WATCH: Cairns Mayor suffers hilariously unfortunate gaffe during convention centre’s sod-turning ceremony

WATCH: Cairns Mayor suffers hilariously unfortunate gaffe during convention centre’s sod-turning ceremony

Cairns Convention Centre’s big expansion kicked off today, but it was the city’s mayor who stole the show at the venue’s long-awaited sod-turning ceremony.

In a video posted to Twitter by Cairns Post reporter Chris Calcino, Cairns Mayor Bob Manning is seen alongside Queensland premier Anastacia Palaszczuk plunging a shovel into the ground to mark the beginning of work on the venues $176 million expansion.

Unfortunately, the mayor’s shovel broke almost instantly and an unidentified man standing to the far right rushes to his side to swop shovels with him.

“This is one of the worst things that can happen to a mayor,” Twitter user @thomas_violence joked.

“They try to prepare you for something like this in mayor school, but it means nothing when you’re faced with the real thing all that ‘learning’ goes out the window and you just have to act by instinct,” quipped @thepubprobably.

The Cairns Convention Centre’s expansion will include a large undercover, tropically planted drop-off and entry forecourt, an expanded main entry lobby, a 410-seat plenary lecture space, three 120-seat meeting rooms and new exhibition space for up to 30 display booths.

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