Warring factions at Nanango Race Club to go head to head at AGM
A bitter divide between the factions tearing apart a beloved Queensland country race club will come to a head this weekend. Who will be victorious?
South Burnett
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Escalating tensions between two factions that bitterly divide the 100-odd members of the 165-year-old Nanango Race Club will come to a head this Sunday, September 14, when the club meets for its annual general meeting.
The steady breakdown of relations between the incumbent committee and those who want it gone has been underway for more than 18 months, and heightened by the committee’s decision to cease maintenance of the training track which led to its closure by Racing Queensland.
Club president Andrew Green, a horse trainer for 30 years and president for the past nine years, said this week the expense of maintaining the training track was too high, and allowing horses to train on the actual turf racing track in Nanango would “strip” it.
He said the the club had spent $700,000 on the grounds in his nine years as president, and was proud and protective of the high quality of its turf race track.
Its decision to cease maintaining and meeting compliance on the track, and Racing Queensland’s subsequent decision to close the track, had outraged some members and trainers, who’d been asked to instead utilise other nearby tracks.
A group of club members and trainers have launched a change.org petition requesting the “Immediate Removal of Nanango Race Club Committee”.
As of Thursday, September 12, the petition had 222 signatures of a goal of 500.
Started by a person listed as “Tina Google” and shared to the Goomeri Community Group by Kay O’Neil, Ms O’Neil posted these words alongside the link to the petition:
“I would like to ask the community to please help the Owners Trainers Jockey club from Nanango with our cause. We have been fighting the current committee since March of last year.
“We need change and we need your help! We have the support of the ATA Australian Trainers Association!
“Local Nanango trainers have been having a very difficult time over the last few years with the Nanango Race Club. The ATA has been trying to assist, as has RQ, but it continues to be a losing battle.
“Trainers have lost their training track due to maintenance issues and other attempts to improve the Club for the purpose of training, are often halted by the current committee. Race Clubs are very important to the industry, but they also need to consider the priority is the training of racehorses.”
The petition itself says:
“We, the undersigned members and concerned community supporters of the Nanango Race Club, hereby submit this petition to formally request the immediate removal of the current committee governing the club. Our decision to take this action is based on a series of serious concerns regarding the management and operations of the club, particularly their failure to adhere to their own constitution and their responsibilities to the members and the racing community”.
Mr Green said the Nanango Race Club was established in 1859, and at that point there were seven registered race clubs in Nanango.
Back then, the local protestants did not want to attend the Catholic race track, so they built their own.
Mr Green wryly likened the division of the late 1800s to what was going on now.
“This debate at the moment has been happening since 1859,” he said. The club closed down at the start of the Second World War, but started up again in 1968.
The stand-off will come to a head at the club’s annual general meeting this Sunday, September 14, where Mr Green said he hopes the status quo would remain.
“It’s a members’ vote, and if the majority of members are for us we will get another go around, but if they are not, the other mob will be elected,” he said.
You can read and sign the change.org petition HERE.
Nominations for the Nanango Race Club committee election on Sunday are as follows:
**President**
GREEN, Andrew
SCHLOSS, Des
**Vice President**
HANCOCK, Wayne
WEBB, Bruce
**Treasurer**
GREEN, Leisa
MANSON, Andrew
**Ordinary Committee**
BOURKE, Michael
CHESSHER, Michael
CORBETT, Stan
DENNIEN, Zachary
DUGDELL, Robert
DUNCOMBE, Bernie
GREEN, Barry
HAMILTON, John
HILL, Paul
JACKSON, Peter
WEBB, James
Requests have been made through change.org to contact the petition organiser.
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