The Rosewood Equestrian Group has a vision for the development of a world class equestrian centre within the Rosewood area of South East Qld.
The Rosewood area is home to one of the largest horse populations in South East Queensland with a high percentage of people in the region directly employed in the equestrian industry. This supports both activities and competition for the myriad of owners and riders, in addition to employment for trainers, riders, stud facilities, vets, farriers, dentists, body workers, produce merchants, farmers, saddlery and equipment suppliers, and other related businesses.
Currently there are limited covered facilities available in the area to conduct training and competitions.
This centre would be built to a standard capable of hosting national and international competitions in the Olympic Disciplines, supplemented by its capacity to host a variety of alternate horse sports, such as Western, Polo/Polocrosse and 1/4 mile racing, as well as accommodating local equestrian clubs and their various sports. (There is a high number of these clubs locally, and a marked shortfall of facilities to fulfil their needs.)
As it becomes a developed training centre, there will be significant additional employment opportunities provided as demand grows expanding the need for products and services outline above. The availability of sufficient space means the centre can allocate home grounds for local equestrian clubs and their various sports, including rehoming for racehorses, dressage, and pony club. As such it would consequently become a training centre, and also would provide rehoming facilities for racehorses.
Ipswich is being promoted pro-actively as the event destination of choice for major corporate and entertainment events. There is a significant lack of suitable venues to host the larger of these events in this area and this facility will be designed to accommodate the requirements of a mix of non-equestrian activities requiring either green spaces, indoor or outdoor event facilities.
In order to make this a truly community based centre it will include smaller spaces for local community groups to hold meetings and events. The grounds will be designed to also allow for gardens and walking/running tracks for general use.
Much of the appeal of the Rosewood area stems from its accessibility via both pubic transport (electric rail to Rosewood) and road, as it is situated between 2 of the 4 main routes out of Brisbane. Supporting this is the availability of large tracts of land.
The horse industry is the considered to be the 3rd highest employer in Australia. With such a facility nearby, Rosewood would not only become the equestrian capital of Queensland, but would draw enthusiastic participation from all over Australia and potential international events.
Undoubtedly there would be significant supplementary benefits to the region, such as the promotion of tourism and visitors to the region, the associated increase in need for camping and accommodation, business for food and other outlets, as well as the clear social benefits to the community as a whole in having access to an expansive and welcoming facility that promotes activities that contribute to the physical, social and economic well-being of the local and broader community.
The Rosewood Equestrian Group members are very excited about the possibilities inherent in this vision, as are members of many of the organisations’ that we have referred to in our initial exploration of the project potential.