Tjapukai NOW: Relaunch plan for closed Cairns tourism icon
Tjapukai relaunch plans have been revealed a week after the cultural tourism icon was shut down — and big changes are on the cards.
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TJAPUKAI relaunch plans have been revealed a week after the cultural tourism icon was shut down — and big changes are on the cards.
Indigenous Business Australia wants to wash its hands of the park and hand ownership to the Djabugay and Yirrganydji people.
Negotiations are under way but details of the Tjapukai NOW revival plan can be unveiled for the first time.
An annual three-day festival, construction of a vast “cultural” playground, Ted Talk-style lectures and Saturday night live contemporary musical performances are all tied up in the reinvention.
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A new mezzanine level would be built in the existing “breezeway” alongside a dedicated elders lounge and a Knowledge Centre of equal parts museum, library and interactive learning hub.
Traditional owners have been pushing the plan since last year but IBA’s decision to let the guillotine fall has made the situation urgent.
Djabugay Aboriginal Corporations chairman William Duffin said the proposal was essentially a start-up, conceived and developed by traditional owners to be housed in the shell of the previous business. It was not about resurrecting a failed model.
“Tjapukai NOW is our statement to the tourism and business world: Djabugay people live in the contemporary world, we are not defined just by traditional costume and shake-a-leg,” he said.
“We want to tell the whole story and provide meaningful opportunities for audiences to learn and engage with culture through technology, festivals, food, history, language and walking on country.”
There is plenty in the plan, from boutique on-country tours with rangers to a building facade revamp, artificial waterfall and close links with the recently approved Djabugay Art Centre in Kuranda.
Commercial and job opportunities for traditional owners are at the core of the plan — and that includes putting the Djabugay peoples’ 43ha Nyawarri Estate in Kuranda to good use.
That property, also to house the art centre, will be used to develop a bush food agricultural enterprise to supply the Tjapukai restaurant.
Djabugay Aboriginal Corporations cultural development officer Dennis Hunter (below right) said the Smithfield site was perfect for a post-COVID world, with huge grounds, multiple indoor spaces and open-air performance areas.
The organisation is finalising a feasibility study, with consultants working hard to articulate the concept.
“The ‘now’ in Tjapukai NOW represents a fundamental shift in how we project to the world,” Mr Hunter said.
“We have a unique and compelling contemporary story to tell — and Tjapukai NOW will provide the platform for us to take this story to the world.”
Originally published as Tjapukai NOW: Relaunch plan for closed Cairns tourism icon
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