NEW fountains will be built in King George Square and in the suburbs under a $6 million election pledge from Lord Mayor Graham Quirk, as new details emerge about a proposed fountain in the middle of the Brisbane River.

A $3 million water feature will be built in King George Square, while two other fountains were promised for Dowse Lagoon at Sandgate and the lake at Forest Lake.

Cr Quirk also revealed plans for a $2 million river-based fountain just east of the Victoria Bridge, which he said would be built later this year as money was allocated to it in last year’s budget.

“It will have 12 jets with varying designs of those jets throughout the course of the day,” he said.

King George Square had a controversial $28 million re-design in 2009 which saw greenery and the fountain removed.

media_camera Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk. Picture: Tara Croser.

Cr Quirk has previously criticised an announcement from Labor’s lord mayoral candidate Rod Harding about greening King George Square and building a fountain, due to the technical difficulties with the car park and busway underneath.

Yesterday Cr Quirk said the technical issues could be dealt with by using a smaller design.

“This is not going to be a full-blown fountain, it’s a water feature,” he said.

“The restriction has always been around the load limits.

“We need to look towards improvements as we go. If we can do that, why shouldn’t we.”

He said the council would seeking designs from the private sector.

“We want something that is new world city in its style,” he said.

As part of last year’s budget the council allocated funds towards reopening several fountains around the city de-commissioned during the drought.

“These fountains will be here to stay, drought or no drought,” Cr Quirk said.

The river-based will be known as the Daphne Mayo Fountain, named after the woman responsible for several significant sculptures in Brisbane, including the Queensland Women’s War Memorial.

In 1977 the Jubilee fountain, located in the Brisbane River in front of the cultural centre, was opened and became a popular attraction.

But in 1984 it sank due to a cracked weld in the main floatation chamber, according to news reports at the time.

It was eventually shut down following repeated problems throughout its short life and was regarded as too expensive to maintain, facing issues with clogging due to sediment.

Premier Mike Ahern officially scuttled it in 1988 after the lowest tender to get the fountain operating again came in at around $300,000 which he described as “prohibitive and unwarranted”.

Cr Quirk admitted there were issues with the 1977 fountain, but said, “there’s been a lot of lessons learned from the previous Jubilee fountain”.

Mr Harding said he first raised the issue of a fountain in King George Square last year.

“Just a fountain isn’t what’s required, you need a complete overhaul,” he said.

“Graham Quirk loves to make lots of excuses about why things can’t be done.”

Mr Harding said he would not proceed with a fountain in the Brisbane river if elected.

“It’s not a priority for me to focus on fancy fountains in the river,” he said.