3 April 2025

By Tim Koch

Tim Koch finds that, while the Brisbane Olympic Regatta is still seven years away, it is never too soon for controversy and confusion.

March 25 saw the public launch of the 100 Day Review Report which had been prepared for the Queensland Government and which made eighty-six recommendations regarding the 2032 Olympics Games infrastructure and planning “designed to deliver legacy benefits across Queensland for decades to come.”

The review board assessed seven potential locations for the rowing events with all but Sydney in Queensland: the Sydney International Regatta Centre; the Wyaralong Dam; the Fitzroy River, Rockhampton; Hinze Dam, Gold Coast; Coomera/Oxenford, Gold Coast; Lake Kurwongbah, Moreton Bay; Lake Wivenhoe, Somerset.

An immediate response by Rowing Queensland noted three points in particular that were made in the 100-day Review Report:

While the delivery of flatwater events at Wyaralong Dam is considered feasible, the construction and associated costs of the venue do not present value for money or a strong legacy argument, particularly considering the costs to develop a satellite athlete village in close proximity to the venue.

Other locations for Games flatwater events in Queensland are not considered feasible and present considerable delivery and operational challenges.

The Sydney International Regatta Centre presents a feasible, fit-for-purpose alternative with a viable temporary accommodation solution, without the requirement for significant capital… (It is recommended that the) Games flatwater competition be hosted at the Sydney International Regatta Centre (SIRC).

Rowing Queensland responded:

While we agree with the Queensland Government’s decision to reject the move to Sydney, Rowing Queensland remains concerned about (the Queensland Government’s) decision to select the Fitzroy River in Rockhampton as the host location without proper consultation with the peak sporting bodies (Rowing Queensland and Rowing Australia) and a detailed assessment for this specific venue selection. 

World Rowing then issued this:

Following the publication of the…(100 Day Review and the) recommendation for the Olympic and Paralympic Rowing Regattas to be held at the Sydney International Regatta Centre, World Rowing acknowledges the alternative position taken by the Queensland Government to host the Classic Rowing regattas on the Fitzroy River in Rockhampton, Queensland.

We understand from Rowing Australia… that while Fitzroy River has been suitable for training purposes, it has not undergone any technical feasibility study that would confirm its ability to host national or international level racing. 

Contrary to reporting, it has not hosted a senior national championship or Australian Rowing Championship…

The proposed venue, not having been assessed and confirmed as compliant with the relevant technical requirements, World Rowing stands ready to support such assessment, for this and any other venue…

Britain’s Guardian newspaper would have once employed an informed rowing correspondent to comment on such things but, like most other media reports, its online article locked its jaws and went into a death roll on the non-problem that the Fitzroy River is a home to a small number of saltwater crocodiles and was headlined, “Lovely gentle dinosaurs”: Brisbane 2032 Olympic rowing may be held in saltwater crocodile habitat. The paper had an unhelpful quote from the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, saying that the Fitzroy was a “great river” – to “walk along.” Surprisingly, the Australian actor Paul Hogan (“Crocodile Dundee”) was not asked to comment.

Also on 25 March, the Guardian online had a partisan analysis of the organisation thus far of the Brisbane Olympics titled, The ‘hot mess’ Olympics? How Queensland’s 2032 Games planning descended into farce. This all sounds rather worrying but, as someone who remembers well the run up to the ultimately very successful London 2012 Olympics, it is all very familiar. Every Games will have its peculiar problems and eventual cost overruns in particular should be expected. 

A 2020 Oxford University Study titled Regression to the tail: Why the Olympics blow up began:

The Olympic Games are the largest, highest-profile, and most expensive megaevent hosted by cities and nations. Average sports-related costs of hosting are $12.0 billion. Non-sports-related costs are typically several times that. Every Olympics since 1960 has run over budget, at an average of 172 percent in real terms, the highest overrun on record for any type of megaproject. 

While the lessons of the disastrous 1976 Montreal Olympics in particular should be carefully studied by an Olympic Host, any city in a country that has free speech and that has to effectively hold thirty-two world championships simultaneously will not escape criticism and controversy. Indeed, denouncing the organisers of an Olympics is a sport older than many of those in the Games itself.