Gina Rinehart lobbied for controversial plan to move 2032 Olympic rowing to crocodile-inhabited river

Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, has been lobbied for controversial plans to host 2032 Olympic rowing events on the Fitzroy River at Rockhampton, documents released by the Queensland government show.

Rinehart, a key financial backer of the rightwing One Nation party, and who has extensive mining and pastoral interests, says in the letter that hosting an Olympic event in the “beef capital” would “enable Queensland to tell the iconic Australian story of our pastoralists and farmers”.

The plans to send rowers 600km north of host city Brisbane – to a river that is natural habitat for saltwater crocodiles, and which prompted significant backlash among the rowing and broader Olympic communities – were announced by the Queensland government in March last year. The Queensland government used a venues review process to justify breaking election promises not to build a new stadium. But the decision to send rowing events to Rockhampton went against the review’s recommendations, which suggested rowing be relocated to Sydney and held at the existing facility near Penrith.

Concerns about the Fitzroy River’s suitability go well beyond the most glaring reason – the saltwater crocodiles, which are occasionally found in the water at Rockhampton, which sits just above the Tropic of Capricorn. International and Australian rowing officials and competitors have raised various concerns, including that a rowing facility built in Rockhampton would become a “white elephant”. There are also concerns any potential course would not meet the strict technical requirements for international racing regarding weeds, water quality and currents.

The Queensland deputy premier, Jarrod Bleijie, has said publicly that rowing would be held in Rockhampton or cancelled altogether. This will be related to Rinehart’s lobbying of making sure the location stays the same for the Olympics’ canoeing.