Mike Elliott: ERD Report on Ecotourism

Extract from Hansard

Legislative Council
26 September 2001

Mike Elliott
Leader Australian Democrats
Member of the Legislative Council

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The Hon. M.J. ELLIOTT: I am a member of the Environment, Resources and Development Committee and have been a long-term advocate of ecotourism. In fact, I will never forget when, on releasing the Democrats' tourism policy in the final four weeks of the 1993 election, the Advertiser took the unusual step of taking some note of what we had to say and devoted its editorial to attacking our policy, which said that ecotourism and cultural tourism were the greatest potential for tourism in South Australia and that we needed to focus in that area. As I said, it devoted an editorial to getting stuck into what it called a tooth fairy tourism policy. I was glad to see that, about three years ago, although it did not retract what it had said before, another editorial commented on how promising ecotourism was looking. I suspect it was written by the same person, but one gets used to that in this business.

Nonetheless, this is a unanimous report, as have been all reports of this committee since it was formed. Regardless of political affiliation, country or city background, etc., a unanimous view was formed that the potential for ecotourism in South Australia is significant and, also importantly, that at this stage we are significantly underperforming in this area. That has to be a cause of concern, although one of the advantages of being a late entrant into the tourist market in any significant sense is that you may have avoided making the mistakes that have been made in other places. I hate to think, for instance, that if the original proposed development for Wilpena Pound, the one that was to be built along the escarpment of the ABC Range facing St Mary's Peak, had gone ahead, it would have been an abomination and it would have been counterproductive to long-term successful tourism in South Australia.

People can go anywhere in the world to stay at five-star hotels and to see marinas-there are a whole range of things that are everywhere else. If we are to be successful in tourism, we need to be different. We have a raw product in South Australia which is unique and which is in good condition. It might be fair to say that some farmed areas have been over-grazed but even in the Flinders Ranges we can see that some of those areas are in recovery. There has been the re- establishment of salt bush in some areas of the Flinders Ranges that have not had that plant for 30 or 40 years. It is all growing in rows because it has been direct seeded, so it does not look terribly natural but, given another 20 years-it will probably be something like that-we will see full recovery.

What I am saying is that we have a unique natural product. At this stage, people tend to focus just on the Flinders Ranges, particularly around Wilpena Pound, and perhaps on Kangaroo Island. However, the committee had the opportunity to visit many parts of the state and we are so lucky that there is so much remote, relatively untouched countryside, which gives us the capacity to have a large amount of low intensity development and which will give us an optimal result in every sense.

It will give us an optimal result economically because, generally speaking, ecotourists are big spenders, whether you talk about the backpackers-who do not spend very much per day but who stay for a very long time and who spend almost entirely within local businesses-or people who come for specific experiences, whether it be to see the whales at the Head of the Bight, to go to Arkaroola to look at the stars, or to go birdwatching; and people are operating in a number of places. Some of those people spend quite a significant amount. It is also worth noting that ecotourism is the fastest growing part of the tourism market and it is growing in those areas which, obviously, are most affluent.

It is growing in northern Europe, the United States and Britain, and there are even perhaps some signs of it in places such as Japan, although it would be fair to say that the Japanese tend to prefer travelling in tour groups, but even that is slowly changing. What is important is that we have a very clear view of what it is that we are trying to achieve and that we have a very good understanding of what ecotourism is. It is nature based, but many nature based tourism operations are not ecotourism. Being nature based, you can do it so intensively that you destroy what people have come to see, and it is not really noticed until it is all too late. Ecotourism is about coming up with something which will be sustainable in the long term, sustainable ecologically, economically and socially. It means that we need to think about the styles of developments we form.

We went through a period, particularly through the mid 1980s and perhaps even heading towards the early 1990s, where resort style developments were the way to go. I have already mentioned the proposal for Wilpena, but in fact a number of proposals were bouncing around. They were going to be placed in areas of great sensitivity and they would have been destructive, and while some people would have found them attractive, I do not think that, ultimately, they would have given the return that other forms of ecotourism will give.

I spoke earlier about the fact that potentially there are big dollars to be made. We spoke with people-and I will not identify them-who invite visitors from the United States, for instance, to stay in their own home. What they were charging people for that experience was quite mind-boggling. As I recall, it was pretty close to $180 or $200 a head per night to simply experience staying in the homestead and sitting down to meals-I am sure that they would not have been just meat and three veg, and I am sure that they incorporated some good South Australian wine as well, but nevertheless, they were significant dollar earners. As I said, we have barely scratched the surface so far.

I do not want to linger on the point too long, but, as I said, we have to think very carefully about what it is that we are trying to sell and we should not let the white shoe brigade sell something to us which we will later regret.

We should look at what we can to do to encourage the development of ecotourism, which is home-grown, which is owned and operated locally and which employs local people. We certainly saw a number of home-grown enterprises around South Australia. Some of them are award winners. For instance, the Prairie Hotel at Parachilna; the operation at Baird Bay where a fellow started off with a boat simply taking people out to see the sea lions and the dolphins and is now starting to expand with some accommodation options as well; or four-wheel drive tours into the Gawler Ranges. These operations were started off by locals, and, as with all small businesses, I am sure that they have had their ups and downs along the way.

The government can do things to help facilitate the development of these businesses, and certainly the report contains a number of recommendations along those lines. To begin with, when you are running businesses there is a very great need to have the right staff, and repeatedly businesses told us that it was difficult to get staff with the appropriate training and also very difficult to keep them. One of the more important recommendations within this report is that the government should examine the establishment of a group traineeship scheme in ecotourism, so that a person can go into a job in ecotourism and gain a qualification which could set them up for later.

What one would hope is that, rather than perhaps the odd city kid going for an adventure for 12 months or two years (which is where a lot of the staff comes from now in places such as Arkaroola, Wilpena and so on), increasingly they be drawn from the local community, a community, which, for the most part, young people leave because they do not see any opportunities. However, if it is possible to establish career paths in tourism, they might find it more attractive and they would be far more likely to become involved and, importantly, stay on.

While we were in the Flinders Ranges area, members of the committee spoke to a few operators and simply put the question: if there were a group traineeship scheme, would you participate? Without exception, there was a positive response from everyone ranging from the genuine tourist operator in the purest sense of the word to even the national parks people. If we can give young people the opportunity of working in everything from the Arkaroola type experience to Parachilna to perhaps something such as Iga Worta, the Aboriginal operation to the east of Parachilna, to perhaps working in national parks so that they then gain experience in catering, cooking and looking after accommodation facilities generally and also gain some appreciation for the flora and fauna, then those people, with that breadth of experience, will not only be good employees in the ecotourism industry but potentially could also be future operators.

As I said, this industry has scope for a large amount of growth if it is properly done and, if we can make it home-grown growth, all the better. Having spoken about the fact that we should be looking to create opportunities for employment in the regional areas to try to get young people involved, some of the most obvious people to get involved would be Aboriginal people. There is no question that, more often than not, people wanting to enjoy the environmental experience of the outback are also interested in the culture, whether it be the more recent European culture or the Aboriginal culture. We really should be seeking to involve Aboriginal people in the development of ecotourism as much as possible. We visited the Iga Worta development for only a short period. There is no question, even on the basis of our short stay, that there was very significant potential in such operations.

Besides issues of education and training, where we think the government can play a role, the government can also play a role in trying to get demonstration projects up. We had evidence that people starting up in the tourism business were seen as being significant risks. I think that view would change as there are more success stories out there and, if the government can look at some way of helping provide seed funding for some of these small eco-businesses, I think it will repay itself, not just in terms of those businesses that are established but in terms of the growth of confidence there would be in investing more generally in that sort of business.

The government also can play a role in the provision of infrastructure, although that could be highly variable. Probably the most important infrastructure is that of transport. The cost of getting to many of these locations makes it more difficult for the operations to get going. I note that the government has already built reasonable airstrips just to the south of Wilpena and also at Balcanoona; and the provision of more strips of that sort around some of these areas would most certainly facilitate tourism development.

The provision of power infrastructure is more difficult and it is more likely that it will need to be an on-site development. Whether or not the government can facilitate the development of alternative energy provision requires further examination. One issue that does need addressing is that of waste management strategies. One of the more novel things we came across, although I do not think it was in formal evidence, was when we were visiting the Gammon Ranges, an area visited by one particular end of the ecotourism market, the backpackers.

Unfortunately, the number of people now starting to backpack in the Gammon Ranges is becoming so great that when the call of nature comes it is very hard to find a place to dig a hole that has not already been dug. There are a couple of implications to that, but it is certainly a problem that needs to be addressed. There are only two realistic strategies available: one is the installation in some of those areas of long drops, strategically placed near places where people are likely to camp. There are particular areas where people are likely to camp overnight. That is one way of tackling it.

The other, and I understand that it happens overseas, is that what you take in you take out. We are no longer talking just about the baked bean cans; we are talking about all the consequences as well. There are some areas where people are now required to clean up after their dogs. I think that backpackers should be required to clean up after themselves in some of these very intensively used areas. That is something I was going to say the government should come to grips with, but perhaps that is not quite the way to put it. It might sound like a trivial matter, but for those areas that are being intensively visited we have to look at ways of managing the impact. I hope I have demonstrated that the impact can be broad.

In summary, one thing that excites me, and other members have already covered this report quite extensively, is what I see as a need to amend the Pastoral Lands Act. The Pastoral Lands Act at the moment is silent on tourism development. There are certainly some pastoralists now who are developing ecotourism as a business, and in some areas I suspect they are probably making more money out of ecotourism already than they make out of their pastoral activities.

That is something to be encouraged, because it seems to me that ecotourism offers the potential not only to improve the economics of some of the operations up there but probably in many areas would enable decisions to be made about stocking rates, which would improve landcare even further. I think that this question of a review of the Pastoral Lands Act, in particular to allow ecotourism on pastoral leases-obviously with the same duty of care of land that they have as pastoralists-would be extremely worthwhile.

I hope that members have a chance to look at this report. It has further underlined the significant potential in South Australia, a potential so far nowhere near fulfilled. I hope that over the coming years South Australia will gain great benefit from the development of ecotourism.