Games independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority to release 100-day infrastructure review

While all of Toowoomba is united behind a plan to host equestrians events for the 2032 Olympics, our proposal has faced stiff competition from the Gold Coast and Brisbane. Here’s when we’ll know who takes home the gold.

National Working Equitation champion Ellie Stenzel with her six-year-old connemara Costalota Tiggy Winkle at Toowoomba Showgrounds, Thursday, December 12, 2024. Picture: Kevin Farmer

What role – if any – Toowoomba will play in the 2032 Brisbane Olympics will be revealed on Tuesday when the Games independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority releases its secretive 100-day infrastructure review

Over the past three months the review has taken more than 5860 submissions and held 150 stakeholders meetings to examine the most cost effective and developmentally sound path forward.

Included in those submissions was a proposal from the Royal Agricultural Society of Queensland, promoting the planned Toowoomba Equestrian Centre at the Toowoomba Showgrounds.

Under its plan, the RASQ would expand its existing facility in Glenvale to hold dressage, show jumping and eventing.

David Janetzki has backed the bid for Olympic equestrian events to be held at the Toowoomba Showgrounds. Photo Steve Pohlner

The bid, which is backed by representatives from all levels of government in Toowoomba, faces stiff competition from the RNA Showgrounds and the Gold Coast Turf Club.

The dream of Toowoomba hosting part of the Olympics was supercharged in February when Queensland Premier and Toowoomba South MP David Janetzki threw his support behind the RASQ plan.

“I recognise the independence of the 100-Day Review and the importance of taking the decision-making for the Games out of the hands of politicians,” he said.

“As the Member for Toowoomba South, the Toowoomba Equestrian Centre of Excellence is our chance to build infrastructure that is truly in character, that will last for generations.

“I am all in for the Toowoomba Equestrian Centre of Excellence.”

If Toowoomba is to be successful the city needs to address the current shortfall in accommodation for visiting athletes and their horses.

One solution is to use the Queensland Regional Accommodation Centre, formally the Wellcamp Quarantine Facility.

This 1000-bed centre was built to house quarantine overseas arrivals during the Covid pandemic and was paid for through about $220 million of worth of public money.

It has mostly been vacant since the pandemics subsided.

Toowoomba Mayor Geoff McDonald said Toowoomba’s bid for the equestrian event made sense for the key criteria of the 2032 Brisbane Games.

“We’re classed as part of South East Queensland, and we in Toowoomba are a solution for the southeast problem,” he said.

“The (equestrian) centre will create a lot of attention for legacy whether it’s for the Olympics or otherwise.

“The community has left no stone unturned in our bid and we hope the (state government’s) decision is made easy.”