Gunnedah divided by Australian Senior Track Championships as concerns erupt for safety of showground

More than 3500 motorbike riders are expected to rev their way into Gunnedah for the Australia Senior Track Championships, but agriculture event organisers have joined forces to call for the event to be canned.

The competition is penciled in to be held at the Gunnedah Showground but for the event to go ahead it would require the track to be widened by 5m - reducing the available grassed area.

Gunnedah Shire Council gave the event the tick of approval back in April on the condition the showground would be returned to its current state at the completion of the competition.

But the Gunnedah Motorcycle Club, who are hosting the event, have refused to repair the track after the event citing financial and work load restraints.

In a submission to Gunnedah council, secretary of the club Simon Duff said the track had already been allowed to deteriorate and it wasn't the motorcycle club's job to rectify the issue.

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"This would be a huge amount of work required from our members, who will be working hard to remove panels and grandstands to the original state for a booking the following weekend," he wrote.

The club have urged council to keep their promise to use the showground with the competition dubbed as a "huge opportunity" for Gunnedah.

"The number of spectators and competitors that will travel to Gunnedah to compete will be high, which will have a huge financial injection to many Gunnedah businesses," Mr Duff wrote.

On Wednesday, council will vote whether to reaffirm the booking of the motorcycle event on the condition the club pay for the preparation and restoration of the track; decline their request to use the showground for the competition; or allow the event to go ahead with no requirement to reinstate the track after the event.

But concerned agricultural event organisers are having flashbacks of the last track meet that took place at the showground, which took years to recover from.

In a letter to council, Gunnedah Show Society vice president Kath Wilkinson said the thought of the motorcycle event taking place was "alarming news".

"For many years following the last track widening, Gunnedah lost many competitors to our Show Jumping Festival as they perceived that the once great surface in Gunnedah had become to uneven," she wrote.

"We are still in the process of trying to bring back these competitors to Gunnedah as this Show Jumping Festival was once the biggest fundraiser for the Gunnedah Show Society.

"The booking will endanger the future of Gunnedah Show Society's horse entries and not allow us to endure the safety of our horse riders as well as restricting us from growing our sport."

Namoi Horse Association president Fiona Hoddle has also raised her concerns calling the potential widening of the track a "step in the wrong direction".

"This could potentially affect the level between the soil and the track and we have to consider our members who range from very young to very old," she wrote in a letter to council.

"This can be a potential hazard".

Campdraft and dog trial events scheduled for later this year could be called off if the track is not restored after the motor cycle competition.

Ed Wall from the Gunnedah Dog Trial Committee wrote to council expressing the "problems" this would cause for the dog trials which are scheduled for October 8 and 9.

"If it is not restored, the widened track would baulk the cattle and the decomposed granite would be hard on the feet of the dogs," he said.

"These proposed works can only leave the arena in poor shape at the time of our event."

Coming off the back of a four year hiatus due to drought and COVID-19, president of the Gunnedah Show Society Campdraft Club Mick Mcloughlin said he feared this years event would also be pulled from the calendar.

"If the proposed works were to proceed, our concerns are that it would take many years for the grounds to be returned to the current state it is in, or that it may never return," he wrote.

"The safety of our riders and their horses is always paramount, and if we are not able to ensure a safe competition surface, we will not able to continue to hold our events, and as such jeopardises the future of the club."

The fate of the track championships will be decided at a council meeting on Wednesday.

* Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct Mr Duff's title as secretary of the club. The Leader apologises for the confusion.

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