The “putrid smelling mud pit.” Photo: Facebook//Burleigh Heads Social Community
A “putrid-smelling mud pit” has been left at Burleigh Heads in the wake of the WSL’s Bonsoy Gold Coast Pro. The Gold Coast City Council (GCCC) says costs to repair damage will be covered by event organizers – aka the WSL and others – and that any destruction is reversible, worth the economic benefits brought to the community.
“Once the WSL Pro event has been bumped out, a full damage assessment will be done and works will commence,” a GCCC city council spokesperson told Gold Coast Bulletin about the event site. “Event organizers are responsible for all costs associated with rectifying any damage as a result of the event.”
The spokesperson acknowledges that the WSL is not solely to blame for the landscaping hiccup, as the Australian Boardriders Battle also used the space before the Gold Coast Pro, which, when coupled with heavy rainfall, resulted in the mud damage seen at the site. More than 100,000 people reportedly attended the WSL Championship Tour event, which had to revert to Burleigh after the sand bank at Snapper Rocks was destroyed earlier in the year by Cyclone Alfred.
Complicating matters, more rain is in the forecast, and another surf contest, the eight-day Solento Surf Festival, will take place at Burleigh in June.
The spokesperson emphasized that the negative impacts of foot traffic and infrastructure were outweighed by the global exposure and capital injected into the community.
“The recent surfing events at Burleigh were attended by tens of thousands of people contributing millions of dollars into the local economy, and our city, coastline, and world-class surf breaks were beamed to millions of viewers worldwide,” they said. “This type of economic contribution and global exposure is invaluable to our city.”
“The City will continue to work with event organizers to review practices and identify improvements when planning for future events,” they added.
A restoration plan is currently in the works that will take four to six weeks, depending on weather conditions.
A WSL Asia-Pacific spokesperson rebutted the claims that they were to blame for the damage, stating that the site was already trodden on before their arrival.
“We arrived at a site already damaged from the bump-out of a previous Australian Boardriders Battle event at the same location,” said the WSL spokesperson. “Due to this, we invested in a number of measures to mitigate further damage to the area. (A) heavy-duty temporary flooring system enables cars, trucks, and other vehicles to travel over all types of terrain. This mitigates the ground from getting impacted and creating further mud, and prevents further damage.”
Gold Coast Bulletin pulled the “putrid smelling” remarks from a Facebook group where many other colorful comments were left about the current state of the formerly grassy area at Burleigh.
“The grassland is destroyed and in many places just a putrid smelling mud pit and will take months and probably in excess of $100,000 to recover, which will be worse if we get a wet winter,” said Gold Coast resident Steve Smith.
