ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a brief historical background of the site prior to Expo 88 after which the site's role as part of Brisbane was totally changed through the various masterplans of South Bank. The evolution of the South Bank masterplan was related through the eyes of the small group of South Bank design and development leaders who played key roles in the masterplanning process and responses to crises. From the preparation of Expo 88 as part of Australian bicentennial celebrations to the redevelopment of the site post-Expo, South Bank has been intensely masterplanned usually in response to crises that arose over time. The basis for funding the resumptions and the Expo 88 site development and festivities was the post-Expo sale of the site to private developers. Democratising the masterplanning process to all-comers may still result in the authoritarian certainty of a masterplan design product such as the South Bank 1990 masterplan.
