Talk of the Town: Tourism treasures at every outback turn

I've been writing about the national tourism awards presented on Friday night in Sydney and many things have struck me about the winners, not least that they've well and truly tapped into the reluctance of intrepid tourers to move out of their comfort zone, at least literally.

Give us the real Australian experience they cry, but not the temperatures that go with it.

Every air-conditioner I turn on in motels and cabins is set between a minimum of 18 degrees and a maximum of 22.

I get that some of us are hot sleepers but the abandonment with which we use power when it comes with a fixed nightly accommodation rate always surprises me.

I discovered while writing up Friday night's national winners that, even at the tip of Cape York, which I always thought took days of 4L driving to reach, there is a la carte dining and Foxtel on tap.

I'm hardly one to talk - after rolling out my swag in the back of the trayback a few weeks ago, for fear of creepy crawlies on the ground, and suffering a fullblown case of dust-induced sinusitis as a result, I lashed out after 40 years and bought a dome swag plus a canvas stretcher.

I got to use the setup at a rodeo and campdraft recently and I can tell you, there's no going back.

I might have written some of the above with my tongue in my cheek, but every syllable is genuine when I say how much I admire the operators who've gone out on a limb to try an idea out.

People like the late Peter Evert of Winton come to mind - he was regarded as such an oddball 40 years ago for flying people up to Sweers Island for a weekend of fishing.

So was Blackall's Alan Smith, when he kitted out a little bus with catchy decals and started interpreting the lifestyle that could be seen beyond the windscreen to busloads of interested visitors.

It went right against the grain of most of us to bring attention to oneself, but these blokes saw there was an unfulfilled need to explore and understand, and worked out how to satisfy that.

Even today, former cattleman Richard Kinnon's bold visions a la Pride of the Murray and his family's dedication to telling our story to the world is to be applauded.

Another thing that struck me is that, apart from the Cape York Peninsula Lodge, I've had the pleasure of experiencing most of the attractions from outback Queensland that have been judged some of the best in Australia, and plenty of others.

It's often the case that the things we take for granted are judged by others to be highly desirable.

Take your latest visit to the saleyards for instance - Roma and Blackall have turned that into an interpretative experience.

What about your drive up Baldy Top at Quilpie to take in the sunset? Yep, now the venue for a performance by world-renowned Australian soprano Mirusia.

Even the homesteads that are your places to relax at the end of a day in the paddock are now luxury farm-stays at Gilberton, Winton, Thallon and elsewhere.

- Talk of the North is a weekly opinion piece written by ACM journalists. The thoughts expressed are their own.