An outback race club is moving forwards with plans to convert their dirt track to turf, but another club has warned of high operating costs.
Cloncurry and District Race Club president Luke Daniels said the plan to turf the track has been a long time in the making, and began as a side benefit of upgrading the local water treatment plant.
The plant's federal funding grant required more water to be discharged, and the race club was identified as a recipient.
"I saw it as a bit of a once in a lifetime opportunity where the water has come available," Mr Daniels said.
"Off the back of probably Barcaldine being so successful, we thought maybe we'd look at the idea of turfing a track."
Mr Daniels said the club had secured $450,000 of grant funding, which the club was also required to match.
"It's quite an expensive setup to get it all completely up and running," he said.
Barcaldine track's cost blow-out
Former Barcaldine mayor Rob Chandler said his town's turf track has been very well received, but cost of keeping turf in the outback was "a couple of hundred thousand dollars each year".
"You have to keep water very consistent and even to water the whole track, also kangaroos - you have to build a marsupial-proof fence around it," Cr Chandler said.
"We found out we needed to lay a bit more turf, and then we had to put up the new inside running rail and then fix up and renew a big section of the outside running rail, then the crossovers for the horses to get to the training track, which is on the inside. And all the gates involved there and then the roo-proof fencing and the watering system.
"It ended up being about double [the cost] we thought it would be."
Cr Chandler said despite the cost of implementation and ongoing running costs - including employing a full-time maintenance employee for the track - he would definitely do it again given the chance.
"We've had capacity fields ever since we built the track," he said.
Long way from the finishing post
Mr Daniels said no one should expect turf to pop up in Cloncurry overnight.
"To be honest with you, it's a lot longer process than I thought," he said.
"We probably started work on it close to two years ago. Once we get all the proper systems in place - irrigation, ongoing maintenance - maybe another two years by the time we're racing on it."
