When COVID-19 foiled a south-east Queensland school’s annual year 6 trip to Canberra, they took a last-minute switch to the outback.

There are more flies in the western Queensland town of Longreach, more than 1,000km north-west of Brisbane, but the kids were not complaining about the switch.

“It’s really fun, it’s new and different, and there’s a lot to see.”

Camden Park Station’s Dan Walker — better known as ‘Outback Dan’ — taught children about life on the land as well as the outback essentials of swag constructing, whip cracking, damper making, and bonfire building before a night camping out under the stars.

“You can really resonate with those kids, their eyes are opened up, there’s a bit of saying of disconnect to reconnect,” he said.

South-east school groups are just one of the new demographics for the tourism market previously dominated by grey nomads prior to the pandemic.

Key points:

• New demographics of tourists are visiting outback Queensland
• Before the pandemic, outback tourism relied heavily on grey nomads
• The outback is a “new and different” experience, one primary school student says

Tourism operators hope the new breed of visitors will keep coming back, even after borders reopen.

Pacific Lutheran College teacher Kim Wood said, if it were up to her, the kids would be returning to the bush over Canberra.

“Canberra is a wonderful experience for students but the outback is definitely winning my heart,” she said.

Source
Danielle O’Neal
ABC News