It's back to school for guides (Savannah Guides Limited)

Savannah Guides bring eco-tourism to northern Australia's travellers and tree-changers

During the summer, Phil Clucas can be found opening doors and answering questions for visitors at one of Melbourne’s fanciest hotels.
But when northern Australia’s wet season is over, he and his wife Ange, a former pharmacist, are sharing their eco-knowledge as Savannah Guides at Adel’s Grove in Queensland’s north-west.

Also there is fellow guide and occasional refrigeration engineer Alex Mudryk from Brisbane.

“Savannah Guides is a professional body that represents tour guides who work across the Savannah Way between Cairns and Broome,” Ms Clucas, a senior guide, said.

“Our motto is that we are protectors and interpreters of the outback.”

(ABC: Jennifer King)

With caravanners and campers taking to the road in peak numbers, access to the specialised knowledge of Savannah Guides ensures visitors to the region have an immersive eco-tourism experience.

Approximately 100 guides can be found in locations from the lava tubes of Undara to far north Queensland’s rainforests, Riversleigh’s fossil fields, Cape York’s telegraph station and across to Kakadu and the Kimberleys — and beyond.

Providing sustainable, unique visitor access

Savannah Guides manager Russell Boswell explained that the not-for-profit network of professional tour guides and tour operators works with national parks, researchers, and local communities to highlight a region’s unique natural features.

In addition, he manages about 65 accredited Wet Tropics Guides between Townsville and Cooktown and a national program of about 106 Eco Guides.

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“It’s a really growing movement of professionalism among all these tour guides and Savannah Guides has probably, as an organisation, been the core of that movement,” Mr Boswell said.

“It started about 30 years ago when some gulf savannah cattlemen and some Indigenous rangers thought ‘gosh, if the cattle prices go down again, we’re in trouble’.

“So they diversified into tourism and through that, they started to investigate the best way to do tourism and how to become really good tour guides.

“[Our guides] have a great passion for sharing their country with their visitors.”

Source
ABC News

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