Cairns: Blazing Saddles tourism boss Michael Trout forced to close after Covid-19 lockdowns
An icon of the Far North tourism industry has become the latest Covid-19 casualty with doors finally shutting after three decades in operation. JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Cairns
Don't miss out on the headlines from Cairns. Followed categories will be added to My News.
AN ICON of the Far North tourism industry has become the latest Covid-19 casualty with doors finally shutting after three decades in operation.
Michael Trout made a heartbreaking walk around his Blazing Saddles adventure tour business on Monday morning, taking photographs of the horses he now has to sell.
“Lockdowns have killed us,” he said.
“We’ve given notice to our landlord.”
MORE NEWS
‘Not just tourism’ hurting from lockdowns in FNQ
YOU DECIDE: Which stadium plan should Cairns get behind?
What $600m rescue package means for Far North
The Trout family launched Blazing Saddles in June 1990 as a modest business with about five to 15 visitors a day.
Within a few years, about 80 customers per day were riding around the grounds on horses and motorbikes to get a taste of Far North Queensland life.
It was originally based at Mungalli before shifting to Palm Cove, Kuranda and its current home at Yorkeys Knob a decade ago.
Mr Trout said this was not a business going into stasis – it was time to cut losses and call it quits for good.
“Last night my brother and I had a few rums and said this was it,” he said.
“The reality is we can’t keep paying rent with no certainty.
“With what’s happening in NSW, this isn’t going away anytime soon.
“I won’t be the last one.
“Politicians at all levels need to have a real hard think real soon, otherwise there’s going to be a conga line of small businesses in Cairns and Port Douglas that will be the same as me.”
Blazing Saddles has been operating on a skeleton workforce but pre-Covid employed about 30 people, including a mechanic, trail guides and reservation staff.
Mr Trout, a former LNP member for Barron River, said recently announced $5000 business support grants were hardly worth the paperwork for most struggling operators.
“Politicians don’t think anything at all about spending $5m on office spaces and yet they give businesses $5000 to survive lockdown,” he said.
“And I mean the Federal Government too.”
Insurers’ growing refusal to cover public liability for horse riding was another nail in the company’s coffin.
The business has 23 horses, which Mr Trout says are like family members, and 15 quad bikes which must all be sold.
Another of his businesses, the Mungalli Falls Outdoor Adventure Centre, is not in a good situation either.
Last week’s announcement of a snap three-day lockdown in Cairns immediately led to four school groups cancelling their bookings, leaving the coming month’s diary bare.
Mr Trout said he would stick to driving trucks to keep money flowing into his family for the foreseeable future.
“No one could ever have contemplated how long this has gone on,” he said.
“It’s even worse now than during JobKeeper, because at least then you had a security blanket.
“And yet you can’t even get a backhoe in town.
“All the services are just firing, but tourism is what makes our town tick.”
Originally published as Cairns: Blazing Saddles tourism boss Michael Trout forced to close after Covid-19 lockdowns
Celebrated artist installs beautiful croc-inspired welcome sign
An award-winning artist now based down south has proven a strong connection to his roots by creating a dramatic entry statement to his home town of Injinoo.
Drug matriarch’s son caught with meth in undies at nightclub
The son of notorious Cairns drug matriarch “Mumsy” has been sentenced after police caught him with more than two ounces of meth stuffed down his underpants at Gilligan’s.