Review set to start on Rockhampton Olympic rowing venue

12 hours ago 3

A technical review of the Fitzroy River Olympic rowing venue is about to begin, Premier David Crisafulli announced as he visited the planned Rockhampton venue to mark seven years to the day until the start of the Brisbane 2032 Games.

Crisafulli said the Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority would conduct the review, which would start immediately.

But, ultimately, World Rowing would decide whether the Fitzroy was an appropriate venue for Olympic competition.

Rowing on the Fitzroy River in Rockhampton.

Professor David Hamilton, the director of Griffith University’s Australian Rivers Institute, said the Fitzroy posed legitimate concerns for competition integrity.

The former rower said the sport was “very sensitive” to currents.

“If you’re going to do something like that, you’d want to do the computer modelling of it to make sure that it wasn’t going to necessarily prejudice certain lanes in the rowing field,” Hamilton said.

“It’s got to be really carefully evaluated, because the last thing the Games would want is something that brought into jeopardy the ability to have an even playing field.”

Asked on Wednesday what would happen if the sport’s governing body determined Rockhampton was not suitable for international competition, Crisafulli was adamant.

“Rowing’s happening in Rocky,” he said.

“We’re putting in place the steps to make sure that we can build a world-class venue here – that’s what good governments do, and that’s our commitment to people not just in central Queensland, but to the nation.”

With the governing body due to inspect the river in coming months, Crisafulli said the government would work with World Rowing “in good faith” to deliver the venue.

“Our commitment to the people of Central Queensland is, you’re going to have a world-class venue here,” he said.

“Our commitment to the international federations is it’s going to be world-class as well. I couldn’t be more confident, having seen it this morning, at this time of year, about how special it’s going to be.”

Australian Olympic Committee chief executive Mark Arbib said on Tuesday concerns about Rockhampton were, at this stage, “all theoretical”.

“The international rowing federation will come to Rockhampton in the months ahead, and they’ll look at the facilities, and they’ll look at the river, and they’ll make their determinations,” he said.

LNP Senator Matt Canavan, who championed the Rockhampton course, said many claims about its suitability were made by people without “even a basic understanding” of the course itself and surrounding infrastructure that can manage flows.

“Tidal flows are not an issue because the rowing course is upstream of barrages that prevent water from the ocean flowing back upstream. These barrages were installed in 1970 to guarantee Rockhampton’s water supply,” he said in a letter to the state government, supplied to this masthead.

“River flows can also be managed because upstream of the rowing course there are two weirs, the Eden Bann Weir and the Rookwood Weir.

“The stretch of the river that the rowing course is in acts more like a dam than a typical river because it is impounded between three sets of water infrastructure, allowing river heights and flows to be managed.”

Hamilton said the proposal to instead host rowing at Lake Kurwongbah, just north of Brisbane, was a “no-brainer”.

“It looks a really interesting proposition that needs to be evaluated a little bit more,” he said.

“It’s got all the credentials that are there to make it a top-level rowing course.

“The water quality part of it would also have to be evaluated carefully, including the submerged plants that grow at the lake and the water quality aspects of it, but those are things that, given the time, could be managed pretty well.”

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