NEW BATTLE FOR O’REILLY’S

LATE last year State Tourism Minister Kate Jones announced a $2.5 million deal for two new key eco-tourism projects in the Gold Coast Hinterland.

The Government initiative included a major redevelopment of the Green Mountains Campground in Lamington National Park, in partnership with the O’Reilly family, and Australia’s first permanent climbing course at

Binna Burra.

The O’Reilly deal included permanent tent accommodation for tourists without facilities or who were unable to afford nearby resort rooms. It followed a push two years earlier for the iconic O’Reilly’s resort to feature floating tents among the trees to transform one of the state’s most popular campsites into a Gold Coast eco-tourism magnet.

“Eco-tourism is the next big thing in our industry, generating millions of dollars annually,” Ms Jones trumpeted last September. “This project has the potential to be a game changer for tourism in the Gold Coast Hinterland.”

Fast forward six months and the 100-year-old institution is battling bureaucracy to stay afloat, let alone expand.

After wrestling bushfires and the catastrophe of the coronavirus outbreak, the idyllic Hinterland retreat may be felled by the biggest pest of all, insurance companies.

Managing director Shane O’Reilly says premiums have spiked from $380,000 per annum, for up to $70 million cover, to $1.3 million, for $10 million cover, in a year. That is $100,000 a month to cover possible adversity.

If he does not win his fight, Mr O’Reilly says he will be forced to consider closing the business and turning it back into a cattle farm.

Doing so would be a massive blight on the Gold Coast tourism industry.

As the Bulletin has previously reported, city leaders and tourism bosses have worked hard to expand the diversity of attractions and experiences offered on the Gold Coast.

For decades, we were known almost exclusively for our beaches and theme parks, which, although world-class, are restricted – if only by perception – to the summer months.

The city’s “green behind the gold” is considered a new frontier for Gold Coast tourism. Fulfilled with environmental sensitivity, the Hinterland is an untapped jewel in the city’s quest to be a tourism mecca.

O’Reilly’s has been a backbone of Hinterland offerings for a century and, like other long-serving commercial mainstays of the bush, it needs to be a significant part of its future.

The fact it has wrestled all Mother Nature can throw at it, only to be foiled by an insurance company is laughable to the world we live in.

O’Reilly’s has withstood the fury of Mother Nature plenty of times in the past 100 years. Fat cat insurance companies should not be holding to account community gems that have provided so much to the Gold Coast. The world truly is going mad.