Following conversations with a local musician about Launceston's shortage of affordable practice and performance space, prospective candidate for Mayor and Council paul mallett is proposing a purpose-built Performing Arts Centre for the Boag's site, an upstream investment in connection and healthy ageing as much as culture, and part of the broader community value vision he has already put forward for the site.

LAUNCESTON, TASMANIA, 13 July 2026: paul mallett, Launceston-based author, community services leader and prospective candidate for Mayor and Council of the City of Launceston, has expanded his vision for the Boag's site to include a dedicated arts and culture precinct, after speaking with a local artist about the shortage of affordable spaces to rehearse and perform in Launceston.

mallett said the idea came directly from a conversation with a passionate Launceston musician, an active member of several amateur bands.

"She told me plainly that Launceston doesn't have enough places for local musicians to practise. Our city lacks the facilities with suitable space, acoustics, accessibility and the affordability our local bands and performers actually need. She pointed to what Devonport has done with the Paranaple Centre as proof of what local government can lead. I agree with her," he said.

mallett said Launceston's existing rehearsal and performance spaces are ageing, often difficult to access for people with limited mobility, and priced beyond the reach of most amateur bands, choirs and theatre groups.

An arts and culture precinct, not an afterthought. mallett is proposing a new Performing Arts Centre for the Boag's site, built in partnership with the State and Commonwealth governments, delivering affordable, accessible rehearsal and practice space for amateur bands, choirs, theatre and drama groups, and visual artists, alongside proper performance space to match, and the market, festival and civic space he already proposed for the site.

“The Boag's site sits within walking distance of Albert Hall, the Princess Theatre and UTAS's Academy of the Arts. That's already a real fifteen-minute neighbourhood of arts and culture spaces. A Performing Arts Centre would complete it, giving Launceston the purpose-built home for community arts that other Tasmanian cities already have,” he said.

An investment in belonging, not just bricks and mortar. mallett said the case for a Performing Arts Centre goes well beyond culture for its own sake. Regular participation in music, choirs, drama and community arts is one of the strongest, and most overlooked, protections against loneliness and declining mental health as people age.

“If we want Launceston to be a city where people stay connected and well into old age, somewhere to rehearse and perform together isn't a nice-to-have. It's upstream investment in the mental health of our citizens, exactly the kind of prevention-first thinking I've spent years writing about. It also backs our talented local artists and underpins the next generation of performers this city produces,” he said.

Part of a bigger vision for community value. mallett said the arts and culture precinct builds on the broader vision he already floated ahead of The Examiner's Beyond Boag's roundtable, and sits at the heart of his “A Creative City That Celebrates” platform plank, alongside a front-door community services hub bringing government and community services together under one roof, a modern bus interchange, and a new pedestrian and cycling bridge connecting the site to Inveresk, UTAS and QVMAG.

“Community value and economic value should sit on equal footing at Boag's. A performing arts and culture precinct, a community services hub, a proper bus interchange and a new bridge across the river: that's what a site this significant can do for a city, if we choose to ask for it,” he said.

"Devonport has already shown what this looks like, with the Paranaple Centre and its 407-seat Town Hall Theatre. Burnie has run a purpose-built arts and function centre for fifty years now, with a 370-seat theatre and five function rooms under one roof. Hobart's Salamanca Arts Centre turned old sandstone warehouses, later used for jam and fruit processing, into artist studios and the Peacock Theatre, with its own bar built in. Interstate, Victoria's Greater Dandenong charges community groups close to half the standard commercial rate to use the Drum Theatre's rehearsal room, and the City of Casey runs a dedicated rehearsal centre with a room built specifically for loud bands, because keeping the cost low for local bands and choirs is the whole point, not an afterthought. None of this is untested. It already works, and it's exactly what our city can deliver too, if we strive together and build it," he said.

Proposal summary

• Deliver a Performing Arts Centre, a purpose-built arts and culture precinct providing affordable rehearsal and practice space for amateur bands, choirs, theatre and drama groups and visual artists, alongside proper performance space, delivered in partnership with State and Commonwealth government, in the spirit of Devonport's Paranaple Centre and Burnie's Arts and Function Centre.
• Ensure the Performing Arts Centre is fully accessible, unlike much of Launceston's current, ageing stock of rehearsal and performance venues, many of which are inaccessible to people with limited mobility.
• Position the Performing Arts Centre as the centrepiece of mallett's “A Creative City That Celebrates” platform plank, an upstream investment in social connection, healthy ageing and the next generation of Launceston performers.
• Connect the Performing Arts Centre into Launceston's existing fifteen-minute neighbourhood of arts spaces: Albert Hall, the Princess Theatre and UTAS's Academy of the Arts.
• Retain the previously proposed community services hub: a multi-tenant “front door” bringing government and community services, allied health providers and care economy operators together in one place.
• Deliver a modern bus interchange at Shield Street, paired with a free city loop bus.
• Build a pedestrian and cycling bridge from Shield Street to Holbrook Street, linking the precinct to Riverbend Park, Inveresk, UTAS and QVMAG.
• Signal council's expectations early, so Launceston welcomes investment on the Boag's site, but expects public value delivered alongside it.

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Note to editors: The candidate's name, paul mallett, is styled in lowercase deliberately and should be reproduced as written. This is not a typographical error.

About the candidate
paul mallett is a Launceston-based social policy author, systems thinker, and community services leader with more than thirty years of experience across homelessness, housing, children and family services, disability, aged care, early learning, and the care economy.

He is the author of vibrant city, a story of Launceston's future told from 2064, a community leader looking back across four decades of change alongside a young data guardian verifying his account. Chapter by chapter, it imagines a Launceston that works, cares, moves, lifts its kids, creates and celebrates, and grows as a city in a garden. He proposes a freshwater Tamar Lake, a second river crossing built for walking and cycling from day one, a cradle-to-career system for every child, and a city-wide movement for health and belonging. It is not a fantasy of a perfect city. It is a civic provocation, a way of asking whether the place we already love could become fairer, kinder, more confident, and more vibrant.

He is also the author of vibrant state, vibrant nation, The Kind Politics Playbook, and the Vibrant Leadership Series of policy blueprints: A State of Good Health, A Home for Everyone, Affordable Warmth, Every Child Succeeds, and "It's the Care Economy, Stupid!". He founded vibrantnation.au to share practical reform ideas for more vibrant communities.

Media enquiries
paul mallett
Email: paul.mallett@vibrantnation.au
Mobile: 0450 24 24 24
Website: vibrantnation.au
Location: Launceston, Tasmania