February 7, 2017
The South Burnett Regional Council will join five other councils to promote inland drive tourism in an effort to raise the number of caravanners and “grey nomads” passing through the area.
Mayor Keith Campbell and Cr Danita Potter attended a meeting at Biloela last week to discuss the concept.
The SBRC will partner with Toowoomba, North Burnett, Banana, Rockhampton and Central Highlands Regional Councils on the project.
However, a further eight “inland” shires have been identified who could come aboard in future.
Mayor Campbell said the concept behind Inland Drive was simple.
“If you think of Queensland there are three major divisions – the coast, which is anything below the Great Dividing Range; the inland, which are those areas on top of the range; and the outback, which is far western Queensland.
“Most tourists travel through Queensland along the coastal routes, and we want to encourage more of them to travel along inland routes instead.”
Inland Drive would create maps and itineraries for inland highway routes that would also offer suggestions about things to see and do along the drive.
The Mayor said the difference between Inland Drive and regional tourism offices was that Inland Drive would be set up and run by the councils that partnered on the project, rather than by Tourism Queensland.
“The South Burnett is a member of the Southern Queensland Country Tourism (SQCT) regional tourism organisation along with Toowoomba Regional Council and several others,” he said.
“In our Budget preparations, we think it is unlikely we will increase our current contribution to SQCT now that we have another option to consider.”
The Mayor said there were no plans to split with SCQT.
Nor would the South Burnett cease its membership of Australia’s Country Way, which promotes the inland route from Sydney to Rockhampton.
At present Inland Drive is not a formal organisation, but the Mayor said he believes this will come up at a future meeting.
- Related article: ‘Time Right’ For Tourism Discussion
