Brisbane Olympics 2032: Gold Coast’s Hinze Dam could host rowing, paddle

Rowing and paddle sprint events could be held just 25 minutes from the proposed Gold Coast athletes village if a feasibility study into the use of Hinze Dam for the 2032 Olympics is successful.

Rowing and paddle sprint events could be held just 25 minutes from the proposed Gold Coast athletes village if a feasibility study into the use of Hinze Dam for the 2032 Olympics is successful.

Rowing Australia and Paddle Australia, the peak national bodies for their sports, have made separate submissions to the Queensland government’s 100-day infrastructure review to ask for a thorough feasibility assessment to be conducted on Hinze Dam, in the Gold Coast Hinterland, to decide whether it could be a superior site for the sports at the Games.

The flatwater sports are slated to be held at Wyaralong Dam in the Scenic Rim local government area almost 90 minutes outside of Brisbane and roughly the same distance from the Gold Coast.

The venue was given the tick of approval in last year’s independent review of Olympic and Paralympic venue infrastructure, despite the Wyaralong Flat Water Centre Project Validation Report identifying “several issues and challenges in delivering a legacy international standard rowing venue at Wyaralong Dam”, including distance from the populations that would use it most often and guaranteed water levels given the dam will become part of the southeast Queensland water grid in the future.

Rowena Meredith, Laura Gourley, Ria Thompson and Caitlin Cronin represent Australia in the Women’s Quadruple Sculls at the Paris Olympics. Picture: Getty Images

Issues during the games include Wyaralong’s distance from the main athletes villages in Brisbane and sufficient transport links for spectators.

Nine venues, including the Sydney 2000 Games site in Penrith, were considered in the initial review and further options, including a push from Rockhampton to host flatwater events on the Fitzroy River have been put to the 100-day review.

Hinze Dam was among the preliminary options proposed, although Paddle Australia chief executive Kim Crane said a thorough study, taking into account significant improvements to the dam wall over a decade ago and examining whether the site was suitable for an Olympic event footprint and 2km rowing course seemed not to have been carried out.

The Hinze Dam has been put forward as a potential Olympic venue for rowing and paddle sports. Picture: Glenn Hampson

Wyaralong Dam, the current venue flagged as a host site, hosts the popular GPS Head of the River rowing championship. Picture, John Gass

“Paddle Australia and Paddle Queensland, with the support of the International Canoe Federation and the Gold Coast City Council, have put collectively a case forward that subject to a more thorough feasibility assessment, Hinze Dam may be the superior site,” Crane said.

“(That’s a) question mark. We’d just like it looked at.

“We want what’s best for the Games, obviously, and what what’s best for sports - plural, because we stand with rowing in the sense that we’re collectively working to a site with them at the moment.”

The needs for both sports are different though.

Sprint canoe and kayak events are held over 1000m, while rowing needs 2000m and about 100m either side of the start and finish line for its race course.

While the controversial decision has been made to race over 1500m at the Los Angeles Olympics to allow events to be held at Long Beach, Rowing Australia CEO Sarah Cook said it was a “shortening of the rowing course for the first and only time”.

Rowing Australia CEO Sarah Cook stressed there was a need for a legacy venue to become a permanent home for the sport. Picture: Martin Ollman

Cook said the sport’s main priority was a legacy venue for rowing in Queensland.

“Queensland is a really important rowing state for us but it really doesn’t have a permanent home, and they’ve been punted around about seven venues over 20 years or so and they really don’t have the infrastructure that’s required for the sport,” she said.

“We can’t even at this stage run a national championship event in Queensland because there’s simply no venue with the infrastructure to be able to do it.

“So for us, a really important outcome of these Games is that we have legacy infrastructure and a home for the sport in Queensland.”

Wyaralong Dam does have the space for a 2000m course but Cook said RA’s submission to the 100-day review and interviews in front of the panel had asked for an examination of Hinze Dam.

Gold Coast mayor Tom Tate has backed Hinze Dam’s use at the 2032 Olympics. Picture Glenn Hampson

Like Paddle, RA has the backing of the state and international bodies in a unified submission.

“We had a discussion with paddle and I think what we noticed was of all of the feasibility assessments, that there didn’t seem to be a great lot of detail around Hinze (Dam),” Cook said.

“Hinze is a venue that we have used for rowing at a national level. I raced university championships there 20 years ago, so we think that there’s probably just some due diligence that needs to be done there in terms of assessing the feasibility of that venue.

“We know that Wyaralong is feasible. It’s had a lot of work done on it in terms of those feasibility assessments so we know that it can meet the technical specifications.

“But we’re also not unaware of some of the complications it provides for the organising committee and the state government around transport and access.”

Mayor Tom Tate backed the proposal to relocate the paddle events to the city, arguing it would make sense given the Gold Coast’s role as co-host of the Games.

“I welcome it being considered and it would be an excellent site,” he said.

“As always we are here to help.”

Originally published as Brisbane Olympics 2032: Gold Coast’s Hinze Dam could host rowing, paddle