We have made a new discovery.
On the 1st of April 2022 a contract with a value of $384 100 was awarded to a Mango Hill (near Caboolture) based company named Project Pumps and Irrigation for the supply of irrigation materials to the Central Warrego Race Club, which is the Charleville club.
No-one has mentioned that before, and the ABC and the local Mayor and club officials that they quoted in the story seemed totally unaware of it.
Project Pumps and Irrigation were the contractor that installed the original irrigation and drains at the Eagle Farm track.
You know, the long troubled track where the drainage is too fast and copious amounts of water are required just to get the track up from concrete to a Good 4.
It’s not exactly an outstanding reference is it?
That’s one issue, the others are these.
What on earth is the near $400 000 worth of irrigation works actually for?
What has the company who designed and built the irrigation system at Australia’s nuttiest drained metropolitan race track been hired to do exactly?
What do they hope to achieve in an arid country town that has access to copious amounts of underground mineral bore water drawn from the Great Artersian Basin?
Why has Racing Queensland spent a million dollars so far on upgrading a non-TAB track that raced just a handful of times a year, and produces no financial returns by way of wagering revenue?
What the hell is going on here?
Don’t expect anyone at RQ to tell you.
No comment is the name of their game.
What we don’t know won’t hurt us is the theory.
I say we call in the CCC and ask them to find out.
Silence may be golden.
But proper transparency in the spending of public money is worth a whole lot more.
You can view the contract details at this link here https://www.data.qld.gov.au/dataset/racing-queensland-contract-disclosure-report-2022/resource/83b9dbee-cab9-4960-b32b-9236321f3fdd/view/16a35a76-1087-4cb7-9f09-16f88238ac94