Grandstand, restaurant closed after Ipswich Turf Club’s electrical fire

A popular entertainment venue in Ipswich has been forced to close a grandstand and a restaurant after significant damage from a fire, which will take months to repair.

Grandstand at Ipswich Turf Club. Photographer: Liam Kidston.

A popular entertainment venue in Ipswich has been forced to close a grandstand and a restaurant after significant damage from a fire, which will take months to repair.

The electrical fire at the Ipswich Turf Club happened around 7pm on June 21 and broke out in the storeroom on the bottom level of the main grandstand.

Ipswich Turf Club CEO Nathan Exelby said there was a huge amount of smoke that went through the building,” he said.

“That building, it houses the mains power for pretty much most of the Ipswich Turf Club site.

“So a lot of powerful key infrastructure there runs out of that particular building.”

The building holds an office, the Barn Restaurant, Eye Liner Lounge, Thoroughbreds Sports Bar and Trackside Lounge.

“Structurally, you wouldn’t know a lot from the outside,” Mr Exelby said.

A fire broke out in a storeroom of Ipswich Turf Club on June 21, 2024.

“But internally with that smoke that went through the building, we are now in the process of just accessing the extent of that damage – how much might have gone in the walls and the roofs.

“But what we do know is that the electrical damage in that building is severe.

“And it’s going to take some time, probably many months to get that fixed and up and running back to what it was previously.”

The Ipswich Turf Club.

The Barn Restaurant, located on the ground floor of the grandstand, was indefinitely closed following the fire, despite an event planned for July 7.

The office also has to be relocated.

Mr Exelby said the race on June 22 was able to be held but without any use of the grandstand.

“Our canteen will still be open on race days,” he said.

“It was not affected by the fire and because it has new electrical wiring in it, it wasn’t affected electrically either, so we still have use of that building fortunately.

“We just don’t know how long that’s (grandstand) going to be offline for.”

A Queensland Ambulance Service spokesman said nobody required any medical assistance because of the fire.

Originally published as Grandstand, restaurant closed after Ipswich Turf Club’s electrical fire