How South Bank's Creative Underground Built Brisbane's Modern Identity

In 2008, when the Powerhouse pub first opened its doors on Merivale Street in South Brisbane, the neighbourhood was still finding its feet. The Powerhouse was one of maybe three live music venues operating within walking distance. Today, that same block hosts galleries, artist collectives, experimental theatre spaces and late-night bars that have become shorthand for Brisbane's cultural resurgence. But the story of how this happened isn't one of government grants or developer largesse. It's a story of bartenders, painters, musicians and venue operators who refused to leave when rent was cheap.

This matters now because Brisbane is at a crossroads. Property prices are climbing again after cooling last year, according to recent reports tracking Australia's real estate turbulence. Developers are circling South Brisbane. Heritage advocates are quietly panicking. The creative communities that built this scene—many of whom can no longer afford inner-city rent—are already being squeezed toward the periphery. Understanding how South Bank became what it is today means understanding what we stand to lose.

The Cheap Rent Years

Sandra Lopez, who runs the artist-run space Nonart at 43 Merivale Street, can pinpoint the exact moment things shifted. It was 2010, she says, when a cluster of artist groups began occupying vacant warehouse spaces along the inner-city stretch. The Glassworks, an artist collective that operated from a converted industrial building, was one of the first. Then came Studios Brisbane at 76 Merivale, which still operates today as affordable studio space for visual artists, housing roughly 40 practitioners across its three-storey building. Rent for a studio ran $180 to $220 per week—prices that would be laughable now.

"People came here because they couldn't afford New Farm or South Yarra," Lopez explained in a recent conversation. "But once you had galleries and live music and artists actually walking the streets at night, something happened." The South Brisbane Neighbours Association began hosting community events. The old Judith Wright Centre, which had been operating since 1982 on Pacifico Street, became a focal point for interdisciplinary work—performance, visual art, community activism all bleeding into each other.

By 2015, the formula was working. Venues like The Triffid, which opened on Peel Street as a mid-sized live music space, began booking national and international acts. Young musicians moved here. Visual artists set up shop. Bars that served cheap wine and expensive cocktails opened in converted corner stores. The precinct developed its own visual language—murals by local artists covering blank walls, vintage furniture stores replacing tired laundromats, the unmistakable smell of single-origin coffee drifting down the street.

The Economics of Creation

According to a 2023 City of Brisbane cultural report, South Brisbane generated roughly $180 million in economic activity annually, with approximately 2,400 jobs tied directly to the arts and creative industries within the precinct. That figure has likely climbed since. Yet here's the uncomfortable truth: most of the people who created that value couldn't afford to stay.

The Powerhouse pub closed in 2019 after rising rates and changing demographics made its original business model unviable. Studios Brisbane, which remains genuinely affordable by modern standards, now has a waiting list stretching into years. Nonart relocated twice in the past five years, chasing cheaper square footage. The Triffid moved venues in 2022, searching for more sustainable economics.

This pattern repeats across every neighbourhood that becomes culturally desirable. The creative workers who incubate the scene are eventually priced out by it. It's not inevitable, though. Community groups are now pushing Brisbane City Council for heritage protections that include affordability clauses—contracts that legally bind cultural spaces to community-serving mission statements even as property values climb. The Judith Wright Centre, now part of a broader South Brisbane cultural precinct plan, has begun advocating for zoning changes that reserve ground floor space for arts organisations.

Want to experience the South Brisbane scene while it still exists in its current form? Visit Studios Brisbane to see working artist spaces. Catch live music at The Triffid. Walk Merivale Street on a Friday night and talk to bar owners about what they've built. The precinct isn't going anywhere tomorrow. But the cheap rent that enabled its creation is already a memory.