source : the age
Queensland’s rowing community has been urged to lobby the state and federal governments to get behind a proposed course in Moreton Bay, which aims to edge out Rockhampton as the venue for Olympic and Paralympic competition in 2032.
Last week the City of Moreton Bay unveiled plans for the 20,000-seat course, proposed for a decommissioned Boral quarry at Lawnton, in a bold gambit to keep the high-profile rowing competition in south-east Queensland.
It received some enthusiastic support among a 200-strong crowd at a Rowing Queensland-hosted town hall at West End’s Souths Leagues Club on Wednesday night, where they were urged to keep up the pressure on elected officials to help get the project over the line.
Rowing Queensland director Angus Blackwood said the proposal would fulfil the sport’s long-term aim for a home in south-east Queensland, where 78 per cent of its members resided.
Much of the urgency surrounded the Crisafulli government’s captain’s call to host rowing on Rockhampton’s Fitzroy River against the advice of its own 100-day venue review, a decision that still needed to be ratified by international rowing and paddle bodies.
Blackwood fielded a question from the floor about the “politicised” choice on Wednesday night, and whether the Lawnton proposal could proceed without the promise of Olympic competition.
“[The Fitzroy River] is subject to a technical review, and we eagerly await the outcome of that technical review,” Blackwood said.
“Depending on that decision, we’ll work with the relevant state bodies and state government officials. I don’t think we can say much more than at the moment – we just got to wait for that decision.”
Others were less diplomatic.
Prominent Brisbane businessman Steve Wilson, who was behind another proposal to keep Olympic rowing in south-east Queensland at nearby Lake Kurwongbah, said if rowing did not get a proper legacy out of the Games in the Brisbane region, “we fail”.
Wilson said staging rowing in the Brisbane area, rather than about 500 kilometres away in Rockhampton, would give the sport more visibility.
He recounted halcyon days for rowing in the city, in which tens of thousands watched the King’s Cup from the banks of the Brisbane River.
“You can’t put competitive rowing on a strong tidal river, but to be so proximate [at Moreton Bay] will massively improve the number of people who go and watch races,” he said.
Wilson said the legacy of a venue at Lawnton would be “epic” as it would allow more people to watch the sport live – and be inspired to take it up.
“Seventy-eight per cent of [Queensland] rowers are in south-east Queensland,” he said.
“If you’re going to talk legacy – game over, that’s it, and south-east Queensland’s growing much more rapidly than anywhere else.”
City of Moreton Bay commercial manager Andrew Roach said the $250 million venue, which would need about $150 million of government funding, could be completed by 2031 if work was greenlit in the near future.
“You could have something pretty spectacular right here in south-east Queensland that supports 78 per cent of your members already, and I’m pretty sure as we grow from 500,000 to a million, you’ll find a few more rowers in that lot,” he said.
Roach said while hosting the Olympics would help funding arguments, the council hoped to be able to proceed regardless.
“We would love for [rowing] to be there because you’ll get the ultimate upfront, but if it wasn’t to be the case, then we’d have to go back with our joint venture partners and work through that,” he said.
“Council thinks this would be is a tremendous community facility.
“Longer term, it might just not have all the bells and whistles [if it was overlooked for Olympic competition], but that’s the sort of stuff we need to address once we know what’s going on.”
If World Rowing and the International Olympic Committee did rule the Fitzroy River unsuitable, the Sydney International Rowing Centre at Penrith loomed large as a potential back-up venue.
The Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority recommended Penrith as the sport’s host venue in its 100-day review last year.
Roach said it was that recommendation that lit a fire under the Moreton Bay council.
“We decided we needed to go out and let everybody know that this is an option – a viable option,” he said.
“We’ve done the work, here’s the work, and we now wanted to provide it to the people of matter – you – to become advocates for this, to make sure it doesn’t go to Sydney.”
Blackwood urged those present to lobby their local state and federal MPs to get the project funded.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
