Fitzroy River Approved for Brisbane 2032 Rowing Despite Crocodile Fears

The annual rowing regatta for schools in the Australian state of Queensland usually passes off with little attention. This weekend, more than 600 of the state's most promising teenage rowers will battle it out on the crocodile-inhabited Fitzroy River in the city of Rockhampton. Anthea O'Loughlin, head of Rowing Queensland, told the BBC that never before had any media wanted to attend. This year, the interest is rather different.

In six years' time, the 2032 Brisbane Olympics and Paralympics are set to stage rowing and canoe sprint events on this very stretch of water, which has just passed a technical assessment and been endorsed as safe and fair for athletes. Sightings of saltwater crocodiles on the river, which number around 500 and can grow to four metres long, are not uncommon, though state government files going back more than 40 years record no attacks by the reptiles on humans. Even so, influential figures at last month's World Rowing congress in Amsterdam made only occasional references to safety. Their chief concern lay elsewhere.

Fairness is the word that has been raised with Tom Solesbury, chief executive of British Rowing, a reference to the tidal river's natural bends and currents which many in the rowing community say make it unsuitable for elite competition. Drew Ginn, who has won three Olympic gold medals for Australia in the sport, told the BBC he had concerns over potential flooding and over fairness and integrity at the venue. Personally, he said, he was not fearful of the Australian animals, but he had never had a crocodile near him. He suspected he would row faster, and that all the athletes would. It was on the list of concerns, he added, though not the highest priority; it was certainly cited very early on.

Moritz Petri, president of the German rowing body, said athletes had also questioned the sustainability of holding the event some 600km from Brisbane. The so-called impediments received short shrift from Queensland's most senior politician, state premier David Crisafulli, who reached for less diplomatic language. Days after the Amsterdam meeting, he urged people to scratch beneath the surface and call it for what it was: a group of interstate and overseas elites trying to bully their way because they did not want to go to regional Queensland. Rowing chiefs contacted by the BBC before Thursday's decision declined to comment directly on his remarks. Both Petri and Simon Wickham, chief executive of Rowing New Zealand, said their concerns had nothing to do with regional or urban preference but with competitors getting fair racing. Petri added that it was about what was best for athletes who will train for four years for the event, dreaming night after night of becoming an Olympic champion. Ginn said that if elite meant having some expertise in the sport over 20 odd years, he was proud of it.

Whether it was crocodiles or currents that tipped the balance, the final say rested with the sport's governing body, World Rowing, and the International Olympic Committee. On Thursday they approved the venue after a technical assessment by an engineering firm and the Games' infrastructure authority, which examined the riverbed, the competition course, river flows, water levels and likely weather conditions during the Games. Jean-Christophe Rolland, president of World Rowing, said that based on the extensive analysis undertaken, the Fitzroy River was capable of providing fair competition conditions during the period of the Games. Thomas Konietzko, president of Paddle Worldwide, the canoe sprint governing body, said there was now confidence in the river for its athletes. The state premier was delighted, telling parliament that the Fitzroy had passed with flying colours: official, signed, sealed and delivered.

In backing Rockhampton, the state government ignored a 2025 report it commissioned itself, which found the location unsuitable and concluded that the best option would be to use a course built in Sydney for the 2000 Olympics. The Fitzroy now needs to pass a final assessment of its design, value for money and long-term community legacy. As the decision rests with the state government, it is unlikely to fall at that hurdle. A wider debate will nonetheless continue over whether Rockhampton is the right place to invest heavily in rowing facilities, and whether it can accommodate the influx of visitors expected in 2032. The city is surrounded by cattle producers and normally experiences its peak number of guests every three years during Beef Week.

And what of the crocodiles? They are not mentioned anywhere in the latest update from the IOC and World Rowing, nor were they referenced in the media release about the technical assessment, which has not yet been made public. The safety management plan for this weekend's school regatta, by contrast, mentions the word crocodile 28 times. The Fitzroy River, it states, is within recognised crocodile country, and event planning must therefore assume that a sighting is possible. No natural waterway in crocodile country can be guaranteed to be crocodile-free. Procedures this weekend include suspending racing and returning competitors to the bank if a crocodile is spotted; the official signal is the call of crocodile, crocodile, crocodile.

Asked specifically about the reptiles, New Zealand's Wickham said the primary concern was ensuring the fairest possible course for rowers, adding that any course chosen would obviously be expected to be safe. Hancock Prospecting, the company owned by Australia's richest person, Gina Rinehart, which supported Rockhampton's bid and has pumped tens of millions of dollars into sports including rowing, pointed to fake media concerns about risks posed by flooding and crocodiles. A spokesperson said the people of Rockhampton had for many years sent their own children to train and compete in the river without a single crocodile incident. Those who argue the tabloid-friendly crocodile debate is overblown say the largest creatures live downstream, and that the less dangerous freshwater crocodiles are more likely to be spotted in the rowing arena.

The flood risk is also contested by the government, though Rowing Queensland's O'Loughlin noted that a schools event due to be held on the Fitzroy in August 2024 had to be moved after the course was washed away. The chief executive of Brisbane 2032 has said organisers are making contingency plans as they would for any venue, and the Sydney 2000 course stands ready as a backup, though that would be unconscionable for Queenslanders.

For the school-age rowers taking to the water this weekend, none of the debate really matters. Among them are potentially some contenders for the 2032 Games. Phillip Moulds, headmaster of The Rockhampton Grammar School, says that for his students the Fitzroy is first and foremost their home water, and that it has been the starting point for many who have gone on to compete at the highest levels of the sport nationally and internationally.