The annual Brisbane Trailwalker event has been cancelled due to impacts of the recent devastating floods in south-east Queensland and northern NSW.
The endurance event had been scheduled to take place from 17 to 19 June from Mount Glorious to Mount Coot-Tha.
Oxfam Australia’s Acting Chief Executive, Andrew Buchanan, said local communities were currently focused on recovery efforts, which had impacted on the number of registrations for the event.
“We are committed to ensuring the hard work of participants has as much impact as possible when it comes to supporting our work to help improve the lives of people experiencing poverty,” he said.
“And as an organisation that specialises in responding to disasters like floods, we have a deep understanding of the work ahead of these communities to rebuild, and the desire to ensure those who have been impacted are supported.
“Therefore, we’ve made the difficult decision to cancel the 2022 event. We know this will come as disappointing news to our wonderful supporters who were looking forward to the event.
“Oxfam supporters are at the heart of all we do, and their support has never been more critical as growing inequality threatens to push more than a quarter of a billion more people into extreme poverty this year.”
Mr Buchanan said participants would be contacted and given the option of rolling over their registration and fundraising to the Sydney event in August, or seeking a refund of their registration fee.
Oxfam Trailwalker, which has been held in Australia for more than two decades, raises money for Oxfam’s work tackling poverty and inequality around the world through donations to teams of four who undertake the challenge of a 100km trek. More than 90,000 people have taken part since the event started, raising more than $95 million to tackle poverty.
Following two years of COVID-19-related cancellations and a successful return of Trailwalker in Melbourne in March, Mr Buchanan said the Oxfam team’s attention would now be focused on delivering a successful event in Sydney in August.
Updates on the events and more detailed information can be found on the Trailwalker website.
For further information, contact Lily Partland on 0418 118 687 / lilyp@oxfam.org.au
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