Queensland’s claims on Olympic rowing look increasingly like a croc

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli is trying to keep an election promise by keeping rowing in Rockhampton, even though Sydney already has the facilities, writes Peter Jenkins.

The Fitzroy River in Rockhampton. Home to crocodiles and big barramundi.

Come 2032, if you listen to Queensland Premier David Crisafulli, Olympic rowers and flatwater canoe paddlers will add to the waterway traffic.

Dapper Dave, talking tough on venues for the Brisbane Olympics, insists the Fitzroy is readymade for the world’s biggest sporting event.

Forget the 218-page report he commissioned that insisted otherwise.

The one from the Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority (GIICA) that found an ocean of reasons why Rockhampton was not suitable to stage Olympic regattas.

AI image of 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games venues: Rowing at the Fitzroy River in Rockhampton.

In fact, there was nowhere in Queensland the GIICA could recommend. Sydney’s International Regatta Centre, used for the 2000 Games, was the only answer.

Forget too those concerns from Rowing Australia about the Fitzroy. What would they know about currents and tides and the impacts on a field of world-class international competitors?

After all, Japan held the Olympic rowing in 2021 on the tidal Tokyo Bay.

The reality: Plenty of crocodiles patrol the Fitzroy River.

Sure, they had to spend $640 million building dams at either end of the course to separate it from the bay and ensure water levels were kept at a consistent depth of 6m. But hey, who’s thinking budgets?

As for those pesky technical assessments that have yet to be undertaken by the sport’s world governing body, sod them.

Dave knows the Fitzroy will win over the World Rowing blazer brigade once they get there and see it in all its fast-moving, croc-filled, barra-stacked glory.

So he went ahead and announced the rowing and flatwater canoeing will be held in Rocky. No caveats, no doubts, no maybes. It will be the venue.

Makes me wonder if there is also a red herring in the Fitzroy.

There were plenty of smiles in Rockhampton when politicians, councillors and rowing club members came together to discuss the exciting 2032 Olympics announcement.

Crisafulli has gone out on a limb. Why would he take the risk of an embarrassing slap down by Olympic officialdom?

The answer might be found in the 2024 Queensland election when he came to power. One of the prized seats the LNP secured was the previously safe Labor haven of Rockhampton.

Is it crazy to think hosting the rowing at Rocky was also seen as a tactic to help retain the seat in 2028?

Lock in the Fitzroy as a Games venue, discard the recommendation from the authority his government appointed, the concerns of Rowing Australia and without having World Rowing inspect the joint.

Maybe he knew it was a long shot and if he pulls off a miracle, great. If not, he’s been the champion for Rockhampton.

Should the powers that be deem the river unfit for Olympic use, then that’s on them. Dave did his best. Those mongrels in their ivory tower took the rowing away and, dread the thought, delivered it to Sydney. A classic ‘us against them’ scenario.

Tellingly, his decision not to accept the recommendation on the Games rowing venue is one of the few suggestions from GIICA the Premier did not support.

Remind me again. Who was it that said sport and politics should never mix?

Originally published as Queensland’s claims on Olympic rowing look increasingly like a croc