Tourism

A plethora of events focusing on community, culture, art, wellbeing, creativity, gastronomy and adventure will be on offer in Halls Gap and Pomonal this winter, thanks to a new festival designed by volunteers. Glow – Bringing light to Halls Gap started on Saturday and runs for eight weeks until August 31.

There hasn’t been a rodeo in Woodenbong for at least 23 years. Renai Pearce and John O’Reilly are about to change that ... On July 19, the rodeo is back at Woodenbong Showground.

The Donald Tractor Pull is getting all geared up for this year’s Donald show – it seems all it needed to gain traction was a couple of major sponsors, so with North West Ag and Adams Family Farms offering to support the new event, organisers can move full throttle towards providing some new and exciting entertainment.

The Good Old Days Festival is set to not only break the Australian record for the greatest number of draught horses in harness pulling a wool wagon in 2025 but is also expanding to a three-day event ... Mr Bandy said to harness more than 50 horses would take around two hours and be a spectacle in itself.

Bowlers from across the state battled it out for glory on the greens at Yamba over the weekend in the Bowls NSW Grade 3 Open Pennant Final Series. Yamba Bowling Club Bowls Director Jayson Pinnock said the club played host to 240 male and female bowlers and their teams from the state’s top 16 Grade 3 clubs.

Madison Eastmond. A Riverland ecology site has received more than $400,000 worth of state funding to complete the first stage of a five-point masterplan to secure a sustainable future ... Providing a learning environment facilitated by ecologists and a dedicated ranger team just outside of Renmark, Calperum Station is comprised of prominently open Mallee bushland and Murray River flood plains, and hosts opportunities for educational and training programs, and nature-based recreational activities.

It wasn’t just an impressive variety of model aircrafts which were flying high over the Clarence Valley in recent days with the enthusiasm and enthralment of spectators at the Grafton Model Aircraft Club’s annual Fun Fly Weekend also soaring to new heights.

A new showroom displaying Holden heritage vehicles is revving up Gippsland, giving car enthusiasts another reason to visit the region. Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events Steve Dimopoulos was at the Trafalgar Holden Museum to announce that the new showroom, the Neil Joiner Holden Heritage Centre is now open. 

Carla Wilshire. I visited Lord Howe Island as a child. I remember the quiet strength of it, the gentle precision of life shaped by tides and cargo, and the sense that everything here moved to its own rhythm ... In the years since, I have come to see Lord Howe not only as a national treasure, but as a case study in resilience under constraint.

The NT Government is providing a $10m loan to an interstate company for a walk in the Uluru National Park while other publicly funded tourism related projects in The Centre are on hold or merely planned. The conditions of the loan are not readily available. We have asked for them and will report them when and if details are provided by the government.

The prestigious 2025 Queensland Top Tourism Town Awards were recently held in Brisbane with Stanthorpe winning silver. The announcement, made by the Queensland Tourism Industry Council (QTIC), celebrates communities that offer outstanding visitor experiences and strong tourism leadership.

This is the 31st Annual Frost Bite Rally to be conducted by the Warwick Chapter of the Historical Motorcycle Club of Queensland. The first Rally started at Leslie Dam all those years ago. Riders from Northern New South Wales, Brisbane, Townsville and around South East Queensland arrive for Allora's frosty weather and they won't be disappointed.

After the morning fog cleared away, the skies were clear on Saturday 21 June for the Maldon in Winter Bonfire which was even bigger and brighter than last year in every way. A packed train brought hundreds of visitors — many of them families with children — to excitedly walk across from the railway station and through to the back of the Machinery Museum.

The sudden closure of the Mokoan Hub and Café at Winton Wetlands is incredibly disappointing and has left our local community reeling. My thoughts are with the hardworking staff who lost their jobs with no warning or transparency. They deserved far better.

New data published today by Tourism Research Australia shows international holiday visitors spent a record $3.1 billion, surpassing pre-Covid levels for the very first time. Visitors from New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States, India, France and Indonesia led the charge, all spending a record amount while they were holidaying in Queensland. 

Agricultural shows across Queensland have received a welcome funding boost, with the Queensland Government announcing an additional $600,000 to support these iconic events that play a vital role in regional life ... Queensland Ag Shows President David Wilson said the support comes at a critical time for many rural and regional shows.

Lachlan Dand. A cold Saturday morning failed to dampen the spirits of more than 200 rowers in 44 crews who hit the water for the annual Renmark Rowing Club’s Wharf to Woolshed Long Row. Completing its eighth year ... the Long Row had competitors from all over Australia take on the 36km journey.

A rags to riches story with a special Clarence Valley connection wrote itself into local sporting folklore in less than 20 seconds on June 21 at the Grafton Greyhound Racing Club when speed sensation Badger’s Beast set a new race record and dominated his rivals to win the $40000 Ladbrokes Thunderbolt, the richest short course race in the world over 350m.

An investment of more than $30 million to upgrade one of South Australia’s most important airports has been completed, allowing vital services to the Whyalla region to continue.

As part of the Finocchiaro CLP Government’s Rebuilding the Economy: NT Economy Strategy 2025, Minister for Trade, Business and Asian Relations Robyn Cahill will lead a delegation to Malaysia to strengthen government-to-government ties and promote new trade and investment opportunities for the Northern Territory.

Businesses on southern Yorke Peninsula have been hit by a tourism downturn amid the ongoing algal bloom. Stansbury has been affected by brevetoxin, closing the town's oyster farms for over six weeks, which Dalrymple Hotel owner Rob Rankine said had influenced visitation to the town.

Hundreds of locals and visitors gathered in Cooktown over the weekend for the 46th annual Cooktown Discovery Festival, celebrating the region’s rich culture, community spirit, and place in Australian history as the site of the first recorded act of reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.