With travel restrictions slowly easing around the country, many grey nomads are feeling tantalisingly close to being able to hit the open road again … and there’s an awful lot to look forward to.
While most rural communities will have an even greater appreciation of the contribution that travellers make to their economy and will be eager to offer a warm welcome, Mother Nature is also doing its thing.
Parts of Central West Queensland, for example, have reportedly erupted into a carpet of native wildflowers. The late summer rain in the region has led to the most spectacular and widespread floral display in a decade.
Blackall-based photographer and grazier, Lisa Alexander, told the ABC she had made numerous ‘trips out to the paddocks’ to capture the show.
“It just adds a different element to our country … it is absolutely beautiful,” she said. “The mulla-mullas are native perennials that grow in harsh conditions and they are short-lived but, while they are only here for a little while, it makes me appreciate where we live, and how amazing Mother Nature is.”
Of course, the ongoing travel restrictions in the Sunshine State mean that the vast majority of people will never get the chance to see what’s happening.
“It’s a shame,” Ms Alexander told the ABC. “If tourists could come out, they would see how beautiful the Outback is, but I’m just going to enjoy them and take photos of them and share them with everyone else, virtually.”
In the state’s Central West visitors annually spend more than $500 million and recent unprecedented tourism investment in preparation for this season has yet to generate any turnover.
Almost $20 million of state and federal money has been spent on the Qantas Founders Museum and the Australian Age of Dinosaurs, in addition to a significant spend to promote last year’s Year of Outback Tourism program.
Almost 90% of visitation to Outback Queensland occurs between April and September.
Many tourism operators and smaller towns are still hopeful that a more serious relaxing of travel in July could help them salvage some of their season.
