Redlands Whitewater centre could fare better than Penrith

After the Sydney Olympics, its rafting venue was taken over by Penrith City Council.

The Western Weekender newspaper reported that by 2015 the attraction was struggling, with revenue having dropped 18 per cent since 2014 from $1.6 million to $1.3 million.

Manager Jack Hodge said overall visitor numbers had decreased, but it was an 11 per cent drop in rafting that hit hardest.

Various actions were taken to turn the business around, with the stadium turning off pumps in winter which saved $30,000 a month but this also caused it to lose business.

In 2017, the venue lost $183,000 but things improved in 2018 with a $67,000 profit and $61,000 in 2019.

The 2032 whitewater proposal has been pushed hard for by Redland City Council, which said it would be a small part of a larger water sports precinct in Birkdale.

The Redland proposal has received significant complaints from residents who say it is not what people wanted and will likely be a financial impost on ratepayers.

Regardless of the difficulties, Mr Hodge told the Redland City Bulletin last week that a Redland facility would be a great benefit to the area.

"There is a lot of potential for the Queensland facility to hopefully be even better than ours," Mr Hodge said.

"The sport is really keen for another venue and a big event like an Olympics is the perfect chance to make it happen."

Mr Hodge said the Penrith venue did swift water rescue training for fire and emergency services, ambulance and police, as well as helicopter winch rescues, and boat or car recovery training.

"Providing a facility for those activities really works to keep our whole state safe," he said.

"We even get a lot of film crews through here for feature films, reality shows and advertisements, so it generates a lot of positive things for us."

Mr Hodge said most of the site's revenue came from locals and tourists in summer.

"We are entirely self funded through our activities, and we did have some setbacks through COVID because we can't take people rafting, so we have seen a drop in income recently...

"We host annual competitions, juniors and seniors for regional and state in New South Wales, an international race every year in February, and the Oceana Championships every second year," Mr Hodge said.

"We get upwards of 300 international athletes coming here to train during their winter season, and our facility is well regarded worldwide. People like training here."

Mr Hodge has told Penrith councillors that the 20-year-old site needs a major makeover.

Another idea to improve it was to build a hotel.

The facility cost $6 million to build in 2000. Penrith council and the International Canoe Federation paid $1.5 million each and the NSW government $3 million.

The stadium charges $94 per person for 90 minutes of white water rafting but is closed due to cold conditions and the COVID-19 lockdown in Greater Sydney.

Sydney's population is 5.3 million while Greater Brisbane's is 2.56 million.