Cyclone Jasper fails to dampen spirits for annual Laura Races

By Andrew Smith

Around six months ago, the winning post was the only thing visible through the floodwaters covering the Laura Amateur Turf Club.

But the Far North Queensland club has rebounded from the December deluge and is raring to host its annual raceday this weekend.

Months of hard work from volunteers has seen the club cleaned up and ready to welcome thousands of racegoers on Saturday.

It’s a far cry from late 2023 when Cyclone Jasper, the wettest tropical cyclone in Australian history, had wreaked havoc on the region with unprecedented rainfall.

The club’s track curator, Len “Slick” Davies, recounted just how much water had inundated the area just before Christmas.

“We had our normal wet season, but Cyclone Jasper came with it and all records were broken up in this country that had stood for 100 years,” Davies said.

“A lot of those small communities outside of Cairns like Wujal Wujal were wiped out by the record floods.

“We got a hell of a deluge here, more than our usual wet season and well above our average of 42 inches.”

The course’s proximity to the nearby overflowing Mossman River caused major problems for the club.

A backlog of water saw the main track go underwater for around five days during the wild weather.

“We run adjacent the Mossman River and it can’t get into the Laura River so it backs up and comes back up over the racecourse,” Davies explained.

“It left about six inches of the winning post sticking out of the top of the waters.

“The rest was creeping up the hill and got very close to our grandstand.

“It fell back into place fortunately and we just got out of trouble in time for the races.”

When the floodwaters subsided, over 10 centimetres of mud covered the course proper, and the mammoth clean-up effort got underway.

The ground was too unstable for heavy machinery so “Slick” and his band of helpers were forced to improvise.

“We had a lot of very, very light machinery here - you couldn’t put anything heavy out, and I couldn’t entertain a grader to take the mud off as it would have sunk,” Davies said.

“I had to do my best with some little machinery, I was using ride-on mowers to try to clear the mud.

“Racing Queensland came and had a look at the track and were very happy with it and said we were very lucky to get out of trouble!”

Laura Turf Club Secretary Jenni Sorensen paid homage to “Slick” and the army of volunteers who had banded together to get the track back on its feet.

“We have such good volunteers in this club - we have about 45 who come up at different times, and different weekends,” Sorensen said.

“They just all help out to get the track and the surrounds up and running ready for race day.

“Slick runs it all and makes sure it’s all done properly.”

In a timely boost, the club also recently completed works on brand new stables.

They were able to complete the project thanks to a grant as part of the Country Club Asset Funding Program.

The CCAF provides $3 million per year for infrastructure repairs, as well as maintenance and asset replenishment for the state’s country racing clubs.

“We had to replace stables that weren’t compliant, and we won’t have to build any more stables, we’re right now forever,” Sorensen said.

“We only have five or six races, and we can only have ten horses per race - so the most we need is to stable sixty horses so we can do that now and we’re compliant, so it’s good.”

The club will host a five-race non-TAB meeting this Saturday.

Over 3,000 racegoers are expected for the annual event that attracts punters from as far north as Weipa and as far south as Sydney.

“This event in Far North Queensland and the Cape is extremely important - it’s been going for 137 years,” Sorensen said.

“We just need to keep the little country race meetings going especially this one because it’s really an iconic event for the Cape and it’s just an amazing thing, people come from everywhere to this race meeting.”