Wide Bay and Capricorn Coast ride wave of success

By Grantlee Kieza, Industry Reporter

Chris Hemsworth rode the waves at Surf Lakes Yeppoon last year, he made Queensland’s Capricorn Coast world news.

It seems Queenslanders, too, have been discovering this paradise in their own backyard.

While some say the COVID pandemic devastated the world tourism market, it actually increased visitors to places such as the Capricorn Coast and the neighbouring Wide Bay-Burnett region as border closures forced Queenslanders to holiday at home.

The Surf Lakes site has been operating as a prototype to test and develop a unique wave making technology since 2018. Hemsworth, Marvel Comic’s real-life Thor, carved up the best breaks in surf park innovation when he visited the site last year. After his visit Hemsworth said: “My eight-year-old’s first ever tube – something he and I are going to remember forever.”

The wave pool research and development site will finally open to the public in 2024, almost certainly guaranteeing a whole new wave of visitors to the area.

Mary Carroll, the CEO of Capricorn Enterprise, the region’s peak tourism organisation, said it would prove a boon for an area already experiencing great visitor numbers.

Ms Carroll told Resort News : “Accommodation and tour operators on the Capricorn Coast reported a very strong Christmas and New Year holiday period with popular att ractions such as Capricorn Caves, Koorana Crocodile Farm and Cooberrie Park Wildlife Sanctuary reporting very busy trade.

“Koorana Crocodile Farm had to cap their bookings at 200 and ran two tours per day.”

Ms Carroll said while most visitors to this destination were domestic (about 90 percent), both Koorana and Cooberrie Park Wildlife Sanctuary reported that self-drive international visitors from Europe, India and Asia were among their guests. This is an encouraging trend.

“Cooberrie Park Wildlife Sanctuary had higher visitation than previous years, reporting that their international visitation has returned to pre-COVID numbers during this time,” she said.

“Great Keppel Island businesses enjoyed an exceptionally busy time over the festive holiday season with over 1000 visitors to the island every day, with Freedom Fast Cats increasing their ferry timetable to accommodate. All other cruising and tour charters, and island accommodations were also booked out over this period which was fantastic.

“Whilst there were a few vacancies in the higher-end accommodation properties on the mainland, most rooms were booked out during the season.”

Adam and Sinead Stokje are the resident managers of luxury beachfront resort Pavillions on 1770. The superb apartment complex is located midway between Agnes Water and Seventeen Seventy, about 90 minutes north of Bundaberg on the Discovery Coast.

“This location here is so picturesque,” Mr Stokje told Resort News, “and while it’s never overcrowded, we get very busy at holiday times because everyone in Australia is now discovering the area and what it has to off er.”

Overlooking the magnificent Keppel Bay, Adam’s parents Andrea and Bill Stokje run the Oshen Holiday Apartments in Yeppoon.

Bill said most of his guests come from the mining areas around Emerald and Moranbah. While it’s not that far for them to travel, it is a dramatic contrast to the places where many of them work.

Beyond hoteliers themselves, the uptick in visitors is being witnessed by industry more broadly. Paul Grant from Mike Phipps Finance said the accommodation industry was “going very strong” on both the Capricorn Coast and the Wide Bay-Burnett areas. The company has helped to finance some motels in Bundaberg recently.

“Bundaberg is kicking massive goals in the motel business at the moment. They’ve got the hospital there that drives a lot of business, and they have a population of around 100,000 people, which makes it a significant city.

“People forget how big Bundaberg and its surrounds are for a regional centre. It has its own economy there and one of the guys we’ve helped with finance is a motel owner who (in his words) says it’s just a licence to print money these days.

“The motel business is super strong there. Bargara (13km east of Bundaberg) is a beautiful coastal area that’s very desirable and it generates a great deal of holiday business, too.”

Mr Grant said a lot of the corporate travellers who come to Bundaberg for business decide to stay at Bargara because it is only a short drive from the city and it is situated in “a beautiful holiday atmosphere”. P42

“They can really enjoy the time when they’re not working,” Mr Grant said. “They can go to the beach after work so that is great for the whole Bundaberg region because we’re seeing accommodation properties filling up, not just on the weekends but during the week as well with business travel.”

The Wide Bay and Capricorn

Coast areas have some of the most stunning coastline in Australia. In January, Rainbow Beach, 70 km northeast of Gympie, was named by Tourism Australia as the third best beach in Australia after Stokes Bay on Kangaroo Island, South Australia, and Boomerang Beach in NSW.

“COVID actually helped tourism in the Wide Bay and Burnett region because people were forced to stay in Queensland for holidays and they began discovering places such as Bargara, Yeppoon and Seventeen-Seventy. They are doing great business for the same reason that our clients in Hervey Bay have gone really well too,” Mr Grant said.

“The challenge of course will be what happens when travel gets back to normal. Is that area going to stay on its loft y highs, or is it going to drop off ? We can only wait for time to tell.”

It seems, though, that visitors are keen to return to the area. CRE’s Central Queensland broker, Ronnie Slebos, previously owned and operated a management rights business in Brisbane. During a holiday in 2014 he fell in love with the destination and now relishes the opportunity to regularly travel there to inspect the properties that he and CRE off er for sale. He says he can travel up to 7000km in a busy month between listings and inspections.

“I’ve been working with Craig and CRE since 2018 and the best part of the job is the people I meet and the places I visit,” he said.

“The people here are as ‘TrueBlue’ as you’ll ever get. T-shirts and comfortable shorts are fine - help your mates - and yeah, there is nothing wrong with an old Toyota! There is no traffic jams or parking problems, and housing prices are aff ordable.

“But the best thing that Central Queensland off ers is all the opportunities for hard workers to earn hard dollars. Whilst the remoteness might deter some people, those who invest in the ‘Heart of Australia’ are rewarded with a much higher return on their investment than their city counterparts.

“Accommodation businesses in this region service more than tourists and sales reps. Activities in farming, railways, roadworks, healthcare, and construction provide a constant flow of customers to these operators. And with recent investment in the mining sector, now is a great time to invest in Central Queensland.”

Recent CRE sales include motels in Gladstone, a management rights resort in Bargara, several resorts and motels in the Hervey Bay area, a motel inn in Childers and two outback motels in Longreach. And with the increase of tourism activity in the area, there has also been un uptick in business sales. Alison Sun and Alex McCowan, from Accom Valuers said their business is experiencing renewed vigour in both the Capricorn Coast and Wide Bay-Burnett markets.

“We are definitely seeing more work in valuations for motels and management rights businesses,” Ms Sun said.

“The increased activity is flowing through as accommodation businesses have now recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic and government-imposed restrictions. Now that businesses are gett ing strong trading figures many are now taking the opportunity of going to market after riding out the COVID storm. P44