Source : ABC NEWS
Olympian Dean Hewitt wants to inspire the next generation of curlers in Australia but a lack of purpose-built facilities is stifling high performance growth in the sport.
Hewitt and mixed doubles partner Tahli Gill won Australia’s first world championship bronze medal earlier this month and the pair also made history in 2022, becoming the first Australian curlers to compete at the Winter Olympics.
But their success has come against the odds as Australia does not have any dedicated curling sheets.
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To pursue his goals on the ice, Hewitt will only spend roughly four months a year at home in Melbourne before heading abroad to maximise his time on the ice overseas.
Hewitt told ABC Sport that despite the Icehouse skating rink in Melbourne’s Docklands precinct being “world-class”, sharing the ice with figure skating, ice hockey and speed skating means the conditions for curling are compromised.
“We’re very lucky to have the Icehouse … that’s where I’ve grown up curling … But at the end of the day, for curling ice, we need to have dedicated ice which doesn’t have skaters,” he said.
“Skaters’ ice, it’s all chopped up … we need to have it really flat so the rocks curl in a direction they’re supposed to.”
Dean Hewitt says Melbourne’s Icehouse is a great facility, but Australia needs proper curling sheets to grow the sport. (ABC News: Billy Draper)
A new multi-purpose ice sports facility dubbed Canberra Arena in Tuggeranong was an election promise made by the ACT government during the 2016 territory election campaign.
The plans boast a “first of its kind in Australia” curling sheet, but progress at the site has moved at a glacial pace.
The ACT government has committed $16.2 million towards the project, and up until earlier this week, the government’s website listed 2025 as a completion date despite construction not yet beginning.
The remaining amount of money needed to build the estimated $70 million arena will come from developers Cruachan Investments and Pelligra Holdings, who will “build, own, operate and maintain it”.
Director of Cruachan Investments Stephen Campbell is also the chief executive officer of the Canberra Brave, three-time Australian Ice Hockey League champions, who will call the facility home once it is built.
“Completing a dedicated, specific surface, arena for the Canberra Brave is of utmost importance,” he said.
“But also, we’re very keen to grow not just ice hockey, but all the other sports that exist in the ACT, figure skating, broomball, but also, and I think really importantly, to add to the cohort of sports such as curling and speed skating, which currently don’t have homes in the ACT.”
But the latest preliminary advice from the ACT’s Conservator of Flora and Fauna for the site at Tuggeranong has raised several red flags for the developers.
“We are concerned about the number of trees that would have to be removed, which is in the vicinity of just under 200,” Campbell said.
“As a responsible entity, we are looking at options that would either mitigate the loss, or alternate sites for development,” Campbell said.
The steepness of the block also makes building the specialised venue challenging.
The lack of international-standard curling facilities threatens to undermine Hewitt and Gill’s long-lasting impact on the sport, even if they can make the podium at the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympics.
The pair are yet to qualify for the Games in February, but have one final chance to do so at the Olympic Qualification Event in Kelowna, Canada from December 6 to 19.
“We’d love to have that legacy held behind us, and hopefully it will be there before I retire,” Hewitt said.
“We don’t want to be the only Australian Olympians, we want to be one of the first, but with many more to come.”
