brisbane: Sailing the Whitsunday islands. Surfing an iconic Gold Coast break. Rowing in a crocodile-inhabited river in Rockhampton.
Extra tourism-focused venues and a new 60,000-seat Olympic stadium to be built in inner-city parkland have been unveiled as part of a major overhaul of planning for the 2032 Brisbane Games.
David Crisafulli, the third premier of Queensland state in the almost four years since the International Olympic Committee awarded the 2032 Games to the capital of Queensland state, announced the latest plans on a rainy Tuesday.
He said it’s not going to be like last year’s Paris Olympics or the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles, promising instead it’ll be uniquely-Queensland.
It’s been more than 1,340 days since that IOC decision in 2021, and local organisers still haven’t started the Olympic venue construction program.
“The time has come to just get on with it — get on with it, and build,” Crisafulli said, marking his 150th day in office.
“We are going to start immediately. We’ve got seven years to make it work — and make it work we will.”
A 25,000-seat aquatics centre has also been proposed in an Olympic precinct that includes the new main stadium at Victoria Park, a former golf course near downtown Brisbane.
The 11 years that Brisbane had to prepare is now down to seven, and leaders at federal, state and local levels agree it’s time to stop squabbling over venues and start building them.
Newly elected IOC president Kirsty Coventry, who oversaw the initial planning stages as head of the IOC’s coordination commission, has been updated on the changes by Andrew Liveris, chairman of the 2032 organizing committee.
“The stage matters,” Liveris said. “We’ve still got 7½ years to go, and we have a plan. This is a go-get-it-done plan.”
Brisbane was the first Summer Games host picked in a new process to put a preferred candidate into exclusive, fast-track talks without facing a rival bidder in a vote. With it, the IOC aimed to cut the cost of campaigning and building venues. Domestic media earlier this week raised concerns about crocodiles at the Olympic rowing venue when it emerged that events would be staged on the Fitzroy River.
Crisafulli confirmed the Fitzroy River venue at Rockhampton, on the central Queensland coast, and said a “multitude” of events had been staged there — including Australia’s pre-Olympic rowing camps. He said local kids swam and paddled in the river and crocodiles wouldn’t be a problem.
Sarah Cook, the head of Rowing Australia, said the crocodile concerns were overblown in the media. But she raised some issues about the river current and its suitability for Olympic competition.
Liveris, who said World Rowing would visit the venue in May, also wasn’t worried about crocs.