Organisers reveal plans for building Toowoomba Olympics venue

Organisers are confident the upgrades to the Toowoomba Showgrounds to turn it into an Equestrian Centre of Excellence will be complete in a matter of years. SEE THE PLANS

The Equestrian Centre at Toowoomba Showgrounds.

Work has already started on Toowoomba Equestrian Centre of Excellence in preparation for the Garden City hosting its share of the 2032 Olympic Games.

New stables built at the Toowoomba Showgrounds will be unveiled this weekend.

Royal Agricultural Society of Queensland CEO Damon Phillips said the organisation was ecstatic after learning it would host the equestrian events.

“We are still riding a high,” he said.

“We actually started work ourselves, building new stables late last year and they will be used for the first time this week for the show.”

The new centre will be paid by a multimillion funding arrangement supplied by the Federal and Queensland Governments.

Is likely to cost between $60-70 million and bring upgrades to the stable, the road and arena infrastructure, grandstands, the playing surface and supporting amenities.

Mr Phillips said the plan was to have all the work complete by 2028.

“We will sit down over the next couple of weeks once the show is over and start planning,” he said.

“We have not seen the terms of reference from the government yet, but it will come through in the next few weeks and we’ll go from there.”

There are references to the state government’s plan for the Queensland Regional Accommodation Centre at Wellcamp to be used as a temporary athletes village, but details on where the horses will be quarantined are limited.

Mr Phillips said there was talk about housing the animals at the showgrounds.

“The issue with quarantine is that the riders and their horses still need to train,” he said.

“If the quarantine is on site then they have access to the training arena, the field of play and the cross country course.

“The original plan was to have several quarantine zones on the site.”

Olympic and Paralympic Games Minister Tim Mander said the decision about where the horses would be quarantined would rely of advice from federal regulators.

“Anybody who owns horses or is involved in the equestrian events, does not want to be away from their horses for too long a period of time,” he said.

“That will now go through the appropriate federal authorities, now that they know the venue, to work out what is appropriate and what is possible.

“I am not a quarantine expert but from layman’s point of view, I think it would be ideal if they were as close as possible to the venue that they will be operating.”

While the showgrounds will be in pristine condition in time for the games, there have been some questions raised about how the city would prepare.

The site is at the far end of Glenvale Road, a thoroughfare that is notoriously difficult to travel during major events at the showgrounds.

Mayor Geoff McDonald said it was too early to comment on the specific upgrades.

“All of that will end up being in the mix, but thankfully we have seven years to get that right, while our population continues to grow out to our west,” he said.

“I am certain we can we manage all those issues and I think the benefits will be far greater than the potential growing pains we will have

“This gives us an opportunity to fast track a lot of the development.”