1. 36 The Courier-Mail June 1-2, 2013 couriermail.com.au FRST
36 NEWS
Take a holiday from routine
and give yourself a floggingDAMIEN STANNARD
❝Sport delivers
very good return
on investment
Tourism Minister
Jann Stuckey
QUEENSLAND is hitching its
wagon to Lycra travel as a
means to recession-proof the
tourism economy.
After almost three
years of despair, the
tourism industry is
again sprouting green shoots,
thanks largely to the contri-
bution of the state’s partici-
pation sporting events.
Next month’s Ironman
Cairns multi-sport festival and
the Gold Coast Marathon
weekend in July have become
money-spinning prime movers.
The two events alone are
expected to generate almost
100,000 visitor nights and
inject tens of millions of dollars
into the economy.
As a result, the State Gov-
ernment is ramping up its
Tourism and Events Queens-
land investment funding.
‘‘We’re very proud because
sport delivers very good return
on investment,’’ Tourism Min-
ister Jann Stuckey said.
‘‘The marathon has become
a bankable event, and events
such as these bring a degree of
certainty to a region.’’
The fickle tourism sector has
traditionally been bound by the
Australian dollar’s fluctuations
as well as the cost and avail-
ability of direct flights.
Marathoners, triathletes,
cyclists and adventure sport
enthusiasts march differently
to most travellers.
They are a more robust
market and will commit to
bucket list races regardless of
cost, and stay longer. They
pack their bikes, running shoes
and brightly coloured Lycra
outfits and flood restaurants
and bars for after-parties.
The average household in-
come for triathletes is $165,000
and they are prepared to spend.
‘‘It’s been a shot in the arm
for Cairns and it came at the
right time,’’ said Tourism Trop-
ical North Queensland chief
executive Rob Giason.
The eight-day Cairns Air-
port Adventure Festival kicks
off on June 2 with the Coral
Coast Olympic distance
triathlon and finishes with the
punishing ironman and half
ironman races. It has attracted
world champion Pete Jacobs
and dual Hawaiian ironman
winner Chris McCormack.
Tourism and Events
Queensland chief executive
Steven Wright said economic
benefit was just one of the key
performance indicators.
The strategy also targets
visitor numbers, raising com-
munity pride and showcasing
the region. ‘‘It ticks all those
boxes,’’ he said.
Corporate cash is also rolling
in. Cairns Airport last week
announced a three-year exten-
sion of its naming rights spon-
sorship.
Television broadcast pack-
ages take the event to a global
audience which, according to
Mr Giason, is priceless.
The Australian Surf Life-
saving Titles, Noosa Triathlon
and Mooloolaba Triathlon at-
tract thousands to Queensland
and are pillars of sports tour-
ism, as is the Gold Coast
Marathon.
Australia ‘risked being
poor white trash of Asia’
THE 1983 accord between
Labor and the trade unions
was essential to stop Australia
becoming the ‘‘poor white
trash of Asia’’, former prime
minister Bob Hawke says.
Mr Hawke yesterday told a
Macquarie University sym-
posium in Sydney the deal on
Prices and Incomes was key
to his government’s success in
implementing reforms.
He said he had been ex-
tremely unhappy over the
state of the economy in the
early 1980s and that then
Singapore prime minister Lee
Kuan Yew had warned if
Australia continued on that
track, it would become ‘‘the
poor white trash of Asia’’.
‘‘I was terribly afraid that
that analysis was accurate,’’
Mr Hawke said.
‘‘The accord was absolutely
essential in enabling us to do
things that had to be done, in
my judgment, to make that
forecast of Lee Kuan Yew not
come true.’’
Deadline for hostel abuse
compo claims passes
VICTIMS of sexual abuse at
state-run hostels in Western
Australia had until 5pm
(WST) yesterday to lodge
applications for ex-gratia
compensation payments
from the Government.
The Country High School
Hostels ex-gratia scheme was
created last year following
the Blaxell Inquiry, which
examined historical abuse
at St Andrew’s Hostel in
Katanning, St Christopher’s
Hostel in Northam, Hardie
House in South Hedland
and St Michael’s House in
Merredin.
Under the scheme, pay-
ments of up to $45,000 are
available to eligible applicants
who were abused while
boarding at these hostels
between 1960 and 2006.
Some of the most shocking
revelations came from former
boarders at St Andrew’s
Hostel in Katanning, run by
convicted serial pedophiles
Dennis and Neil McKenna.
Plibersek hails Ireland’s
plain smoke packet plan
IRELAND’S decision to fol-
low Australia’s lead and in-
troduce plain packaging laws
for cigarettes is another vic-
tory against big tobacco,
Health Minister Tanya
Plibersek says.
Ireland was the first
country to ban smoking in all
workplaces in 2008, four
years after it criminalised
smoking in pubs and res-
taurants. This week the Irish
Government announced it
would introduce plain pack-
aging laws, a move Ms
Plibersek has welcomed.
‘‘I’ll be ringing the Irish
health minister to congratu-
late him on this important
move,’’ she said.
However, since the Aust-
ralian laws came into effect in
December last year, tobacco
companies have launched a
challenge with the World
Trade Organisation.
Ms Plibersek said this
should not deter Ireland from
its anti-tobacco policy.
Muddies love
doing it tough
FELICITY SHEPPARD
KIMBERLEY VLASIC
NO OBSTACLE: Plenty of fun
amid the grimaces at Spartan
race training.
ALMOST 50,000 adventure-
seeking Queenslanders
confronted mud pits, ice-filled
pools and gladiators last year as
they flocked towards extreme
obstacle courses.
With Tough Mudder among a
group of high-profile events
debuting in the Sunshine
State this year, that number is
set to soar.
Even ominously named
challenges such as the ‘‘trauma
tunnels’’, ‘‘electroshock
therapy’’ and ‘‘mud mile’’ can’t
scare away the determined
combatants.
And while you could be forgiven
for thinking the ‘‘arctic enema’’
is a cure for a severe case of
sunburn, it is instead one of the
most feared obstacles in the
Tough Mudder course, according
to Drew Ward, managing director
for Tough Mudder Australia.
‘‘It’s essentially a container filled
with ice,’’ he said, adding that the
freezing obstacle is best
approached like a Band-Aid.
‘‘The quicker you do it, the
sooner you can move on,’’ he said.
While there are some tried and
tested obstacles, most
organisers prefer to keep
participants on their blistered
and muddied toes, opting not to
publish a full list of challenges
prior to race day.
‘‘We think in life you need to
prepare for anything so we keep
the obstacles secret,’’ Spartan
Race Australia director Max
DeLacy said.
Spartan is run as a race with
punishments for failed obstacles
unlike Tough Mudder and
Stampede, which allow
participants to bypass challenges
in an untimed experience.
While all events feature cross-
country style runs with scattered
obstacles, layouts and length
vary considerably, appealing to
racers of all ages and abilities.
According to Warwick Whitmore,
general manager for the Obstacle
Course Racing Association of
Australia, men and women
between 30 and 45 make up the
largest number of participants.
But Mr Whitmore said teens and
grandparents had taken on some
events, proving that the finish
line is within reach of everyone.
‘‘Amputees are doing these
events so there’s no excuse for
everyone else out there not to
try it,’’ he said.
The trepidation experienced by
some at the events is matched
only by the excitement and
enthusiasm of others, many
dressing up for the course.
‘‘I’ve seen a team of Teletubbies,
guys in full office suits and
fairies,’’ Mr Ward said.
And they’re not alone – smurfs,
tutus and the impractical mankini
having been spotted on the
Stampede course, according
to event spokeswoman Nicole
Hain-Lynch.
‘‘I’ve seen a guy tow a bar fridge
behind him throughout the
course,’’ she said.