One of Western Australia’s biggest provincial racing clubs is on the brink of disaster, with its 2025 season likely to be abandoned due to a lack of recycled water to irrigate its turf racetrack.

The Kalgoorlie-Boulder Racing Club has relied on recycled water from the local government for decades to keep its track green, in contrast to the red dirt that surrounds the historic mining city, 600km east of Perth.

The local racing season runs from March to October, culminating in the Kalgoorlie Cup — one of the biggest regional events in WA.

WA Premier Roger Cook was trackside at October’s Kalgoorlie Cup to announce a $1 million slot race to boost tourism during the 2025 race round.

However, that is now in doubt as the local council is no longer able to maintain supply from its wastewater treatment plant, due to contractual arrangements with ASX-listed miner Lynas Rare Earths.

In 2021, the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder struck a deal to supply Lynas with 1.7 gigalitres of recycled water a year for its newly-opened $800 million refinery based in West Kalgoorlie.

Lynas has told the city it will require its full quota of water for 2025, leaving sporting facilities like the Kalgoorlie racecourse facing a significant shortage.

No easy fix

A crisis meeting was held on Tuesday with officials from Racing and Wagering WA, the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, the state government and local mining companies, but they were unable to find a solution. 

Racing and Wagering WA’s chief racing officer David Hunter said unless there was heavy rainfall, dams at the track would be empty by the end of January. 

“We’re in the Goldfields, it gets very, very hot over summer and that turf out there is not going to survive with no water on it for more than a few days.” 

The Kalgoorlie-Boulder Racing Club has already met with the neighbouring Shire of Coolgardie to see if it can supply recycled water, but that plan would require about 40 truck movements a day.   

Mr Hunter said the track required up to 1 million litres a day during the peak of summer, when temperatures regularly soared above 40 degrees Celsius.  

He said planning had begun to transfer as many of Kalgoorlie’s meetings as possible to the Esperance Bay Turf Club on the state’s south coast, with the impact on the local economy expected to be close to $50 million. 

“In the meantime, we have to begin planning for no racing at Kalgoorlie … not a situation we want to be in but we can’t create water out of sunshine.”

The knock-on effect is also likely to impact country racing clubs in Leonora, Leinster, Laverton and Norseman, which rely on trainers to bring their horses from Kalgoorlie-Boulder.

Lynas deal under review

Kalgoorlie-Boulder Mayor Glenn Wilson, who attended the crisis meeting at the racecourse, was asked if the city had enough water to irrigate its parks and gardens.  

“At this point in time, yes,” he said. 

“Do I lose sleep over it? Yes. Is it a major concern? Yes.”

Since February, Perth-based law firm Civic Legal has been conducting an independent review of the city’s water supply contract with Lynas, and the decision-making that led to the deal, before reporting back to the council. 

“Hopefully we’ll have an update early in the new year,” Mr Wilson said.  

He said he voted in favour of the Lynas deal when it passed council. 

Horse trainer Trevor Tasker said the city had “sold out the fabric of the Kalgoorlie lifestyle”.

“For people involved in the industry, it’s a huge kick in the guts,” he said.

“If the racing season doesn’t go ahead, there’s about $50 million wiped out of the Goldfields economy. It’s going to be a very difficult time ahead.” 

Council working on solution

Currently the Goldfields region relies on a 566km-long pipeline, which is 121 years old for drinking water.  

Mr Wilson said the city was working towards a long-term solution to drought-proof Kalgoorlie-Boulder with its so-called Water Bank Project.  

He said the “shovel ready” project would build new dams to harvest stormwater and grow the city’s supply of recycled water, and could cost up to $50 million.

Before work can begin, Mr Wilson said the city was awaiting the results of an application for $14 million in federal funding.

He said construction would go ahead either way but grant money would “lessen the impact on ratepayers”.

WA’s Water Minister Simone McGurk has also revealed the Water Corporation is working on a detailed business case to increase the capacity of the historic pipeline.