Fish Lane residents take Brisbane council noise complaint to Ombudsman
ABC Brisbane reported on 22 October that Croft & Cremorne tenants say a neighbouring building's air conditioning unit has been breaching legal noise limits since they moved in, and that council did not act when first told, despite its own testing showing a breach.
Residents of the Croft & Cremorne apartment building in Brisbane’s Fish Lane precinct say they have lived with a constant mechanical hum since moving in, and are now taking Brisbane City Council to the Queensland Ombudsman over how it handled their complaint, ABC Brisbane reported on 22 October 2026.
The broadcaster’s report, posted to its Instagram account, said the noise comes from an air conditioning unit on a neighbouring apartment block. ABC Brisbane described the unit as breaching Queensland’s noise limits, and said council’s own monitoring confirmed the readings exceeded the legal threshold. The outlet reported that when residents first raised the problem with council, no action followed.
ABC Brisbane’s post did not name the neighbouring building, its owner, operator or developer, and did not identify any Croft & Cremorne resident by name. It also did not give a decibel reading, a date for the original complaint, or a timeframe between that complaint and the decision to escalate to the Ombudsman.
Why it matters
A council confirming a breach through its own testing, then not acting on it, is the detail that turns an ordinary neighbour dispute into a complaint about process rather than noise. The Queensland Ombudsman’s role is to review how an agency such as Brisbane City Council handled a matter, not to re-adjudicate the underlying noise reading. If the Ombudsman finds council should have enforced its own measurement, the outcome is about council’s complaint-handling obligations rather than about the air conditioning unit itself.
Fish Lane sits in South Brisbane, where Aria Property Group has presold more than $500m of apartments at Sanctuary Residences ahead of that tower’s public launch, underlining how much new apartment stock continues to land in the area. That density puts more residents within earshot of mechanical plant on neighbouring sites than a typical detached suburb would. ABC Brisbane’s report does not say whether the unit in dispute was installed as part of a recent development or has been operating for longer, so it is not possible from the post alone to say whether this is a new-building commissioning issue or a long-running piece of plant.
The numbers
ABC Brisbane’s caption does not include a decibel figure for the breach, only a description that council’s own monitoring exceeded the legal threshold. It does not state how many Croft & Cremorne residents are affected or involved in the Ombudsman complaint. The post names Brisbane City Council and the Queensland Ombudsman as the two parties in the dispute. It does not name a developer, builder or private operator in connection with the noise source, and this article does not assign one.
What’s next
The Queensland Ombudsman can investigate how Brisbane City Council handled the complaint and make recommendations, but it does not have the power to directly fine or shut down the noise source itself. ABC Brisbane’s report did not include a timeframe for the Ombudsman’s review or say whether council has taken any fresh enforcement step since residents escalated the matter.
Until the Ombudsman responds, the practical question for Croft & Cremorne residents, whether the unit is brought back under the legal noise limit, sits with whatever action, if any, council takes next. ABC Brisbane’s report gives no indication of a scheduled inspection or compliance deadline.