From rainforest to reef, caves to gorges, islands to highlands, sapphires to wildlife, cities to coastal villages, paddock to plate, thunder eggs to Easter eggs; our stunning region traversing the Tropic of Capricorn has an abundance on offer for locals and visitors these school holidays and beyond.
This Easter long weekend, the city of Rockhampton hosts the annual Rare Spares Rockynats major event supported by Tourism and Events Queensland’s destination events program, while other visitors relax on the Capricorn Coast and islands on the Southern Great Barrier Reef or escape to the sandstone wilderness of Blackdown Tableland and Carnarvon Gorge to the west.
Capricorn Dinosaur Park Yeppoon, the first brand new tourist attraction built for 30 years in Central Queensland, was officially opened this week.
Thanks to an $800,000 grant in 2020 from the Qld Governments’ Growing Tourism Infrastructure Fund alongside significant private investment by the Smedley family, this $1.5 Million experience is set to tricera ’Top’ April school holiday fun.
It’s built alongside the existing Cooberrie Park Wildlife Sanctuary, which cares for 300 native animals, many of which are rehabilitated after injury or abandonment, as well as boasting one of the most successful koala and cassowary breeding programs in the country, the park celebrates its 50th birthday this year.
Also celebrating major milestones this month, is 40 years for Stage and Audio Event Solutions (founded by Tim and Michelle Buchholz), 20 years for CQG Consulting (founded by Patrice and Andrew Brown), and 35 years of incredible voluntary service by Bev Gilligan as a Tourism Ambassador at the Capricorn Coast Visitor Information Centre.
Meanwhile we are thrilled with the birth of BONZA direct flights from Sunshine Coast (MCY), Melbourne (MEL), Townsville (TSV) and Cairns (CNS) to Rockhampton regional airport! Capricorn Enterprise has invested in a two-part social media campaign targeting these new markets pre and post Easter and we will continue to work with this low-cost airline to encourage up to 106,000 new visitors to our
destination on 11 BONZA flights each week.
We congratulate Tim Jordan, founder and CEO of BONZA, and agree with his sentiments “Get off the Bruce and onto BONZA!”.
Alliance Airlines is another great aviation story for Central Queensland, with the Alliance Airlines Heavy Maintenance Facility at Rockhampton Airport nearing completion.
The facility will be used for maintenance on Alliance Airline’s Fokkers and Embraer 190 aircraft, with up to 120 locals employed in
engineering, operational and support roles.
Thanks to significant investment by federal and state government partnered with strong ongoing local government support and collaboration with the CQUniversity, the facility is set to open in June this year.
Managing Director of Alliance, Scott McMillan proudly leads this aviation company which was founded in Queensland in 2002 and has grown to become Australia’s largest charter operator specialising in charters for the resources sector.
With the latest National Visitor Survey data to the year ending December 2022 reporting record visitation (1.24 Million visitors) equating to 4.5 Million visitor nights to the Capricorn region, things are quite literally looking UP.
Until next time….. Mary Carroll CEO Capricorn Enterprise
