Great Barrier Reef Arena | Cox Architecture

Designed by Cox Architecture and built by the community, for the community, Mackay’s Great Barrier Reef Arena is a hub for Culture, Sports, and Community celebrations. The Arena offers world-class facilities for a diverse range of events, including concerts, elite sports, and cultural festivals.
The design emulates the colours, cultures, and landscape typical of the region. Indigenous culture and traditions, the early Maltese immigrants and the people that have built this region are celebrated in the design. The new grandstand is deeply rooted into the landscape and is conceived as growing out of the landscape. Its roof, founded in the new plaza, slowly rises as it hugs the oval to cover the players and media facility. It floats over a rusticated ribbed wall that grows out of the landscape, establishing a unique simplicity of two elements, one hovering over the other.