Chillagoe still busy without festival

CHILLAGOE is close to putting the no-vacancy sign out on Friday, Saturday and Sunday with visitors from the Far North beating a path to the village on what would have been Chillagoe Festival weekend.

The much-loved event was postponed during the early days of the COVID-19 crisis but those with the dates already in the diary are keeping bookings to spend Cairns Show long weekend out west.

Caravan parks are down to their last few unpowered camping sites, accommodation operators with rooms still available are expecting to fill them fast, and caves tours are so popular operators are searching for extra staff.

Chillagoe Festival committee member Dave Kirk said it was disappointing to cancel the event. “We only postponed the festival initially, we didn’t cancel it, and up until a month ago we were still hopeful we might get it up and running this year,” he said.

“A lot of people are forgetting about the regulations still in place, and wondering why we couldn’t do something with so many people coming up here, but there are still regulations that prevent us from doing what we need to do.

“Pubs are only allowed to have a certain number of people, and we use the pubs for meals on Friday and Saturday nights, so those rules would stop them from doing that and we couldn’t guarantee there would only be 100 people in some venues.”

Mareeba Shire Council representative Lenore Wyatt said it was encouraging to see so many visitors planning on spending the weekend in the outback town.

“I am so glad to see locals … venturing out to support towns through the shire and Chillagoe is one that really needs this support,” she said.