‘We haven’t received the funds’: 2024 Henley on Todd cancelled due to funding and no event manager

The board behind a yearly Red Centre dry river regatta have confirmed this year’s event will not be going ahead. Here’s why.

The 2022 Henley on Todd regatta. Photo supplied

Updated, June 27: The board behind a yearly Red Centre dry river regatta has confirmed this year’s event will not be going ahead.

Organisers of the Henley on Todd Regatta – which was due to take place on August 17 along the banks of the Todd River in Alice Springs – took to Facebook to break the news.

Commmodore Lester Hamilton in the post wrote the “world’s only dry river boating event in Australia” would “not be setting sail in 2024”.

The statement said the event would, however, be returning “with even more gusto” in 2025.

Funding, time constraints and event management company withdrawal are the reasons the board has cited for this year’s regatta not going ahead.

Speaking to NT News, Mr Hamilton said it was not the first time the event hasn’t run.

“It wasn’t run during Covid, and it wasn’t run I think in 1991 because there was water in the river,” he said.

‘In severe jeopardy’: 2024 Henley on Todd faces cancellation due to funding and no event manager

June 26: A Red Centre river regatta which has ran for more than 60 years is set to be postponed due to problems finding funding and an events manager, according to the organiser.

Running since the 1960s, the Henley on Todd Regatta – set on the Todd River in Alice Springs – is currently at risk of not running in 2024.

Henley on Todd Regatta commodore Lester Hamilton said “it would take some sort of a miracle” to pull the event off in 2024.

“The two reasons this event is in severe jeopardy is because lack of funds and lack of event manager,” Mr Hamilton said.

“We haven’t received the funds, and we haven’t been able to recruit the event manager in time to deliver the event”

The funding stoush stems from a $150,000 community benefits grant – which the Henley on Todd committee was unable to receive as the event’s application was knocked back, according to a statement released by Braitling CLP MLA Joshua Burgoyne.

“Once again this Labor government couldn’t care less about anything that occurs south of the Berrimah Line with this being the second iconic Central Australian event in as many weeks now under a cloud with a lack of support for the Masters Games meaning it will be a smaller event,” Mr Burgoyne said in the statement.

Alice Springs' iconic Henley on Todd Regatta. Picture: Supplied

However, Mr Burgoyne’s statement provided a silver lining for Red Centre regatta fans: were he elected he would bring back the regatta.

“If elected, the CLP will deliver the funding to ensure the 2025 Henley on Todd goes ahead,” he said.

But Major Events Minister Brent Potter has a different view of the events around this year’s regatta and said the Henley on Todd committee made the decision to postpone the event for a year.

“On the 26th of June, the new Henley on Todd committee advised NT Major Events Company they have decided to postpone the 2024 event due to lack of volunteers and a desire to refocus and deliver a free event in 2025,” Mr Potter said.

“The Northern Territory government strongly supports the Henley on Todd Regatta, investing $50,000 into the iconic event in 2024 while a 3-year plan to continue delivering the event by Rotary Alice Springs is being finalised.

“Josh Burgoyne and the CLP are misleading Territorians and shamefully using a charity event to play political games.”

However for Mr Hamilton, it’s not the lack of volunteers which is the issue – it’s being unable to hire an event manager to help organise the event so close to when it’s due to begin.

“We’ve always hired an event management last two years, we’ve invested more heavily in them to take on more of the event, to take it away from being a volunteer-based event that was struggling with volunteers,” he said.

A volunteer event manager was hired according to Mr Hamilton, who told the Henley on Todd committee 90 days out the event still had a possibility of going ahead – if they had a full time event manager.

“We made the call at about the 70 day mark, when we didn’t have an event manager hired, that the event was in severe jeopardy,” he said.

The Henley on Todd Regatta is labelled as one of the world’s only dry river regattas and first ran in 1962.

The event is the brainchild of Reg Smith, who reportedly started the event to make the most out of the lack of water in the Todd River.

The event has grown into a yearly spectacular, with last years event drawing 4500 spectators and 1000 participants.

Mr Hamilton could not make a definite call on whether the event would go ahead or not this year.

He said the committee had money in the bank but they did not want to “risk the small amount” in order to secure the event for the future.

“It would be amazing if we could make it happen this year even in an abbreviated version,” he said.