The Star Brisbane, Queen’s Wharf

The ten — Essays — The Star Brisbane

From Treasury to Queen’s Wharf

The necessary beginning is not the hotel lobby but the end of the former house. The official opening material says Treasury Brisbane casino closed at midnight on Sunday 25 August 2024, and The Star Brisbane began its staged opening on Thursday 29 August 2024, with the gaming floors from 2pm and Sky Deck from 5pm. The old Treasury Brisbane should therefore be treated here only as history, not as a present casino hotel, a point I also keep in the site’s timeline, 1973 to today.

Queen’s Wharf gives Brisbane a different sort of house from the former Treasury building. The address in the Star material is 33 William Street, Brisbane City QLD 4000, and the setting is the Brisbane River and Queen’s Wharf precinct, with the Neville Bonner Bridge connecting South Bank to The Terrace on Level 4. The precinct material says that bridge opened with the first phase on 29 August 2024, and names it after the first Indigenous parliamentarian. I have not added an architect, a private anecdote or a construction date beyond those supplied facts, because the official material is already specific enough about the public moment of transfer.

The day-one roll call is useful because it explains what a guest is actually entering. The official release names Neville Bonner Bridge, the Sky Deck viewing platform, The Star Grand, the Event Centre, Levels 5–6 with LiveWire, Sports Bar, Fat Noodle, Food Quarter, Cherry, the Main Casino Floor and Premium Gaming Rooms, and Sokyo. Later pieces of the precinct are described as progressive, including The Terrace dining, the hotel pools, the Leisure Deck and public space. On the published record, this is a young house with a long Brisbane preface, and that mixture matters to a stay.

Ownership and operation, by the record

The ownership wording for this house needs care, because The Star’s position changed after the opening. The roster record says: “The Star also manages ... The Star Brisbane, on behalf of the Destination Brisbane Consortium (DBC) owned by Chow Tai Fook Enterprises (CTFE) and Far East Consortium International (FEC)”. The deeper company record adds that The Star Entertainment Group says it operates The Star Brisbane at Queen’s Wharf Brisbane and entered a binding agreement in August 2025 to sell its 50% equity interest in the Destination Brisbane Consortium.

The ASX record dated 1 April 2026 says Stage 1 was completed by disposing of The Star’s interest in DBC to the Joint Venture Partners, Chow Tai Fook Enterprises Limited and Far East Consortium International Limited. The same record says The Star continues as casino operator under the DBC Casino Management Agreement for “a fixed annual fee of $18 million payable monthly” plus performance incentive fees from 1 April 2026, with a performance-based termination right for DBC on not less than 90 days’ notice. The FY26 release says Stage 2, including DGCC Gold Coast assets and the Treasury Hotel and Car Park, was expected in 2H CY2026 and by no later than 31 March 2027.

The regulator record is also part of the building’s present tense. Queensland’s Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation is the state regulator listed in the facts, and the Queensland note says The Star Brisbane was issued an unconditional casino licence on 28 August 2024, subject to the appointment of an External Adviser and the adoption of The Star’s Remediation Plan; the External Adviser was extended to 30 September 2026. That date had passed by the facts date, and no later Queensland decision was found on a fetched page. For readers comparing houses, I set this sort of transparency against the same yardstick used in how the houses are ranked.

The hotel inside the precinct

The hotel open to book in the present record is The Star Grand Brisbane. The official hotel page gives “340 beautifully appointed rooms”, while the opening release says 340 hotel rooms including four penthouses. Its published room categories are City King Room, City Accessible Room, City Twin Room, River King Room and River Accessible Room, with City Suite, River Suite, Skyline City Suite and Skyline Penthouse Suite named as suites. Check-in is 3:00 PM and check-out is 11:00 AM, with express check-out on request. Valet is via the porte cochere at 33 William Street.

I would not describe the stay as complete in the way one might describe a settled older resort, because the facts keep pointing to a precinct still filling out. The hotel facilities now open include Isoletto Pool Club on Level 7, exclusive to Star Grand guests, with three heated pools overlooking the Brisbane River, sauna, steam room, indoor gymnasium and pool bar. The opening release describes three hotel pools including two infinity-edged pools and a pool bar, and a Leisure Deck on Level Seven. No dedicated spa is listed in the fetched official material.

The food and drink list is larger than a guest will need for one night, but it helps locate the house. Official pages name Sokyo, Aloria, Cucina Regina, Black Hide Steak & Seafood by Gambaro, Dark Shepherd, Azteca, LÚC LẮC, Pompette, Babblers, Fat Noodle and Food Quarter, with cuisines stated for some and not for others. Bars named in the facts include Cicada Blu, LiveWire, Sports Bar, Cherry and Lobby Bar. Where a cuisine is not published, I do not supply one. If the question is only the room and the river setting, The Star Grand answers it plainly; if the question is the whole Queen’s Wharf promise, some of the answer remains staged.

Sky Deck and the river city

Sky Deck is the public image of the new house, and its figures are official enough to quote without embroidery. The Star’s page describes it as soaring 100 metres above the CBD, and the precinct site calls it a 250-metre seemingly-suspended rooftop runway. The opening release names a glass-bottom observation deck. Its venues are Aloria, Babblers and Cicada Blu, and the published viewing-platform hours are Monday to Thursday 6:30am–10:30pm, Friday and Saturday 6:30am–midnight, and Sunday 6:30am–10:30pm, with operation weather-dependent.

The Event Centre gives the house another scale. The Destination Brisbane Consortium opening-date page describes a 1,440 seat ballroom with pre-function bar, outdoor terrace and views to the Story Bridge, while the opening release describes a 3,500sqm Event Centre with the city’s largest hotel ballroom. The events page also names Isoletto Pool Club, Sky Deck and Leisure Deck as event venues, and gives the events contact as TSBsales@star.com.au. I treat the secondary ballroom figure in the general facts, “Ballroom seats 1,500”, as secondary, because the official event detail is more precise.

Transport and parking are more prosaic but useful. The official parking record says The Star Brisbane car park is on William Street, with entrances from William Street, Queen’s Wharf Road and Margaret Street, open 24/7 subject to availability, no vehicles over 2.1m, card only with a 0.8% surcharge, and rates published but not copied here. The precinct site lists Roma Street, Central and South Brisbane stations within walking distance, Brisbane’s Uptown bus hub a short walk, North Quay ferry stop or terminal a short walk, and the Bicentennial Bikeway with end-of-ride facilities. No airport distance or time is published in the fetched material, so I leave that blank rather than borrow one.

The casino floor, stated carefully

The casino is part of the property, not the reason this page exists. The official casino facts say The Star Brisbane operates 24/7, with short closures on Good Friday, ANZAC Day and Christmas Day, although the details page could not be read in the fetched material. The minimum-age wording is direct: “Guests must be aged 18 years or over to enter the Casino.” The Star Club is also 18+ with valid photo ID, free to join, and the Membership Card is used to play, stay and dine.

The size of the casino floor is deliberately understated in the public facts. The opening release says the gaming floors comprise just five per cent of the Queen’s Wharf Brisbane precinct, and the deeper facts describe an open-plan casino floor with expansive balconies, but no table or machine counts are published. I do not add counts from elsewhere. Australia’s online casino prohibition under the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 is part of the country rules for this site, so all references here are to physical buildings only; nothing on this page offers or implies casino play through the website.

Compared with older houses in the comparison, The Star Brisbane has the advantage of a current official room count, detailed public-deck material and a clear opening sequence, but it has less continuity of operation than Wrest Point, Crown Melbourne or Crown Perth. That is why I read it as a house still becoming itself. The stay today is legible: a new river hotel, published room types, Level 7 pools, Sky Deck above the river and a dining roster that is still being filled in. For the official booking path, go to the hotel, or ask our desk.

Scores

• Story and building20 / 30Treasury’s closure, the licence transfer and Queen’s Wharf give the house a strong documented building story, though still recent.
• The stay today as published16 / 25The Star Grand publishes 340 rooms, room categories, check-in times and Level 7 pool facilities, but no dedicated spa.
• Setting15 / 20The Brisbane River, Neville Bonner Bridge, The Terrace and Sky Deck make the setting unusually clear in official material.
• Transparency10 / 15Ownership, operator changes and room facts are well sourced, but some regulatory and casino-detail pages are incomplete or unreadable.
• Continuity of operation3 / 10The Brisbane casino lineage continues from Treasury, but this Queen’s Wharf house only began its staged opening in August 2024.

Verdict

A young river house with a long Brisbane preface.

Go to the hotel