‘Wellcamp Waters’ could be home of Mad Monday

WHILE realising there are more than a few Toowoombaites uneasy with the Covid-19 Hub about to be established at Wellcamp Airport, I reckon the hub has heaps of potential.

A lot of people have voiced concerns to me as to what the Wagners are going to do with the hub when the Covid-19 crisis is over.

Well, I can see a few options which will make the hub another attraction for Toowoomba and surrounds.

For instance, we could at last get that water park so many people have been harping on about since the demise of the Willow Springs Adventure Park in the 1980s which was the closest thing Toowoomba had to a water park – apart from Lake Annand, that is.

And, let’s face it, Lake Annand only becomes a water park for drunks walking home to South Toowoomba after a night out downtown.

Before you ask, yes, more than a few of my mates have ended up in the duck pond in the early hours of a weekend.

But, imagine the water slides coming down from the hills surrounding Wellcamp Airport.

Add some restaurants and bars, and people will be flying in from all over to spend a weekend at Wellcamp Waters.

The possibilities are endless. However, for me, I think Wellcamp Hub is perfect for one particular section of the community – footy teams on end of season trips.

You would have noticed that even with eight NRL teams heading for Mad Monday this week in Queensland, there wasn’t anything in the media about poor behaviour as there invariably is.

That would mainly be because the players have had their wives and families staying with them.

Ordinarily, end of season trips see teams jetting off to the Gold Coast,

Hawaii or Las Vegas, but CovidMonday has restricted the players to home base.

However, come next year, players will still be looking for somewhere to get away and, if they can’t go overseas or interstate, Wellcamp may well be the answer.

NRL officials would be more than happy to keep drunken players away from the Gold Coast where they’re under the gaze of locals and tourists armed with mobile phone cameras, the images of which soon appear throughout social media – and ultimately to the NRL Commission.

There would be none of that at Wellcamp Waters.

The players could play up to their hearts content out of the gaze of the public, save for those flying in and out of the airport – and it’s hard to get a mobile phone camera shot of naughty NRL-ers through the window of a plane.

Now, I’m not sure from where this particular rugby league tradition grew, but part of every Mad Monday celebrations whether in Sydney or the bush – including these parts on the Darling Downs – includes the dreaded annual “nudie run”.

Part of the tradition of rugby league is for players who haven’t scored a try during that season to drop the gear and run a designated distance – usually the length of the football field – sans clothing.

My club in Toowoomba was no exception and I recall one year after our First Grade had won the grand final and Mad Monday celebrations were in full swing well into the day at the club when it was announced the nudie run was about to be held.

Whether by good journalist research or just plain luck or coincidence, just as about 20 naked men set off for the 100m sprint, the local TV News guys turned up.

Fortunately, they were good sports and the footage was left on the production floor or the players involved could have been charged with indecent, if not for some, insufficient exposure.

The runway at Wellcamp lends itself to the perfect track for the end of season nudie run, and dodging the odd 747 landing on the same strip might just add to the Mad Monday folklore.

I can see clubs booking next year’s end of season celebrations at Wellcamp Waters already.

I can see clubs booking next year’s end of season celebrations at Wellcamp Waters already.