With many grey nomads and other travellers always seeking a greater understanding of country life as they travel, the idea of offering free tours at Australia’s largest selling livestock saleyards was always likely to be a success.
However, the people behind the unique initiative at Queensland’s Roma Saleyards have still been blown away by its popularity. In the past six months, some 3,500 visitors have taken advantage of the offer of guided tours, including 175 in one day.
“It’s gone out of all proportion really, it’s grown massively,” chairman of the Saleyards Advisory Committee, councillor Peter Flynn told the ABC. “The tourists who come, they seem to have a reinvigoration as far as their expectations as to what happens at a saleyards.”
The tours at the council-owned saleyards were introduced after retired graziers approached the Maranoa Regional Council with the idea. Tours take visitors through the day-to-day processes of the saleyards, and guide them onto the viewing platform while the selling is happening. They also include a walk-through of the buyers’ gallery and through the load-out process.
The ABC says the free service operates at the Tuesday store sale and Thursday prime sale days, but guides also conduct tours on other days by request, even arranging for local livestock agents to provide mock auctions.
Cr Flynn said educating visitors about the beef industry was a major benefit of the tours, and that the attraction was an example of value-adding to existing facilities in a town.
“Now visitors actually make sure they stay in town of a Monday or a Wednesday night to make sure they’re in town for the tours that start at 8:30 on sales mornings,” he said.
The Roma Saleyards initiative has been such as success that the Blackall-Tambo Regional Council, in central-west Queensland, is set to follow suit, and has recently applied for funding to install a viewing platform over the Blackall Saleyards.
One of the four volunteer guides at Roma, former beef and sheep grazier Jim Scott, told the ABC he was driven by ‘getting through to people in our urban areas the real story of what actually happens in rural Australia’.
“We try very hard to give people a personalised service,” he said, adding that questions were encouraged to best inform the participants. He said visitors were commonly shocked by the cost of cattle sold through the saleyards compared to the price per kilogram of beef at the supermarket.
· Have you been on one of these guided tours? Would you be keen to? Comment below.
Wonderful experience. Have been to the sales on four occasions at this time. Would recommend it to anyone.