Meet the Curlews: The QLD Curling Team with an Olympic Dream

James Lane

In a city better known for rugby league, sunshine, and subtropical summers, you wouldn’t expect to find Queenslanders hurling granite stones across sheets of ice. But that’s exactly what the Curlews - a Brisbane-based curling team - are doing. And they’ve got their sights set on the biggest stage of all: the Olympic Games.

The team's five members are Boyd Kildey, Andrew Swain, Matthew Waterhouse, Cormac te Kloot, and Nick Stamatiou. Most of them are dads, busy with family life and work, but united by a shared love of sport, and a truly impressive ambition.

That ambition came to life thanks to Kildey, who’d been quietly nurturing a dream of one day reaching the Olympics through curling. While some might have dismissed such an idea as far-fetched or too difficult, the Curlews decided to give it a proper go. The first step? A ‘Come and Try Curling’ night at Boondall Iceworld in Brisbane.

From that humble beginning, things snowballed.

“We persevered,” one member said, and that perseverance took them to compete in the Queensland Curling Association’s President’s Cup later in the year. The Curlews made a fairytale run all the way to the grand final. And it certainly wasn't lacking in drama.

After two ends, they found themselves staring down a 0–6 deficit. Most teams would’ve folded. But the Curlews dug in. Stone by stone, end by end, they clawed their way back, eventually levelling the match at 8–8. It was the kind of comeback that stays with you.

There was just one problem: the match was a draw, and for the first time in Queensland curling history, the organisers couldn’t split the sides, even on countback. The solution? A grand final replay, scheduled two weeks later. Though the Curlews didn’t come away with the title, the experience galvanised them.

That performance, and their growing passion for the sport, prompted the team to nominate for the Australian National Curling Championships, taking place this May in Naseby, New Zealand.

There, they’ll face five other teams in a round-robin format, with one huge prize on offer: the winner earns the right to represent Australia at the Olympic Trials.

Making it to the Nationals is no small feat, especially for a bunch of guys still relatively new to the sport, but the Curlews didn’t get there alone. Thanks to some generous local support, they were able to cover the cost of travelling across the Tasman.

Geoff and Alison Maynard of the Maynard Cattle Co stepped in with a unique kind of sponsorship: they donated three head of cattle, which were sold to raise funds for the team. It’s an unmistakably Queensland solution to an icy problem, and one the Curlews are deeply grateful for.

Now, with their eyes on the ice and a dream in their hearts, the Curlews are ready to see just how far this improbable journey can go.

With the Nationals just over two weeks away, their dream is starting to look very possible. And who knows? If all goes well in Naseby, Queensland might just end up sending a curling team to the Olympics.