Arafura Games cancelled amid Covid-19 ‘uncertainty’

Despite being two years away, the Arafura Games have been cancelled after the global pandemic made holding it ‘impossible’.

THE NT government has wiped plans to hold any future Arafura Games, blaming continuing uncertainty around the global pandemic.

The next games, which was still two years away, would’ve required multiple venues to host almost 20 different sports.

The last games were held in 2019, and prior to that the 2013 event was cancelled.

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In a statement, Major Events Minister Natasha Fyles said border closures made planning the international sporting contest difficult.

“Sadly, the Covid-19 pandemic means planning for future Arafura Games is impossible right now, so we have made the difficult decision to cancel the event,” Ms Fyles said.

“Unfortunately, we cannot put a date on the end of Covid-19, which makes hosting international sporting events such as this very difficult to plan for.”

Ms Fyles said she was grateful to event stakeholders for what they had helped achieve in previous years.

“I thank sporting teams and organisations for their ongoing participation and support of the games – without them we wouldn’t have been able to show off Territory talent on an international level and hold such successful events,” she said.

“Through the Arafura Games we have developed strong relationships with our international sporting neighbours and we thank the participating nations across the Asia Pacific region for their support in 2019, and their ongoing friendship.”

Originally scheduled for May 2021, the games were last year pushed back until 2023 before being scuppered entirely.

The 2019 event drew hundreds of athletes from more than 40 countries, as well as nearly 1,000 Australians, to the nine-day event in Darwin.

The games’ finances have been called into question after a cost-benefit analysis commissioned by the NT government found the 2019 event generated $7.1 million in visitor spending, but cost $7.2 million to hold.

At the time of the initial postponement in 2020, Ms Fyles said $1 million of the allocated event budget had already been spent.

Ms Fyles denied that the cost of hosting the games was the reason they were being discontinued.

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