Once, the Executive Building on George Street was the beating heart of the Queensland government.
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But after 12 months of demolition, 20,000 square metres of open space has opened up at the site of the future Queen's Wharf development.
Destination Brisbane has released a fascinating time lapse, showing a bird's eye view as the existing non-heritage government buildings were munched away over 28,000 hours.
Workers have removed and recycled 55,000 tonnes of concrete, almost 5000 tonnes of steel and about 50 tonnes of wire, cable and copper. A recycling target of 90 per cent was achieved across the demolition site.
In total, about 63,000 tonnes of material has been removed from the site.
Next, the machines go underground.
About 450,000 square metres of material will be removed over the next two years, which will be followed by foundation work to construct five basement levels, including car parking.
An excavation pit will be dug on the former site of the Executive Building, 80A George Street building, and Neville Bonner Building, and underneath a section of William Street.
The perimeter of the pit will be more than half a kilometre and its deepest point will be 26 metres below George Street.
Later in 2018, a tender will be released for the next stage, construction, including work on foundations at the bottom of the excavation pit to build a five-storey car park for thousands of cars.
When complete, the project, which stretches across 10 per cent of the CBD, will include five new hotels, 50 new restaurants, bars and cafes, 12 football fields of public space, an upgraded bikeway, a new pedestrian bridge, a 1500-seat ballroom and an open-air cinema.
Also included in the Queen's Wharf development will be a casino, replacing Brisbane's existing casino.
Asked if she would follow Tasmania Labor's lead on moving away from pokies, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk simply said: "No, no."
Last month, Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath said the government was working on a gaming strategy, which did not just focus on pokies.
In 2017, Queenslanders lost $2.34 billion to the pokies, $63.09 million more than in 2016.
