Latest news with #Longreach
ABC News
2 days ago
- ABC News
WA couple Peter and Rita are travelling the east coast in their floating caravan
It's a conversation starter among other travellers on the road: Peter and Rita Luck's floating caravan. The West Australians, in their 70s, are undertaking a 12-month adventure of the rivers and lakes of Australia's east coast. They call themselves the amphibious nomads, driving their houseboat from waterway to waterway with their dog Moet. "I've never really liked caravanning … you're pretty limited in where you can go," Mr Luck said. The pair took a detour from the coast to experience the outback, setting up on the Thomson River in Longreach. "It's been fantastic. Something we'll never do again, and not many people do either," Mr Luck said. "It's like glass, it was beautiful and so quiet you just hear the birds." This year's tourist season in outback Queensland has had a slow start due to widespread destructive flooding earlier in the year. Caravan parks are only just starting to fill, but having a floating home means the Lucks will never have to fight for a spot. Twelve years ago, a cancer diagnosis caused Peter Luck to retire early from the Royal Australian Air Force. While Rita continued to work, Peter got busy building the boat. "It was all his idea … he worked on it day after day and I went to work and came home," Ms Luck said. Mr Luck called it his "therapy project" during a bladder cancer diagnosis and recovery. "Having something to look forward to is really important." They'd had the pontoon party boat for around 20 years and used to go camping on it. Then Mr Luck came up with a design and stripped it down to a bare deck to build the frame. "It's pretty basic, but it does the job," he said. "We've got a double bed, portaloo, handheld shower, kitchen up the back, and solar panels on top. "There are platforms on the outside, so we can walk all the way around the outside, and a barbecue on the back." The Lucks are drawn to water and sightseeing offered from a different perspective. "It's the scenery and the incredible bird life you see — you don't see that on the roads," Mr Luck said. Loading the boat back onto the trailer in Longreach, the pair say they'll work their way up to Cairns and then all the way down to Victoria and ferry across to Tasmania. "You learn so much about Australia, and there are some fantastic communities along the way."
ABC News
6 days ago
- Health
- ABC News
Families love the Longreach way of life, except for a lack of disability services
Adam Ballard is somewhat of a local celebrity in his small outback Queensland town. The Longreach local goes everywhere with a smile, helps the local footy and race clubs, and is a rodeo fanatic. Adam was born with Williams Syndrome, an intellectual disability that requires consistent care. His family has lived in the area for generations and, over his 34 years, Adam has enjoyed the upside of living with a disability in a rural town. "He's so safe. He's got a good life here," Ms Ballard said. But now his 67-year-old parents are planning for when they are no longer around to care for their son. "It's the same for any parent of a child with special needs, that's their greatest concern," Ms Ballard said. Reluctantly, the Ballards have decided their only option is to leave Longreach and set Adam up in Rockhampton, 700 kilometres away. "We've all been born here [in Longreach]. We've lived our lives here. But you do what you have to do," Ms Ballard said. The problem for people in the bush, like the Ballards, is that they have limited choice and control over a permanent independent living situation for their child. Rentals in Longreach are already scarce and there are few registered NDIS providers that have housing. Determined to tackle the issue, Ms Ballard formed the Outback Independent Living (OIL) group in 2019. It has become the peak body and support service for disability in Winton, Longreach, Barcaldine, Blackall, Boulia, Birdsville and smaller towns in between. The vast area spans thousands of kilometres, and of the 10,500 people who live there, 955 have a disability and 196 have an NDIS plan. OIL's vision was to build an "outback village" with disability housing and assisted living. Despite strong support initially from parents and stakeholders, the idea has not come to fruition primarily because of a "catch 22" whereby few NDIS participants have designated home and living supports on their plan, Ms Ballard said. "And then people wanting it don't bother getting it put in their [NDIS] plan because there's no accommodation here." Kathy Ellem, a disability and social work researcher at the University of Queensland, said the government needed to rethink how the NDIS operated in rural areas. "You can't just plant what works in a metropolitan area and hope that it works in a rural area too," Dr Ellem said. "Governments need to provide block funding. The Queensland government said it contributed $2.5 billion annually to the federally run NDIS and would continue to work with Canberra to design supports as recommended by NDIS reviews. Federal NDIS Minister Jenny McAllister said the government was engaging communities to trial new ways of delivering services and addressing gaps. "We want all NDIS participants to access the reasonable and necessary supports they need, no matter where they live," she said. Brisbane-based Katie Grehan, who has been lobbying for people with disabilities in the bush since joining OIL in 2022, said having the right supports in an NDIS plan was crucial. She said "purpose-built villages" were outdated. "Have them living in community, in a home that they either own themselves or they rent, so they have control of the asset and their NDIS plan funds the supports." Beyond housing, another hurdle in the remote region is a startling lack of recreational activities or group programs that support disability participation. "In Brisbane, you can go to a community centre or service providers. You might want to do dance classes, swimming lessons, a cooking class, an art class. You can attend those services on a daily basis," Ms Grehan said. That is the reality in Longreach, which is a hub for smaller towns that get by with less. Longreach resident Daisy Walton, 38, who is legally blind and has autism, is eager for more options to enrich her life. "Like having Vision Australia and Guide Dogs [Australia] if they ever decided to set up a little office here. Even Autism Queensland, as well," Ms Walton said. "It would be nice if it happened, but I don't think it will. [There's] just not enough population." Her mother, Michelle Rose, said the disparity between the bush and more populated areas was distressing. "We've had a lot of families move away, which is a real shame," she said.
ABC News
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Opera Queensland's country and opera performance finds success in the outback
There are two genres of music people love to hate — opera and country. Under a kaleidoscope of stars in outback Queensland the two styles have merged and found a surprising audience. "Slim Dusty and Puccini, who would have thought," Melbourne opera fanatic Rosey Boyd said. Country songs are said to be made up of "loving, drinking, fighting and cussing" — similarly inspired themes that feature in opera, according to Opera Queensland. It is a hypothesis that Opera Queensland's Laura Hansford has transformed into the nationally touring country-opera production Are You Lonesome Tonight. Opera is not the typical genre of choice in rural communities, but the Festival of Outback Opera has been running for five years in western Queensland, bringing an influx of tourists from across Australia. It is a welcome boost for the local communities of Longreach and Winton where destructive flooding in parts of the outback earlier this year led to mass cancellations at the start of the tourist season. "We were actually very pleased that we were able to come and support the community given that they've had really hard times," said Brisbane attendee Elizabeth Wray. Laura Hansford recalled her initial apprehension four years ago when she was tasked with the challenge of creating a show that somehow combined John Williamson, Verdi, Slim Dusty and Puccini. "I said 'that's crazy' and then I went away and thought 'that's actually really cool and interesting,'" she said. It turns out that after "ruining" her Spotify algorithm researching the two genres, they unexpectedly had a lot in common. "One of the big things is the brilliance in storytelling," she said. She said the show had found success particularly with regional Queensland audiences, which led to Opera Queensland taking the show nationally this year. "Whether you're an opera fan, whether you are a country fan, whether you're a Taylor Swift fan, there is something in this show for everybody — and that's what connects us all," she said. Singer Gabrielle Diaz never thought she would end up in a production like this after studying classical voice at Brisbane's Conservatorium of Music. She loved the exploration of the two styles, switching effortlessly from American twang to the full vowels of an operatic aria. With grey nomad tourist numbers on the decline, a different niche of silver-haired travellers is boosting visitor numbers in western Queensland. Retirees, often from Melbourne or Sydney, make up the majority of the crowd at the Festival of the Outback Opera. Rosey Boyd and her crew are on a three-month road trip and were crunched for time to get to the show in Longreach. "We broke down two hours out of Melbourne, but we didn't let that stop us," Ms Boyd said. "We love the opera. We go as often as we can afford in Melbourne." Wrapped in a fur coat, Margaret Morgan flew from Brisbane just to experience the outback. "It's one of those things you have to be here to feel." Opera Queensland chief executive Patrick Nolan said the vast outback made for a perfect stage. "There's a clarity you get acoustically, once the sun sets, something happens in this environment which really lifts the singers' voices in a way," he said. As for the outback residents themselves? Opera has won over more than a few fans. "It's actually enjoyable. I don't usually like opera but from this I do. It tells a story," said Longreach country music enthusiast Kelsey Silburn.
ABC News
19-05-2025
- General
- ABC News
Cattle drive through outback Queensland helps those facing food insecurity
After a long day on horseback, nine-year-old Mason Prow can access a steady internet connection in the classroom. The distance education student is learning from the "long paddock" while his parents Billy Prow and Amanda Howard guide 1,670 head of cattle from Longreach to Roma. They are the lead drovers for the Great Australian Charity Cattle Drive (GACCD), a charity event to raise awareness of food insecurity and funds for Foodbank Australia. Mason is learning from the best, how to "work the cattle, stay behind them, and push them to the lead". "Mum says it's a bit hard to get me into the schoolroom," he admitted. The journey will take the team nearly three months, travelling 770 kilometres along Queensland's historic stock route. The sight of dust on the horizon, kicked up by hundreds of hooves, was years in the making for GACCD chairman Anthony "Bim" Struss. He said food insecurity was an issue many Australians faced, but not enough knew about. "People don't really realise that there's one in five people that suffer some sort of deprivation of food each week," Mr Struss said. Mr Struss is also chair of food charity BeefBank, which sends beef to Foodbank Australia to make meal parcels for those in need. "There are people who do it really, really hard," he said. In the last 12 months, Foodbank has had an 11 per cent increase in community groups seeking food assistance. Head drover Billy Prow said drovers had been leading cattle along Queensland's stock route since the first pastoralists arrived. "I'm glad to be doing this job here to let people know the stock routes are still there and they need maintenance all the time," he said. Mr Prow said there would be a lot of early mornings and long days ahead, but it was continuing the practice of stockmen and women. "Them older fellas they would have had it a lot harder … but I take my hat off to them," he said. While recent flooding has caused damage in parts of outback Queensland, the rain has left green pastures across much of the west. For those relying on tourism in the outback, it has been an agonisingly slow start to the season, with many cancelling their visits due to the flooding. Local councils, tourism operators and businesses have rallied to draw as many people out west as possible. Barcaldine Regional Council Mayor Rob Chandler said the cattle drive was just the start. "The dollars that this ride is going to generate in our small communities and small businesses is absolutely precious at this time of the year," he said. Queensland Governor Jeanette Young lent her support to the cause, spending a week in the outback and officially launching the cattle drive. "This rain has caused havoc but now it is spectacular." Sarah Westaway is one of several producers who have loaned cattle for the drive. "I think the connection between where beef comes from and how it all happens is … really important for people who are consuming it," she said. "There's a lot of history behind it. "It's something we should capture for other people to understand and listen to in the future."
