NOT UP TO THE JOB
was 20, received a well-deserved Medal of the Order of Australia in the Queen’s Birthday Honours this week. People might have an argument with h 95 per cent of the taxpayer dependent dunderheads who get tapped d on the shoulder r for these gongs, s, but no one would uld argue about Fari’s Fari’s, at least not anyone who knows the man. And he is not taxpayer dependent. Fari ( pictured) retired in May after doing the vegie run from Tolga, to Mt Garnet, Greenvale and Lynd Junction for more than 30 years. Rob and Ornella O’shea from Mt Garnet have taken over the run and have now included Hughenden and the stations between Hughenden and Lynd Junction in the itinerary. Fari’s truck, Betsy, was included in the sale. The fruit and vegie scales that were called in to do the honours when a bush baby needed weighing, are still on duty. Ornella told me the scales would continue to be hung from Betsy’s rear view mirror.
Tough times for tourism
TOURIST operators caught in the COVID-19 biosecurity zones in the Burke and Cook shires are dying a slow financial death. Jake and Jasmin Davis at the Burketown Caravan Park in the western Gulf Country have lost 100 per cent of their income. They have not been able to get any government support and could remain in financial limbo possibly until March next year when the 2021 tourism season opens.
The tourism season in this part of the world starts to draw to a close in September. It doesn’t open again until around April the following year. Jake told me he’ll be down $600,000 this year.
IT is the same for Mick and Lee Davies at the River of Gold Motel in Cooktown. Cape York Peninsula is closed from south of the Palmer River Roadhouse. This means that all towns in the peninsula –
Lakeland, Cooktown, Laura, Coen as well as all indigenous communities are closed to travellers. Andrew and Karen Stewart at the Palmer River Roadhouse say they stand a good chance of having no income until May next year when the 2021 tourist season opens. “We’re past worrying about it,” Andrew said.
LIKEWISE, Mick and Lee Davies at the River of Gold Motel are at the end of their tether. “We’re still in the dark and bleeding,” Mick said. He was hoping there would be news this week as to when the area might open, but admitted this was probably wishful thinking.
THERE is one common thread when you speak to people in these biosecurity zones and even in the now open areas of the state.
This is the contempt they have for people who flouted social distancing rules to take part in the Black Lives Matter protests last Saturday. “That was good of them,” Andrew Stewart from the Palmer River Roadhouse said. He was being sarcastic, of course. What all of these operators now fear is that the State Government will now wait at least two or even more weeks to see if a second COVID-19 wave might start to build as a result of the protests.
MEANWHILE, NormantonKarumba-based Carpentaria Shire is now open for business. The tourists are streaming in from all over Queensland. Lucy Brown at the Karumba Point Sunset Caravan Park told me all of her villas were booked out last weekend and are booked out again this weekend and the next one as well. “We’re just waiting for the border to NSW to open so that all of our regulars can get up here,” she said. Don’t hold your breath, Lucy.
RICHMOND has kept its caravan park open. Caravaners were kicked out of other towns, but not Richmond and now the town is getting its just reward. A leading caravan industry magazine has praised the town for its generous acceptance of caravaners caught on the road when the pandemic shutdown started in March. Mayor John Wharton told me that the van park was already booked out for July.