southbank planning is well underway now. Some exciting new design concepts have been looked at by the ABC Board and we'll be releasing those in the coming months. We're very pleased that the Queensland Orchestra is going to come into that new building with us and we're delighted at the location, putting us right in the cultural hub of Brisbane and Queensland. So planning well underway; hope to have the first sod turned this year and then a fast tracked development through 2010, 2011.

JESSICA van VONDEREN: So that's when Brisbane staff can expect to all be working in one location again 2010, 2011?

MARK SCOTT: Yeah more 2011. It's taken a little bit while to get through this planning process, but then we'll be fast tracking the development. You know it's very unfortunate the circumstances that's had the ABC staff in Brisbane at numerous different locations. That hasn't been our desire. We're keen to resolve that as quickly as we can. But we want to make sure that the building that we're putting up is going to be right and is going to serve as the rightful home and centre of the ABC in Queensland for the next 40 or 50 years. We're building this in recognition of the importance of Brisbane, the population growth there, that this will be the second biggest city in the country in a short period of time and so a lot of planning and a lot of work to make that Southbank home worthy as being the centre of ABC activity in Queensland.

JESSICA van VONDEREN: It's no secret that the Brisbane Lord Mayor didn't approve of the ABC moving to Southbank has that had any impact on the process?

MARK SCOTT: No I don't think so. I mean there are different planning processes that are required for the Southbank precinct. I appreciate there was some debate over us finding the home there, but we're very confident that in the medium term and certainly the long term people are going to think to put the ABC there in the heart of Southbank, next to QPAC, next to the conservatorium, that that's a great place for the ABC to be located. We are the most important cultural organisation in the country. It's a great precinct. It's a place that when we develop it we're going to invite the public in to their ABC, for them to be part of it.

JESSICA van VONDEREN: So what sort of funding are you asking from the Federal Government?

MARK SCOTT: Well the ABC is funding this. We're going to be funding this building through the money we've already been provided with. There are some borrowings involved and there are also the asset sales that we'll be undertaking in coming years to fund this project. So we haven't gone to Canberra seeking additional funding.

JESSICA van VONDEREN: You mentioned the Orchestra before what sort of facilities will they have?

MARK SCOTT: That'll all be released in coming months once the designs are out. But there will be a significant place for them to base themselves, for them to practice and rehearse and also there'll be recording facilities in the new building as well and the Orchestra will be using those and the ABC will be using those. We do a lot of recording at the ABC. We record more than 600 concerts every year as part of our operations for classic FM and Triple J and other areas of work. So it'll be a home for the Queensland Orchestra. We have a similar situation in our building in Melbourne with the Melbourne Symphony and again it's some rehearsal studios and a centre where they can base their work.

JESSICA van VONDEREN: And finally what's going to happen to the site at Toowong that staff abandoned almost three years ago now?

MARK SCOTT: We plan to sell that site and the sale, the proceeds from that sale will be funding our new development at Southbank. That sale process, we're just making our decisions now about the right way of marketing that site and selling that site. We've got a close eye to the state of the property market in Brisbane. We have to make some decisions around that, but no the Toowong site will be sold and all the money from the sale of that site will go to funding the new home for the ABC in Queensland.

JESSICA van VONDEREN: Mark Scott thank you.

MARK SCOTT: Thank you.