Coronavirus: Outback urges government to step up

Councils in outback Queensland want the state and federal­ governments to spend $15m on outback tourism infrastructure.

Camel Races at Boulia. Picture: Nigel Hallett

Councils in outback Queensland are pushing for the state and federal­ governments to spend $50m on a growing tourism infrastructure program, $15m of which would go towards building outback tourism infrastructure.

Western Queensland, which has struggled through drought for years, is now battling the vanishing of the tourism industry.

Boulia mayor Rick Britton said the remote northwest Queensland shire and its neighbours had cancelled all events for the rest of the season, including the Boulia camel races and Birdsville’s Big Red Bash.

“We’ve been drought-declared since 2013 and this (coronavirus) is just the icing on the ice cream, and not in a good way,” he said.

Outback Queensland attracted an estimated one million tourists last year, generating about $724m in income.

Mr Britton said two of Boulia’s businesses — the roadhouse and the caravan park — had been bought this year by young locals, who were now struggling to make ends meet.

He said the state and federal governments needed to do more to prop up small businesses in very remote locations, including waiving all government charges­ for two financial years.

“The biggest impact is going to be on local businesses, like caravan parks, roadhouses, local motels­ and pubs: they’re going to be massively impacted financially this year. It remains to be seen (if they will survive),” Mr Britton said. “That’s where state and federal­ governments need to step up to the plate, in remote areas, in those certain circumstances.”

Waiving fees for things such as food safety licences would also help, he said. Mr Britton said rather than spending on tourism-specific infrastructure, governments should improve roads in outback Queensland, including­ widening roadways from four metres to six. He said this would help local industry­ — particularly the cattle sector, of which he is part — as well as attract driving tourists.

He said it was vital city-dwelling Queenslanders were encour­age­d to travel west when the crisis was over, but not before, while the state’s west is free of COVID-19.

Local Government Associa­tion of Queensland chief executive Greg Hallam said rebuilding domestic tourism to regional Queensland was crucial for the recovery­ of the state’s economy, before international borders reopened. “They were starting to get some good product out there (before­ the coronavirus hit), experiential­ stuff, where people go onto properties, and shear a sheep or ride the boundaries,” Mr Hallam­ said.

“There was investment in new hotels and motels. It was turning around. Through the drought, that was all they had going for them. They’ve had floods since then and they were looking for a bumper season this year. But none of that tourism is happening.’’

Mr Hallam said internal tourism was “fundamental’’. “When you … see the volume of caravans … They pay camping fees, they use the local suppliers for fuel and food and all sorts of things, you’ve got different markets, grey nomads­ and a lot of people with money, kids have been to Japan, they’ve been to Europe, now they say: let’s go and do the outback.”