Herald 20220816

Committee seeks Olympic opportunities
A new taskforce committee was unveiled that
will be looking at maximising opportunities the
upcoming Brisbane Olympics could present to the
Toowoomba Region last week.
The Toowoomba Surat Basin Enterprise announced
the Olympic taskforce management committee
on Wednesday.
Inaugural members of the group consist of
Toowoomba Region Mayor Paul Antonio, Kylie
Bourne, Western Downs Regional Council, Todd
Rohl, Toowoomba Chamber of Commerce, Peter
Homan, Southern Queensland Country Tourism,
Michele Berkhout, TAFE Southwest QLD, Damian
Bell, Wagner Corporation, Troy Morgan,
Willows Health Group, Mark McErvale, Aspect
Group and Mark Mason, TSBE.
Ms Davenport said the committee was made up
of people with a wide variety of skills and diverse
backgrounds.
“They’re really going to help us maximise the
opportunities over the Olympics and for our region,
we obviously want sport, but for us there are
so many other opportunities from an Ag perspective,
from an energy perspective.
“There are so many different ways our region
could potentially benefit from.
“It’s thinking outside the square and thinking of
all the things that people going to the Olympics
are going to need.
“There is going to be like 3 million people in
South East Queensland over a three or four week
period and so what do we want from our region to
promote our region to those people.”
The establishment of the taskforce was a recommendation
of the TSBE Brisbane 2032 Olympic
Games Toowoomba Capability Review Report,
recently released by council.
Mayor Antonio said the 2032 Brisbane games
predicated on no suddenly built infrastructure that
would be torn down after the event.
“It’s about what we have and upgrading some of
the things that we have and I think we’ll get a fair
bit of benefit,” he said.
“I think we’ll get some of the football games
here; I’m hoping that when we build this centre of
excellence at the showgrounds that will bring a lot
of things happening to our area.
“It is my understanding that our equestrian set
up at the showgrounds is pretty good and wouldn’t
take too much to get it to Olympic standards.
“We have an airport where the horses could be
flown in and quarantined, and if it’s not far away
to the Toowoomba Showgrounds, I think it would
be an outstanding opportunity for us.”
Western Downs Regional Council spokesperson
for tourism events Kylie Bourne said the WDRC
was excited to be involved with the project team.
Toowoomba Olympic Taskforce Management Committee Mark Mason, TSBE, Cr Kylie
Bourne, WDRC, Mark McErvale, Aspect, Michele Berkhout, TAFE Southwest Queensland,
Mayor Paul Antonio, Toowoomba Region, and Ali Davenport
“This is about legacies in the lead up to the
games and we’re excited to see what opportunities
there will be for the Western Downs Region,” she
said.
“Whether that be pre-training, small events that
may happen in the regions during the Olympics.
“It’s also about legacy and tourism afterwards,
it’s going to be exciting to see what opportunities
there will be to keep people in regional Queensland
for longer post Olympics.”
- Sean White
Hydro station at Lake Cressbrook
With planning ahead of schedule,
BE Power is increasing its
engagement with the Crows
Nest community about its upcoming
pumped hydro energy
project.
BE Power have been planning
on the development of the Big-T
Pumped Hydro Energy Storage
Project at Lake Cressbrook.
The project will consist of
a pumped hydro energy storage
facility which will generate
400MW with 10 hours storage
and a battery energy storage facility,
enough to power 288,000
homes with renewable energy.
Both BE Power and GE Renewable
Energy selected engineering
company, Bechtel, in
early August to support the planning
for the project.
The facility will generate
power using water and gravity.
Pumped storage hydropower
works by pumping the water
stored in a lower reservoir into a
more elevated reservoir.
The water stored at height can
be passed through a turbine on
its path back to the lower reservoir,
creating electricity as and
when needed, and making the
best use of the water resource
without waste.
BE Power stakeholder and
business development manager
Troy Philpot said the planning
was 18 months early which
gives time for local people to be
able to engage with goods and
services.
“There is a requirement for
local and indigenous content to
be maximised. Most of the time
these projects will get to the finish
line, then they’ll go to tender
and then they’ll be desperate to
start it, so they will turn to larger
corporations. What we’re trying
to do is make a big enough opening,”
he said.
“We’re going to work with
the Toowoomba Surat Basin Enterprise
to have a portal so that
people can get qualified.
“There might be people who
start joining together to make a
big enough group to pitch for the
work.”
The power station for the project
will be situated underground
which would negate visual impact
of the construction.
“The electricity connection
involves construction of an underground
transmission line
from the project’s underground
power station to the Tarong
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“The underground electricity
connection is proposed within
the existing road easements
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Mr Philpot said it was estimated
the earliest construction for
the project to begin at the end of
2023 or the first quarter of 2024.
The project is expected to
bring employment opportunities
for residents with an estimated
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Mr Philpot said the idea with
all the forward planning was to
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HIGH COUNTRY HERALD - AUGUST 16, 2022 - 3