The annual rowing regatta for schools in Queensland usually passes off without too much attention. Each year more than 600 of the state's most promising teenage rowers battle it out on the crocodile-inhabited Fitzroy River, in the city of Rockhampton.

But this year is different. In six years' time, the 2032 Brisbane Olympics and Paralympics are set to stage rowing and canoe sprint events in this very stretch of water, which has just passed a technical assessment and been endorsed as safe and fair for athletes. While sightings of saltwater crocodiles on the river – which number around 500 and can grow to four metres (13ft) long – are not uncommon, state government files going back more than 40 years record no attacks by the reptiles on humans.

"Fairness" is what's been raised with British Rowing's chief executive Tom Solesbury – a reference to the tidal river's natural bends and currents, which many in the rowing community say make it unsuitable for elite competition. Drew Ginn, who has won three Olympic gold medals for Australia in rowing, told BBC Radio he had concerns over potential flooding and "fairness and integrity" at the venue.

But the "so-called impediments" got short shrift from the most senior politician in Queensland, state premier David Crisafulli, who reached for less diplomatic language. "It is a group of interstate and overseas elites who are trying to bully their way because they don't want to go to regional Queensland and that's not right."

On Thursday they approved it after a technical assessment by an engineering firm and the Games' infrastructure authority. "Based on the extensive analysis undertaken, we now know that the Fitzroy River is capable of providing fair competition conditions during the period of the Games," World Rowing president Jean-Christophe Rolland said.