Brian Kelly

Interviewer: Brian thanks for agreeing to be part of my study. Is there anything you’d
like to ask before we begin?

Brain: No, I think as we sort of discussed before the meeting which is

understanding what the context around the purpose of the questions or just
a helpful [0:00:19] responses, but I think behind the stands the masters
course work, and it’s placed around the, I guess Legacy benefits that
[0:00:29] have experiences since the common wealth games, and I guess
specifically since the refurbishment that was completed as part of its plan.

Interviewer: Yeah, so can you tell me what your role was in the common wealth
games?

Brain: Yes, so I was the Project manager in lead within the venue development
and overlay teams. So, the overlay team, venue development and overlay
team, was sort of the primary interface with the state government,
department of state development, who were responsible for delivering all
of the legacy permanent venues, and upgrades to existing venues for the
common wealth games.

And then the overlay team were responsible for the event time, design and
the event time, delivery of any of the temporary structures and services,
and the lot that were required to- I guess to support the requirements of a
major event, whether that be for operations or for the sport itself in the
field of play, enhanced lighting, power generation and the look.

So, in that role I sort of oversaw six different Costa teams, each with
project managers, design managers, engineer managers, and…

Interviewer: What's a Costa team?

Brain: Costa team, I guess is a major event where we regroup a number of venues
whether that be geo-graphical or sport, same sport federation into one

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cluster and it’s managed by one team within the venue of development and
overlay team, it’s just a way, made a bit more efficient in the resources,
because we wouldn’t- yeah, it would end up being very expensive and the
resource heavy exercise if every venue had a dedicated project team,
throughout the- certainly more during the early stage through the design
and planning stages.

Interviewer: Okay. So, when you say Costa team, you just try and- just on is that for
those that are not here, each of those Costa team looked after all the
venues that were at the game, is that right?

Brain: Yes. So, all the competition and non-competition, and athlete village
venues were covered by the six Costas.

Interviewer: Okay.

Brain: So, the Brough bridge goals was part of one of those clusters, cluster three,
which had a Costa project manager and number of design managers and
project coordinators and side managers, events, supported all the venues
and then the Costa for- there was three or four competition venues within
that, and then also handful of non-competition venues.

Interviewer: Alright and just stepping a little bit away from that particular major event,
what was some of your previous roles that you’ve also done in this space?

Brain: Yes, so I’ve, I guess, worked a number of years in the major event sector
so, started out in Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics, where I
worked on the Whistler athlete village, again was part of the overlay team,
designing the venues to be suitable for a major event athletes’ village ,
which is usually quite an interesting project, because the athlete villages
[Unclear] [0:04:04]one of the larger regeneration projects in a major event
and it typically becomes part of a long term housing scheme for the whole
city.

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 Brian Kelly

which may be some social housing or state owned or privately owned

apartments or villa type accommodation, for a major event they use quite
differently but the accommodation is there, and the overlay is primarily to
support the feeding of the athlete, which might be feeding six, seven,
eight, ten, thousand people per day, and also medical facilities, some
training facilities some on the side, so and some recreational facilities.

From there I did work on London 2012, I was the lead project manager on
the Olympic Park, so I looked after all of the [Unclear] [0:05:01] and
public realm, spaces of the Olympic park again had a number of different
teams working underneath me and with me, and works very closely with
the Olympic delivery authority, and they sort of project, program
management consultants, they were delivering the permanent works
within the Olympic park, I also do the same role in Glasgow, and in the
Common Wealth games of athlete villages and in park stadium, which is
the main athletic stadium and the venue for the closing ceremony.
[Crosstalk] [0:05:36] goes, I spent a year in Baku in Azerbaijani, in the
European games.

Interviewer: When was Vancouver again?

Brain: Vancouver was 2010.

Interviewer: Okay, so good decade.

Brain: Yeah, so I started there in 2008, so I spent 12 years with them in major
events.

Interviewer: Yeah. Alright, so we fast forward to 2016, 2017, 2018 common wealth
games, and you mentioned before that you’ve- one of the venues within
the Costa teams was the Brough Bridge Lawn bowls club which, as we
know is what we’re sort of focusing a little bit on today’s view, I guess.

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 Brian Kelly

What's your connection to the Brough Bridge Lawn bowls club if any,
and… yeah.

Brain: Yeah, it was probably- the main connection obviously is, I haven’t lived in
the Gold Coast before, starting with [Unclear] [0:06:30] on the games in
2016 so, 2015 sorry, but obviously before- during my time with [Unclear]
[0:06:45] we did have some social occasions, we had [Unclear] [0:06:47]
we had some lawn bowlss [Unclear] [0:06:50] down there, and then
obviously through the role.

Interviewer: Yeah, he’s very good to know about the… yeah.

Brain: Looking at the design, aspects of it, and working with the DSD on the
refurbishment work.

Interviewer: DSD, who’s DSD?

Brain: Department State Development, they had been the State government body
that manage the refurbishment works.

Interviewer: Got it, and so, you’re all started project refurbishment, is that right?

Brain: Yeah.

Interviewer: Okay, so you were there during the actual time that the design happened,
the builder came in refurbished, so you were saying that [Crosstalk]
[0:07:25]

Brain: I mean [Unclear] [0:07:27] was more of a touch point, we had team rather
than directly involved-

Interviewer: Yeah, I’m sorry.

Brain: - I had to direct the [Unclear] [0:07:35] with the project director from
DSD.

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 Brian Kelly

Interviewer: Okay.

Brain: Who was responsible for all of this, like his [Unclear] [0:07:43] said,
going back to the Gold Coast of [Crosstalk] [0:07:46] upgrades the new
sport venues in Coomera and Gala Drive.

Interviewer: Yeah. Okay, so just out of curiosity, you mentioned that you had a lot of-
some social events, a new time when you sort of started in the Gold Coast;
did you have any social events prior to refurbishment? Did you get it all
prior?

Brain: No, I didn’t have any events prior to refurbishment, but…

Interviewer: No, that’s alright. Okay. So, looking a little bit now into documentation
throughout these party, procedures and alike, what sort of- what do you
know of any related policies, to council related, Common Wealth Games
related, and policies, procedures, strategies with relation to the club? And
what was used to guide I guess the refurbishment, any developments
around the venue itself?

Brain: Yeah, I mean it's, I mean the general sporting and the design for the
sporting event itself is driven by the international sporting federation, so
we have their requirements that had to be incorporated into the design, and
obviously in the early stages with DSD managing that refurbishment
design, their focuses was on creating a club type environment that suited
Legacy, that also met requirements of the- met the requirements of the
event itself.

Interviewer: Yeah, okay.

Brain: So, there were some upgrades which were putting, which met the
requirements of ISF, and then with the Legacy.

Interviewer: Do you know which ones they were? Do you know?

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 Brian Kelly

Brain: There were some lighting upgrades which were ISF specific, but we ended
up having to enhance them as you know.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Brain: Obviously the extension the club facilities provide create a internal space
for certain functions, but primarily with a venue like Brough Bridge
because it is, you know, Legacy it is a community type venue, that can be
used for certain events, the focus was mainly on Legacy and we…

Interviewer: And you that for a fact, like that was part of scoping the lesser stuff, right?

Brain: Yeah, I mean if you look at our scope, in terms of what we’re delivering.

Interviewer: Which is your temporary [Crosstalk] [0:10:09]

Brain: Primarily all the spectators were provided within temporarily overlay
accommodation, other than those from the club has. There was, all the sort
of [Unclear] [0:10:24] accommodations, security facility [Crosstalk]
[0:10:26] been, for all temporary facilities, so.

Interviewer: I’m trying to focus on- I’m trying to get here, and understanding sort of
any level of information on specific documents that might have and been
around that guarded this, do you know of any?

Brain: No, not specifically, I mean they were…

Interviewer: But you know that these things, [Crosstalk] [0:10:45]

Brain: There would have been a venue proof that was put together around the full
requirements of the event and that’s what would have driven the
[Crosstalk] [0:10:54]

Interviewer: So, a venue brief put together by DSD?

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 Brian Kelly

Brain: No, it would have [Unclear] [0:10:57] have produced one.

Interviewer: Yup.

Brain: And I- and…

Interviewer: As part of the beat?

Brain: As part of the beat.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Brain: It would have, they would have assessed the venue, it suitability looked at
some basic block burning of that venue to confirm what sort of capacity
they could get, and whether that met the ISF’s requirements.

Interviewer: Yeah, okay.

Brain: Which is all pretty standard, so that’s part of the beat process, but then that
would have been taken forward into to the post beat phase, into that initial
briefing, brief development, that’s part of the department of state
government and [Unclear] [0:11:30] planning, so [Unclear] [0:11:31]
added that comes clearly [Unclear] [0:11:35] scope between what DSD
has to design, procure, and what [Unclear] [0:11:39] has to design, procure
on a temporary basis.

Brain: Got it and then- so what about, okay policies and procedures on a
temporary basis, how does that work?

Brain: Well, it’s- with the main complexity with Brough Bridge from our
perspective, I think was the interface with the local community, the
residents, the roads, network, a lot of our planning and a lot of your
planning [Unclear] [0:12:06] went into, had a minimize impact on those
residents to minimize or shut down of certain roads, limit- minimize

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 Brian Kelly

limited access to residents housing, confirming the waste management,

you know, services and it was a lot of time that went into that, so a lot of
that we have to follow standard council policy because the issues for road
closures and we had to work with them on communication to those
residents server.

Interviewer: And also, Queensland helps inside these [Unclear] [0:12:40] I guess.

Brain: Yeah, QFES. Yeah, Queensland Fund Emergency Services, it was

[Unclear] [0:12:45] in a very- so it had to be planned for them around the
venue. So, lot of that, we sort of go through the standard. Our SA standard
council is for an event, they are often- some [Unclear] [0:12:56] processes
that are put in place, direct connections that we have with certain
departments, [Crosstalk] [0:13:01] you know this, I mean; becomes very
integrated even though we are at different entities. Yeah, there is an
integrated structure there between council, road, [Unclear] [0:13:12], and
that was local and state government organizations.

Interviewer: How does- when you look in temporary structures and while procuring
temporary structures, and developing I guess, procedures, guidelines,
policies that we ought to do that, how does that sort of [Unclear]
[0:13:33] work?

Brain: Yeah, it varies to be honest, in every- like in [Unclear][0:13:39]

Queensland they had the major events act, which was I think enacted in
2011 so, pretty much just as the beat was one, and they brought in this
new legislation which guarded major events, and within that there were
places they require that we comply with the building code of Australia, in
terms of what we design, what was in store and to ensure engineers and
yeah, all the engineering behind it.

Obviously that was the- the [Unclear] [0:14:13] is not a prescriptive code,
its performance based, we took that in, you know, through a- use that

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 Brian Kelly

consultant teams, whether that be the certified of [Unclear] [0:14:25]

engineer or the accessibility consulting teams, we looked at alternatives
that could be put in place for a major event with a shorter duration, that
made it more economical, still, you know, maintaining the performance
requirements of the Coast and still safe and fit for purpose.

And obviously taking to account a lot of aspects around the high levels of
management, the proximity of emergency services during event that is the
duration that the structures are in use, to come up with final solution that
was to delivered in, and even now in all my major events experience I
think, the outcome in the Gold Coast is probably one of the higher
standard sort of saying for temporary structures and services in terms of
compliance with a building code, where, you know, regardless of where
that jurisdiction is in the world.

Interviewer: Alright, so looking at- we talked about a few policies and procedures
within state government, local, what [Unclear] [0:15:32] was doing at the
games, out of all of that, in relation to specifically the Brough Bridge
Lawn bowls club, which you think had the biggest impact on a venue and
the patrons in the community.

Brain: To be honest even though it wasn’t the document I was involved, you
know outside the brief document that was put together to support the
refurbishment and redevelopment.

Interviewer: Yeah, that was one I feel to, you just have to [Unclear] [0:15:59] what
you're saying.

Brain: Yeah, of the venue itself, as I said, in every major event and before a
decision is made to upgrade the venue they- takes a lot of time just to
ensure it’s appropriate for Legacy and it's going to be the right, you know,
it’s not going to become a burden on the local community or tax payers in
terms of increased maintenance or operation [Crosstalk] [0:16:22] for a

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 Brian Kelly

lifetime. So, I think they got it right with Brough Bridge where they focus
the upgrade works on the club house and if you have areas which just
improve its ability to attract some other events, the Australian open lawn
bowls or whatever that may be, but then really have a larger impact on the
local community. It’s a destination, you it's a…

Interviewer: What I would like to- you know you talked about roadways and such to
the actual venue itself, do you know of any things like, shelters, specific
broadways, any sort of, any other sort of surrounding infrastructure was
put in place to see if…

Brain: Yeah, I guess not, there were some oversee some element of road
upgrades around the area, a lot of the venue receives some resurfacing
works, but I specifically remember what was put in place, that sort of stuff
is done by the council itself.

Interviewer: Okay.

Brain: In conjunction with [Unclear] [0:17:27], but I can't remember specifically

what was put in the- from Brough Bridge you may know more than I do
but because of the way, major events work these days, and limited
parking, they do require significant bus facilities in proximity to venue
spectators and some guys work for some sponsors and other- an athlete
obviously, and lot of games family type, stake holders but- so, I don’t
know specifically, but I would certainly, I would expect that they would
be enhanced facility which would probably support along the term, public
transport type facility in the local area.

Sp1; Alright, so let's move on to the games and venue itself, what did you think
of the 2018 Common Wealth Games, did you enjoy them? Did you like or
dislike any of them?

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 Brian Kelly

Brain: Yeah, I mean, we come from a united position where we obviously to

deliver a venue there's a, as with many projects, there’s a, you know, lot of
challenges that has to be overcome, so. You know, to be out of seat in a
venue during an event and you know I’m watching, and get a feel of how
the spectators are responding to the environment, or how it looks on TV,
or to see the athletes respond to the venue, and the to see them perform
within the venues, always a pretty unique type of feeling, a very positive
feeling in most cases, and look how certainly try to make the most of that
time, it's very short. Yeah, we spend years working on the design and
delivery of these venues and the events are over in 10-11 days, and in
some cases some venues are- and they get useful a handful of those days,
so.

Interviewer: What about if you look at, you know, rewind to 2015, I think you said
when you arrived and you were there for sort of three years leading up to,
can you- did you notice any particular impact that it has on the region of
South-East Queensland, you know, all that build up the game, the
infrastructure, all that money being spent and [Unclear] [0:19:38] sort of
community itself?

Brain: Yeah, definitely. I mean the, a sort of Brough bridge, the venues that were
delivered for the common wealth games from a Legacy perspective, where
they’re put in place early and they’re operated prior to the event, for a
period of time, and that included the camera, it included the village room,
it included the Gold Coast aquatic centre, and all of those venues were at
capacity effectively already.

Or, you know, the booking were, their booking rates were very high for
what they’re prior to and after the Common Wealth games they definitely
improved social and community infrastructure, was noticeable and was
well, like it’s well captured in the news, and the [Unclear] [0:20:33]
upgrades were incredible, if you look at some of the various upgrades that

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 Brian Kelly

were done along [Unclear] [0:20:38] road rather than a few other key, I
guess, maybe not primary arterial routes, but secondary arterial routes
certainly improved traffic conditions.

They did traffic signal upgrades, the big one obviously is the Light Rail
connection to Helensvale and now the further extension that’s being now
approved from [Unclear] [0:21:06] from Brough Bridge, I mean, the
public transport roads network many state government mainly primarily
was put into the, you know the Gold Coast road network. And yeah, it's
obviously huge benefit for Council of Gold Coast to have such focus on
from state government level but also federal government in terms of
funding prioritization of the infrastructure, and other projects. I think it's
certainly noticeable across the whole city.

Interviewer: Alright good. Well, if you take a [Unclear] [0:21:43] for [Unclear]
[0:21:45] and I know you mentioned that you weren’t there, and what- and
didn’t go bawls club prior to its refurbishment or anything but what can
you tell me about the bowls club and what your view on- did to the
community and also the games did for that particular in this friendly
community, do you anything about its contribution, about the membership
base, people’s general feel about the venue itself, what can you tell me?

Brian: No, to be honest not really, it’s not a whole lot in terms of what’s
happened since the games, I think it would be interesting to understand,
you know, what change in membership, if there has been a change in
membership, since prior to the games, and also revenue streams, that’s all
things just to see, how well utilized the space has been, it certainly.

In my view, opinion, it was planned correctly, it was delivered correctly

and it is an appropriate topic of refurbishment for- to suit the social aspect
of the community, not just Brough Bridge but beyond Brough Bridge as
well, as I said, it’s probably become the premier lawn bowls club in the

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 Brian Kelly

region, and then there are a lot in South-east Queensland, and Northern
[Unclear] [0:23:06], but to have that destination tag that it was the host
venue of the Gold Coast 2018 Common Wealth games is a draw card as
well, but I wouldn’t have any inside knowledge on membership numbers
or revenue streams.

Interviewer: That’s alright, what about during when you were there even though you
didn’t go before the refurbishment, you obviously in Queensland when it
was refurbished, what was the general feel in community, or in the news
when it was refurbished, how was that received, what did people say?

Brian: My recollection of [Unclear] [0:23:43] is all very positive so…

Interviewer: So it was well received in the media, people loved it.

Brian: Well received, I don’t recall any real negative news articles around it or
whether the community though it was excessive spending on upgrading
the facility, I think, as I said.

Interviewer: Could be like in the circle that you're in, did people talk about it like,
“yeah, let’s go again to the club, it’s nice”

Brian: Yeah, I think that’s one of the reasons that maybe I didn’t go prior to the
refurbishment; it wasn’t a destination at that time, you know, it didn’t have
the nice facilities that it does now, and prior to the event, and that’s why it
became more of a social place.

Interviewer: That’s interesting.

Brian: [Crosstalk] [0:24:28] lawn bowls, or have a meal on…

Interviewer: So, that conversation definitely became a post refurbishment sort of like
[Crosstalk] [0:24:36]

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 Brian Kelly

Brian: prior to the games, so…

Interviewer: Yeah.

Brian: So, the benefits started before the games, obviously they- and they…

Interviewer: Which were from the refurbishment?

Brian: From the refurbishment, and then yeah obviously we, as part of our
planning, not only the local community but we minimize the impact on
that clubhouse itself, [Unclear] [0:24:55] the Greens, at some point we had
to take over but I don’t remember exactly how long the clubhouse had to
close down for [Unclear] [0:25:04] member there was a lot of effort in
minimizing that time frame, and…

Interviewer: Do you think- sort of lining up last couple of questions here- do you think-
is there anything you don’t like about the refurbishment? Or do you think
it wasn’t done particularly well.

Brian: Nothing stands for me; I don’t think there’s any- as I said any areas that
was excessive spending that will become a burden on the club or
community so generally I think it was done right.

Interviewer: What about some changes or refurbishments that you think that they could
do to enhance the future, do you think that there’s any?

Brian: Look, based on its location it's limited available and to expand I would
say, yeah any real consideration if they needed it’s an additional GFA top
space would be to go up.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Brian: But yeah, you're still limited by your green numbers and the local
straighter works very hard in this, you know, it's probably limited I would

14
 Brian Kelly

say of future expansion without properly changing the dynamics of the

venue completely in a way that they wanted to look at, drawing other
revenue streams, looking out accommodations of housing within or
apartment type complex to go up and- but I think that changes at all if
complete dynamic of the facilities are…

Interviewer: Alright, and almost there so, what do you know, what can you tell me
about, if anything, market [Unclear] [0:26:49] myself would be here, just I
guess, the cops were on the community before the refurbishment after, do
you know anything specific about that? Do you know any, I guess, people
talk of that more; they were engaging with the community more, do you
know anything of that sort of thing?

Brian: No, not specifically, I doubt so, as I said all I know is just being a resident
of the Gold Coast, not- I wasn’t a resident in the Brough Bridge area, but
you know, it certainly was talked about more after the refurbishment and
they came up, you know, where do you want to go tomorrow, what are
you going to do, prior to what I know, it certainly came up more as a
destination for social gatherings not just elite but social occasions.

You know, my brother’s a lawn bowler, he has played as part of the

Australian open in lawn bowls, and he was quite- he has come to the Gold
Coast a few times recently, and he was quite excited about going to play
there a well.

Interviewer: Yeah okay, well yeah. Alright, is there anything you would like to
mention about the Gold Coast, what you think, and what games that we-
all the Brough Bridge lawn bowls venue that we haven’t spoken of so far,
Brain?

Brian: No, I think that’s sort of covered it off, with major events is a- especially
in a Common Wealth Games is a lot of public money that’s been spent on
it, but it's from a permanent venue perspective, a venue upgrade and an

15
 Brian Kelly

operational perspective. So, I think a lot of consideration is to go into how

that is planned out and divided up between what probably becomes
permanent Legacy, which has an ongoing maintenance operation cost.

It has [Unclear] [0:28:36] planned as a temporary to suit the short term

major of a major event, and to suit the [Crosstalk] [0:28:43] capacity
number and…

Interviewer: Anything to you that Gold Coast kind of got it right?

Brian: Gold Coast’s kind of got it right, I can’t think of any venue that’s become
a burden again on tax payers whether that be council law or state
government, in venues where there’s a combination of the two, I mean, if
you look at the new venues that went in, if you look at the [Unclear]
[0:29:08] probably a good example where it's a liable facility in- that’s
operated by the Gold Coast [Unclear] [0:29:16] in the IFL and we
converted that into a [Unclear] [0:29:20] to prove athletic track and then
after the event within five weeks we had it back to an IFL stadium which
suits it's long term use.

So there’s all those- the works that were there were planned out well,
executed well, and now, the- it's only benefit really to the Gold Coast and
then potentially with this talk of [Unclear] [0:29:46] 2032 bid, that may
abjure in some of those venues that were primarily put in for ongoing
community use, that can then be upgrades on a temporary basis, the game
for the Olympic games, potentially 2032.

Interviewer: Well good, anything else to say?

Brian: No, I think it's sort of covered everything unless there’s anything you…

Interviewer: No, do you have any questions for me at all, Brian?

16
 Brian Kelly

Brian: No, nothing I hope you get what- you were able to complete your case
study and get the results that you’re after.

Interviewer: Awesome. Thank you.

Brian: Thank you.

[Audio Ends] [0:30:22]

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