Shine Awards 2024: Amanda-Lyn Pearson’s Winton centre of fun

Hailing from Winton in outback Queensland, Amanda-Lyn Pearson is a comedic pilot armed with a cracking one-liner.

Cracking a bullock whip or whipping up an audience with a wisecrack, Amanda-Lyn Pearson is an outback entertainment sensation.

She may have come runner-up five times in the Queensland Women’s whip cracking championships, but she secures the first-place podium for sheer hard work.

The all-round entertainer hails from Winton, the birthplace of Qantas — smack-bang in the middle of Queensland.

A pilot herself, Amanda-Lyn has been flying in her ambition to create an artistic space in the outback town.

The result is Dustarena, which features a museum tribute to outback arts, community garden, vintage caravans and a dirt performance space.

Even Opera Queensland recently took its six-day Festival of Outback Opera to the hit the high notes under the vast outback backdrop.

Amanda-Lyn says her journey in regional entertainment kicked up a gear when she formed the Crackup Sisters in 2009, a touring show featuring herself and a castlist of fellow comedic performers.

“I made a decision 15 years ago to create something for regional and remote Australia. Telling Australian stories, that was the birth of the Crackup Sisters,” she says.

“We wanted it to be an exploration of what it means to be Australian: the characters, the language, the knockabout acrobatics, spinning yarns.”

In the best traditions of travelling performers, Amanda-Lyn still clocks up the kilometres — 70,000 clicks last year.

But she says the Winton base was needed to provide some artistic grounding.

“In 2015, it felt like that Crackup Sisters needed a home. I was driving past a place in Winton that was almost falling down with a ‘for sale’ sign out the front. I just bought it,” Amanda-Lyn says.

“Just like that! It suited what the Crackup Sisters is all about. That rustic, outback vibe that’s quintessentially Australian.

“We continued to tour but we needed that base. It’s given us an opportunity to employ artists and performers, giving them a platform in outback Queensland because having travelled the country, I know they’re aren’t the venues in remote Queensland that you just take for granted if you’re in suburban Melbourne or Sydney.”

“I know from my own experience that it’s hard as a performer to have many paid opportunities in our business.

“That’s why we established our base in Winton. It’s not only a showcase for the town, but for regional and remote talent.”

The Shine Awards is a joint partnership between The Weekly Times and Harvey Norman that is a true celebration of women right across rural and regional Australia.