Bundaberg greyhound club to convert its grass track to sand

A meeting of Bundaberg greyhound racing club officials and Queensland Racing has cemented the club’s future after it was told last week it would remain shut down for the next six months.

Bundaberg Greyhound Racing will convert its grass track to sand.

A meeting on the future of the Bundaberg racing club greyhound track between club officials, trainers and owners, and Racing Queensland last Friday voted to convert the club’s grass track to sand.

The meeting followed a forced closure of racing on the two-turn grass track in September 2024, due to safety concerns, which was extended for another six months following a meeting in mid-January, 2025.

Bundaberg club officials say they were “ambushed” when Racing Queensland raised a number of safety concerns over the newly installed, very expensive grass racing track.

A $1.4m upgrade was carried out with the hopes of putting “Bundaberg on the map”, but Racing Queensland want the track converted to sand circle track or sand straight track because of the number of injuries occurring on the grass track.

Bundaberg greyhound racing club president Ricky Hassall said Friday’s vote returned a unanimous decision to convert the round grass track to sand.

A secondary meeting took place yesterday so club officials and representatives from RQ could map out the future of greyhound racing in Bundaberg.

“I’m sure it will be positive,” Mr Hassall said ahead of the meeting.

Trainers and owners in attendance at the mid-January meeting had earlier voiced their frustrations.

In a release to the media last week, Racing Queensland said it had met with “representatives of the Bundaberg Greyhound Racing Club in relation to its grass track”.

Bundaberg greyhound racing club president Ricky Hassall said Friday’s vote returned a unanimous decision to convert the round grass track to sand.

“RQ reaffirmed with club representatives its on-going concerns with the suitability of the venue, which has been offline since late September, and has now advised that meetings will no longer be programmed on its current grass track.

“Presently, Bundaberg is the only two-turn grass track in Queensland, with sand deemed to present a more consistent racing surface.

Trainers far and wide of the Bundaberg region say grass circle tracks provide a more thorough education into racing techniques than straight tracks alone, while animal rights groups say that grass tracks make the animals more susceptible to injury.

The Coalition for the Protection of Greyhounds labelled the Bundaberg track a ‘death track’ in an online post.

“Between two and three times as many dogs are injured in Bundaberg as other Queensland tracks. It’s a death track,” they said.

“Racing Queensland is concerned about rates of injuries.

“They should be horrified,” the post said.

Originally published as Bundaberg greyhound club to convert its grass track to sand