LAUNCESTON:
OUR CITY, 
YOUR VOICE

We’ve increased investment in Launceston year after year, from $26.9 million in 2024/25, to $34 million in 2025/26, and now a record $66 million capital works program in 2026/27, the largest in Council’s recorded history.

But this isn’t spending for the sake of it. Around 96% of this year’s capital program is renewing and upgrading existing assets, backed by long-term financial and asset planning.

Record investment, responsible management and a plan to look after Launceston for the long term.

After years of uncertainty, there is finally a way forward for one of the most important sites in our CBD.

Council selected local developers for a $15 million mixed-use redevelopment, bringing around 20 new homes, food and beverage spaces, commercial tenancies, play space, public amenities (toilets, finally) and a revitalised connection between Brisbane Street Mall and Paterson Street.

Importantly, the historic façade stays as part of its next chapter.

A dormant CBD landmark becoming homes, business and activity in the heart of Launnie.

On 24 January 2026, Launceston hosted the Foo Fighters’ only Australian concert at UTAS Stadium, and bloody hell, did Launnie show up.

An official crowd of 25,157 made it Tasmania’s biggest concert event, the Friday before became Launceston Airport’s busiest day on record, and the event injected approximately $7.8 million into the economy.

Council contributed $150,000 to help lock it in.

That’s around $52 into the economy for every Council dollar invested. And what a buzz.

After being forced to close following a landslip in 2019, the much-loved Road Safety Centre is back and better than ever.

The $3.8 million redevelopment, supported by $1 million from the Australian Government, transformed a Launceston childhood institution into a colourful, modern, accessible and inclusive facility for another generation.

And it’s already receiving recognition, winning a 2025 Parks & Leisure Australia Tasmania Award of Excellence.

We didn’t just replace what we lost, we made it better.

We tried something new, and Launceston absolutely embraced it.

The first Thoroughfare Art and Culture Festival brought around 10,000 people into our CBD for street art, live music, skating, food and activity across our streets and laneways, while delivering 12 major new artworks across the city.

It supported local businesses, transformed graffiti-prone spaces and showed what can happen when we use creativity to activate and care for our city.

One big day, thousands of people and a lasting new layer of colour across Launnie.

Launceston and the Tamar Valley were named the 4th best region in the world to visit in Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2025, and the only Australian destination in the global top five.

Then in 2026, Expedia named Launceston one of Australia’s Top 10 winter holiday destinations, based on its own booking data.

That recognition puts our city in front of millions of travellers and supports accommodation, hospitality, retail and tourism businesses.

People around Australia and the world are taking notice of Launceston.

Launceston was crowned the 2025 Keep Australia Beautiful National Tidy Towns Overall Winner, taking out the top honour against communities from across Australia.

And it wasn’t simply about clean streets. The award recognised our work across sustainability, recycling, litter reduction, water conservation and community-led environmental projects, including Spring Clean Rocherlea, our Water Efficiency Program, Repair Café and circular economy initiatives.

It’s national recognition for work happening right across our community.

After decades of discussion, a $35 million convention centre and riverfront redevelopment at Kings Wharf is finally moving forward.

The project includes a 4,000m² convention centre for up to 1,000 people alongside a proposed 120-room hotel, with the City investing $5 million into the precinct, including critical riverbank remediation and infrastructure.

It has the potential to attract around 40 business events every year, supporting hotels, restaurants and businesses across Launceston.

Something our city has talked about for decades is finally becoming real.

City Park is one of Launceston’s most loved family spaces, but its playground was well and truly showing its age.

Hutch was literally rusting away, much of the play equipment had reached the end of its life, and the iconic mushroom toilet was probably iconic for all the wrong reasons.

We’re delivering a completely renewed, accessible play space, while Hutch is returning to Don River Railway with plans to restore him as a working locomotive.

A much-loved Launceston space finally getting the renewal it deserves.

Royal Park continues to grow as one of our city’s great community spaces, connecting the CBD, QVMAG, Seaport and Cataract Gorge.

Investment has included a major upgrade of the Royal Park Skate Park, improved accessibility and new public amenities, including five individual toilets, an accessible toilet and a Changing Places facility for people with high support needs.

It’s another step in making our major public spaces genuinely usable by more people.

Making one of our most popular parks better, more accessible and more useful for everyone.

One of the greatest privileges of being Mayor is welcoming our newest Australian citizens.

Since 2023, I’ve had the honour of welcoming more than 1,500 new citizens from over 30 different countries, each choosing to call Launceston home.

They’ve chosen our city to build careers, raise families, start businesses and build their futures, adding their own stories, cultures and experiences to ours.

Our city is stronger for every person who chooses to be part of it.

In 2026, the City of Launceston became a Premier Partner of Hawthorn Football Club, taking our 25-year relationship beyond simply hosting games.

For the first time, the Launceston brand is being put directly in front of national AFL audiences through coaches’ apparel, match-day signage, media walls, changerooms and digital marketing.

After 25 years of AFL in our city, we’re making that relationship work harder for Launceston.

We’re not simply 'hosting the footy', we’re using it to sell Launceston across Australia.

Since Recycle Rewards launched in May 2025, Launceston has embraced the 10-cent refund, now sitting in Tasmania’s top 10 for containers returned per person.

Council partnered with Recycle Rewards to introduce dedicated collection points across our public spaces, making it easier to keep containers out of bins and off our streets.

There’s a community benefit too, with more than $400,000 donated to charities, sporting clubs and community groups across Tasmania through the scheme.

Less litter, more recycling, and money going back into our communities.

For years, our community told us Launceston needed a pump track. We listened and delivered the city’s first dedicated facility, designed and built by specialist trail builders World Trail.

It filled a gap identified in Northern Tasmania’s sporting infrastructure and created another free recreation option for bikes, scooters and active people of all ages.

Not every sporting investment needs a scoreboard, grandstand or clubroom. Sometimes it’s about creating different ways for people to get active.

Another way to get outside, get moving and have a crack.

After more than a century of performances, the Princess Theatre and Earl Arts Centre are undergoing their most significant transformation in generations.

The $43 million redevelopment will restore the heritage-listed Princess while rebuilding the Earl as the new Earl Street Theatre, with better accessibility, backstage and technical facilities while protecting the Princess Theatre’s Art Deco character.

We also secured $12.7 million from the Australian Government, with local contractor Fairbrother delivering the build.

Protecting more than 100 years of history while building a performing arts precinct ready for the next 100.

Punchbowl Reserve has been a favourite for generations of Launceston families, but its playground equipment had also reached the end of its usable life.

Council has invested $500,000 to completely renew the play space, with new and more accessible equipment, a new flying fox, renewed softfall, landscaping and planting while retaining the natural character people love about Punchbowl.

It’s investment in the everyday places where families spend their time and memories are made.

A Launceston favourite, renewed for the next generation.

In 2024, the City of Launceston became the first Tasmanian council to officially partner with Safer Australian Roads and Highways (SARAH), founded by road safety advocate Peter Frazer OAM after his daughter Sarah was killed in a preventable crash.

The partnership goes beyond National Road Safety Week, committing Council and SARAH to work together on education, advocacy and building a stronger road safety culture across our community.

We were the first Council in Tasmania to sign on, because getting people home safely matters.

We’ve changed the balance of CBD parking to make it easier and more affordable to come into town and stay a while.

Our multi-storey car parks now offer the first hour free, adding to the existing free parking between 3.30pm and 5.30pm on weekdays.

Changes to on-street parking encourage greater turnover, keeping convenient spaces available for quick visits while encouraging longer stays into our multi-storeys.

Better turnover on the street and more affordable longer stays, means more reasons to spend time in our city.

We’ve worked alongside Launceston’s Inclusive Spaces Working Group to make our playgrounds and public spaces more accessible for everyone.

That includes practical changes like communication boards in our playgrounds, helping children who communicate differently to play, connect and interact with others.

But the bigger shift is considering accessibility from the design stage, rather than trying to retrofit it later, so inclusion becomes part of how we build our city.

Every child deserves the opportunity to play, connect and belong.

After almost 130 years in City Park, the Children’s Jubilee Fountain had reached the point where it was literally falling apart, with pieces of its historic cast iron breaking away.

Rather than lose it, Council dismantled the fountain into more than 100 individual pieces to be stripped, repaired and, where necessary, completely recast by specialist local craftspeople.

Originally funded by the children of Launceston and installed in 1897, it’s a pretty special piece of our story.

It was falling apart. Now it’s being preserved for the future.

The future of the historic Gorge Restaurant was literally heading downhill, with the 125-year-old building requiring critical work to its footings and structure.

Council is investing $300,000 to stabilise and renew the building, while a competitive process brought experienced local operators Gunn & Parkinson into both the Gorge Restaurant and Basin Café.

It secures two important hospitality spaces at one of Tasmania’s most visited attractions and supports our UNESCO City of Gastronomy status.

Sometimes looking after what we own means making sure it doesn’t literally slide down the hill.

There’s an old saying 'cranes in the sky are a sign of confidence in a city', and right now Launceston’s skyline is telling a pretty exciting story.

The Fragrance Group’s 179-room hotel development is under construction alongside the new Quest development, Birchalls and other significant private projects.

Though council doesn’t build these developments, we absolutely have a role in creating a city where people want to invest, build and do business.

More investment, more jobs, more confidence, and more cranes in the sky.

Almost 100 years after it opened, the John Hart Conservatory has been given a new lease on life through a major $1 million restoration.

Its foundations were stabilised, structural elements repaired, roofing and glazing renewed, drainage and ventilation improved and the gardens refreshed.

The quality of the restoration is already being recognised, with the Conservatory winning a 2026 AGWA Tasmania Design & Industry Award, with further award recognition underway.

Protecting the pieces of Launceston that make our city special.

We’ve significantly strengthened the City of Launceston’s approach to protecting children and young people, embedding child safety into how our organisation operates, makes decisions and delivers services.

Council adopted its Child and Youth Safety Policy, appointed a dedicated Child and Youth Safe Officer, and undertook an organisation-wide audit against Tasmania’s 10 Child and Youth Safe Standards and Universal Principle.

We're chosing to go above statutory  obligations by making child safety part of the culture of our organisation.