Cairns eyeing off opportunities to benefit from the Brisbane 2032 Olympics

Having a bunch of Australian Olympic athletes training at Barlow Park has been “pretty special” for Steve Kerwitz. And there’s hope of more opportunities off the back of Brisbane’s successful 2032 Olympics bid.

STEVE Kerwitz always believed Barlow Park was capable of attracting big sporting tournaments and carnivals.

So to have a bunch of Australian Olympic athletes training there, day-in, day-out in recent weeks, is “pretty special”, the supervisor of turf management at Barlow Park said.

“Mate it’s awesome. It is a good feeling,” he said.

Off the back of Brisbane’s successful 2032 Olympic bid, Mr Kerwitz said the council would love to have the athletes back up here training again.

“We’d love to have them back – it’s massive for council and massive for Cairns,” he said.

“Obviously I’m not an athlete anymore but coming up here and watching some of them run, there’s one lady … every time I’ve watched her, she’s run at the same pace for 25-30 minutes. “She just goes

“And I sit there and go wow.”

Cairns Regional Council's supervisor of turf management at Barlow Park Steve Kerwitz has hosted the Australian Olympic athletics team for the past two weeks, and is excited at the prospect of Barlow Park hosting more international athletes after Brisbane won the right to host the 2032 Olympic Games. Picture: Brendan Radke

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Riding high off Brisbane’s historic campaign, Advance Cairns executive chairman Nick Trompf and Cairns Regional Council Mayor Bob Manning both said the win was exciting for Brisbane, Queensland – and especially Cairns.

Mr Trompf said leveraging the Olympics to boost Cairns’s tourism profile was an obvious opportunity.

“In many ways all roads and planes will lead to Brisbane, so it’s how we leverage off that which is the key thing, and the tourism guys will be working hard to do that – as will tourist destinations right across the nation,” Mr Trompf said.

And having parts of the Australian Olympic team in Cairns training in preparation for Tokyo over the last few weeks put a spotlight on another potential opportunity, Mr Trompf said.

“Probably the biggest opportunity for us is pre-games training with all the countries that will come here to compete,” he said.

“There’s a big opportunity for us and Townsville, in that space, to attract as many teams as they can to condition themselves for the climate – particularly those from the northern hemisphere.”

Advance Cairns executive chairman Nick Trompf. Picture: Bronwyn Farr.

But Mr Trompf said there were also risks to hosting the Olympics in Brisbane, which could affect Cairns and other regional areas.

The cost of building roads and other infrastructure in south east Queensland would put a “big strain” on the state government’s finances, he said, which could in turn lead to an infrastructure drought outside of the south east.

“It’s up to our region to get on the front foot and get a clear narrative about what it is we can leverage and what support we can seek.”

Cr Manning said he believed tourism was the key opportunity for Cairns out of the 2032 Olympics.

He said the surge of internationals arriving in Australia as part of the Olympics would see them looking for tours both before and after the games.

“The issue will very much be with Mark Olsen and the team from Tourism Tropical North Queensland. There is an opportunity there, how big it is will depend,” he said.

Cr Manning said there was a lot of time for planning and talking in between now and 2032.

“There’s a bit of water to run under the bridge before we get to that point.”

Originally published as Cairns eyeing off opportunities to benefit from the Brisbane 2032 Olympics