Brisbane City Council’s removal of rough sleepers from Musgrave Park has raised questions about the public safety claims used to justify the operation, writes Mason Garland.
ON THURSDAY 19 February, Brisbane City Council (BCC) workers and Queensland police officers raided Musgrave Park, removing all tents and rough sleeper residents.
This operation reportedly began at 6 AM while most, if not all, rough sleepers were asleep in their tents.
Upon request for comment regarding the Council’s actions, LNP Councillor Sarah Hutton’s office gave this media statement:
We understand you have requested information about Musgrave Park, which was a joint operation between the Department of Housing, Queensland Police Service and council.
The Department of Housing will be best placed to respond to questions about accommodation.
Please find a response from Cr Hutton below and images relating to examples of serious safety concerns attached.
MEDIA STATEMENT, Civic Cabinet Chair for Customer Services Sarah Hutton:
We hold grave fears for public safety in Musgrave Park, which is why we've acted today, alongside Queensland Police and the Department of Housing.
Musgrave Park should be a safe space for everyone, yet our officers have collected more than 644 used needles from the park since September.
In fact, over the past six months our officers have collected more than 1,500 needles from parks across Brisbane during their homelessness clean-up operations.
In terrible circumstances, one of our officers recently suffered a needle prick while cleaning up a dangerous tent encampment.
They now must undertake extensive testing over the next few weeks to ensure they haven't contracted any diseases.
If this can happen to a trained officer wearing protective gear, we cannot ignore the obvious question: what would have happened if it were a child pricked while playing on the playground?
It's quite clear drug use in Musgrave Park is out of control and something needs to be done about it.
Our officers have resorted to using heavy equipment, like Bobcats, during these clean-ups because of the risk of needle pricks.
That is not normal park maintenance. This is a response to a serious public safety issue.
Our officers are doing an incredibly tough job under challenging conditions and they deserve support, not criticism.
People who have repeatedly tried to stop officials from helping the homeless and criticised our officers for cleaning up Musgrave Park are making Brisbane less safe for all residents.
BACKGROUND:
Every individual asked to move on today by police was offered housing, refused to engage with housing officials or has been repeatedly evicted from housing.
Serious safety issues have occurred at Musgrave Park in recent years, including stabbing, assault, arson, theft and drug use.
In November 2025, a large machete was located and removed from Musgrave Park.
The Queensland Fire Department attended Musgrave Park on 16 January 2026 to extinguish a dangerous fire within one of the tent encampments.
While this media statement didn’t answer the questions requested for Councillor Hutton to answer, it does show the BCC’s continued effort in masquerading its harsh crackdown approach as responsible and necessary for public safety.
Attached to this media release were a few images: 1) needles; 2) a machete; and 3) a burning tent.
The first two images were clearly taken by Council or Queensland Police Service (QPS) officers during their operation, while the third was either a witness or first responder to a separate incident.
What’s important to recognise is that in the first image displaying approximately 190 needles, there are at least five sharps bins on the left side of the image.
These sharps bins are kept securely in the public toilets at Musgrave Park as a means of safe disposal of needles.
So far, QPS has not answered questions when requested to comment on the operation and whether the needles in this image were mostly found in the sharps bins or not, as well as who initially requested the joint operation to take place.
QPS Media and Public Affairs Officer Caleb Mohan, however, did state that ‘a 44-year-old man was charged with one count each of resisting public officers and possessing dangerous drugs (methylamphetamine)’.
No other arrests or move-on orders were used during the operation, according to Officer Mohan.
During the following BCC meeting time on Tuesday, Greens Councillor for Gabba Ward Trina Massey brought into question Mayor Adrian Schrinner’s comments regarding the charged rough sleeper, who was allegedly known to be on NDIS and using prescribed medication, which was the alleged “methylamphetamine” that had been confiscated by QPS officers.
This video was originally posted on Councillor Trina Massey’s Instagram:
Community Union Defence League, which supports rough sleepers in Musgrave Park released a statement denouncing the operation:
This morning at approximately 6 AM, police descended upon Musgrave Park, waking the residents and pulling them from their homes so they could be demolished by bulldozers. Two people were arrested because they weren't able to pack up their homes and lives quickly enough at the drop of a hat.
Just yesterday the residents were assured they were not being cleared today and when we made enquiries, similar promises were made.
This continues the Council's and QPS terrorism of some of the most vulnerable members of our community and throws their lives into instant chaos.
If they want people out of the park so much then put them in secure, long term housing. Without support, this solves nothing but Council PR problems amongst their increasingly reactionary support base. The housing crisis cannot be beaten out of society with violence from the state and will only eventually lead to more violence.
Notably, journalists from The Courier Mail were present during the operation, uploading a video showing Council workers using Bobcats to crush and clear all tents and personal belongings of rough sleepers in the park.
Department of Housing officers were reportedly present with BCC and QPS officers, as mentioned in both The Courier Mail’s coverage and the media release from Councillor Sarah Hutton’s Office.
Upon reaching out to the Department of Housing and Public Works with a range of questions pertaining to the operation and the fate of the rough sleepers, this response was given:
The Department of Housing and Public Works’ Housing Outreach and Mobile Engagement (H.O.M.E.) team operates as part of a co-responder model with state-funded Specialist Homelessness Services and local governments, conducting outreach to known homelessness hotspots. The team works closely with Brisbane City Council, which is responsible for the management and compliance of public spaces across Brisbane, including Musgrave Park.
Since 2023, the H.O.M.E. team has engaged with hundreds of people experiencing homelessness at Musgrave Park and supported more than 409 rough sleepers into housing outcomes.
The H.O.M.E. team attends Musgrave Park twice weekly to offer housing assistance and support, including on Thursday 19 February where individuals were supported into housing outcome.
The team will continue visiting Musgrave Park to provide assistance and connect people experiencing homelessness with housing and support services.
The BCC is required to have Department of Housing officials present with Council officials when carrying out these homeless encampment evictions, in order for the Department of Housing to offer and coordinate potential permanent and/or temporary accommodation solutions for rough sleepers.
It’s understood that roughly half of the tent sleepers accepted the offer of temporary accommodation; however, which accommodation options were offered and accepted remains unknown and how long the temporary stay will be.
Councillor Massey, who, as of Thursday 5 March, happened across another operation where Council officials were evicting tent sleepers, came to learn that ‘while [Department of Housing] officers were present on site, they remained in a car 10-15 metres away and did not speak to a single rough sleeper or offer any housing support’.
Massey continued:
‘BCC has stated they will return in a few days. Once again, no housing was offered… despite [Department of] Housing being physically present.’
The video below was posted on Councillor Trina Massey’s Instagram shortly after another video showing Massey at the location as the tent eviction operation was in process.
As the Councillor explained, when the BCC carries out these sweeping operations to clear out rough sleepers, the official protocol requires Council officials to first place a warning tag on the tents to inform any possible inhabitants of potential eviction and tent removal, typically 24 hours after the tag is attached.
According to on-the-ground sources, who will remain anonymous for privacy purposes, rough sleepers in Musgrave Park were informed on Wednesday 18 February that these notices were only procedural and that they only needed to move their tents to another section of the park as the Council intended to have the grass mowed.
This was reportedly echoed by a QPS officer on the 18th when they were questioned by rough sleepers and community members as to why there were notice tags on all of the tents.
Mason Garland is an independent Brisbane journalist focusing on homelessness and how governments and the community respond to the current state of the housing crisis in Queensland.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
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