OM4Tourism Hidden Jewel 2008 Award Winners

National Winner

Congratulations to RiverFly Tasmania for winning the National OM4Tourism Hidden Jewel Award for 2008. Click on the logo to find out more.

State / Territory Winners

Congratulations also to our state / territory winners. Click the names to find out more about each of these “Hidden Jewels”:

New South Wales: Chambers of the Black Hand
Northern Territory: The Rainbow Connection
Queensland: Araucaria Eco Tours
South Australia: Flour Cask Bay Sanctuary
Tasmania: Cradle Huts & Bay of Fires Walk
Victoria: Otway Eco Tours
Western Australia: Seahorse Sanctuary

About the OM4Tourism Hidden Jewel Awards

The OM4Tourism Hidden Jewel Awards are run by OM4Tourism, which specialises in online marketing for small-medium tourism businesses.

Each state/territory winner receives a free website, complete with design package, keyword research and free hosting & support. Our national winner gets all this, plus a national publicity campaign with global internet distribution.

For full details, go to our Prizes page.

OM4Tourism would like to thank our judging panel, which consisted of influential representatives of the tourism industry and media:

Quentin Long is publisher of Australian Traveller magazine, which prides itself on supporting independent tourism businesses with editorial that doesn’t depend on advertising or hosted famils.

For the first time, we welcomed John Walsh, Executive Producer of Channel 9′s Getaway. As Australia’s longest running travel programme, with more than 2 million viewers each week, the show uncovers the best in Australian and overseas travel for a wide-ranging audience.

Finally, Les Cox, CEO of one of Australia’s largest tour companies, AAT Kings, joined us once again. AAT Kings is known for supporting small, independent tourism businesses.

The judging panel was chaired by Jane Hammond Foster, former travel magazine editor and now manager of PublicityShip and OM4Tourism.

RiverFly: the adventure of fly-fishing Tasmania’s riverlands

National Winner

Daniel Hackett has been a full time professional fly-fishing guide since 2002, specialising in Tasmania’s famous northern midland streams surrounding the historic town of Longford.

While other operators tend to focus on the man-made hydro-impoundments of Tasmania as the venues for guiding, Daniel believes Tasmania’s competitive edge lies in the wilderness and wild fisheries.

He has recently expanded his horizons from the magnificent Brumby’s Creek and Macquarie River to take in the small spring creeks in the north east of the state, as well as the famous North and South Esk rivers. Daniel is also a very proficient guide on the lakes and tarns of the central plateau.

RiverFly was born in January 2005 as Daniel spread his wings to create his own specialist river guiding business.

This has enabled him to offer the most diverse range of rafting destinations available in Tasmania, as well as many of the state’s untapped river fisheries.

Daniel is now widely regarded as Tasmania’s leading river guide, and has recently become an author expounding the adventures to be had from a fly-fishing holiday in the Tasmanian wilderness.

Daniel regards himself as “a concerned young wilderness lover, who sees his fly-fishing business and writing as a way to transport people to the wild hidden jewels of Tasmania’s most beautiful valleys, in the belief that conservation through eco-tourism is a key stepping stone to a sound future and tourism industry”.

Chambers of the Black Hand: underground art

New South Wales Winner

More than ten years ago, artist and former opal miner, Ron Canlin, began carving the walls of a 100-year-old mine in Lightning Ridge.

11.2 metres underground, the mine’s subterranean tunnels open into vast chambers – now known as Chambers of the Black Hand – decorated with Ron’s unique hand carvings.

Visitors are amazed that his tools consist of a jackhammer, small pick and kitchen utensils.

Ron’s most recent work is “The Jungle Room”, with an elephant, a silverback gorilla, pythons, an orang-utan and countless other animals. “The Last Supper” was a challenge, “The Egyptian Room” a glimpse of Ron’s sense of humour, and now, goblins, dinosaurs, an archangel and Nostradamus himself emerge eerily from the walls.

Chambers of the Black Hand is run by Trevor and Cheryl Hudson, local miners themselves for some 25 years, who have endured the hardship and exhilaration that comes with chasing the ever elusive “black opal”. Trevor and Cheryl provide guided tours of what they believe is the only underground art gallery & museum in the world.

As well as Ron’s sandstone carvings, Trevor draws on his understanding of the Lightning Ridge area and the geology behind opal formation in his informative and entertaining tour of the old mine.

The Rainbow Connection: engaging in Central Australia

Northern Territory Winner

The Rainbow Connection is the only gay owned and operated accommodation provider in Central Australia, offering gay and lesbian travellers from around the world a ‘home away from home’ bed & breakfast experience in comfort and style.

But more than that, owner operators, Phil & Glenn, aim to have guests “engage in the region so they become a human ‘being’ more than just a human ‘doing’”.

To this end, they don’t just market their own accommodation – they showcase the Alice Springs region and beyond, through links that help and encourage travellers to build a complete holiday:

“A close business relationship with other local service providers that are truly gay friendly (including the local RTA, Tourism Central Australia, and Tourism NT) means that they can confidently recommend product to suit the desires of Rainbow guests.”

Tourism NT participated in its first consumer stall at the Mardis Gras Fair Day in February 2008. Fair Day is part of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian (G&L) Mardis Gras, and this year organisers estimated that the event attracted over 70,000 people. The G&L leisure travel market represents approximately $656 million a year and is a growing market for the NT.

Araucaria Eco Tours: iconic wildlife

Queensland Winner

Araucaria Eco Tours is the kind of business that helps to form the backbone of Australian tourism.

Established in 1997 by zoologist Ronda Green and husband Denis, Araucaria’s iconic 3-day wildlife tour in south-east Queensland is now considered among the most comprehensive in Australia.

By presenting wildlife and other eco tours with knowledgeable guides, international visitors have the opportunity to experience something truly unique to Australia – our fauna and flora.

Designed and usually led by Ronda, an experienced interpretive guide, it showcases Australia’s major icon animals plus many others, and elucidates what makes Australia’s ecosystems different from the rest of the world.

Ronda and Denis have since added a number of shorter tours catering for wildlife enthusiasts, bird-watchers, bush walkers, and those who just want to experience Australian forest and scenery.

Customized tours can include horse-riding, canoeing, whale-watching, zoo visits, Aussie farm life, abseiling and other activities.

Flour Cask Bay Sanctuary: privacy and solitude

South Australia Winner

Flour Cask Bay Sanctuary is a private nature reserve offering accommodation, camping, cycling, canoeing, wildlife, wetlands and the rugged coastal scenery of Kangaroo Island.

Unlike conventional caravan parks, commercial camping facilities and national park camping areas, Flour Cask Bay is able to provide a level of privacy and solitude highly valued in today’s frenetic world.

Accommodation is visually separated, with semi-private camping (small number of sites with some shared facilities spaced 25-35m apart) and private camping.

Guests can hire camping equipment and camper trailers, fully serviced to save much of the work usually associated with camping. And packages can include a car, bikes and/or canoes for use both on and off the sanctuary area.

Sustainability is a very real aspect of the sanctuary – not just a marketing message – the aim being to develop an eco-sanctuaries network that is carbon positive.

The manager’s residence and office run entirely on green power, and visitors are encouraged to engage with environmental programs on the property, such as restoring habitat, salinity management, destocking, fire managment, and weed and feral animal programs.

This approach reflects the increasing desire amongst holiday-makers to engage with their environment and seek out a life-changing experience.

Cradle Huts & Bay of Fires Walk: epic treks

Tasmania Winner

The incredible beauty of Cradle Mountain / Lake St Clair and Mt William National Parks are the backdrops for these two, quite different, epic walking adventures.

The carefully crafted itineraries designed for groups of 10 or less ensure guests experience the best of each region in the company of experienced guides.

Quality Tasmanian wines, fresh produce, hot showers and comfortable twin-share accommodation are waiting to refresh walkers at the end of each day.

The six-day Cradle Mountain Huts guided trek, with bush hut accommodation, traverses mountains, lakes and forests at a calm steady pace, taking walkers into the natural rhythm of nature:

“As you move through this dramatic and timeless landscape, your senses will sharpen. You’ll experience the detail of nature with new clarity – the shift and play of dappled light on fallen leaves. Unfamiliar birdsong rising from the rainforest. The subtle scent of leatherwood and sassafras. The cold purity of mountain streamwater. The rough warmth of sunny, glacier-carved rock. The microcosm of cushion plants. And the grand spectacle of landscape.”

Bay of Fires Walk is a four-day guided adventure exploring the ecology and wildlife of the Mt William coastal region.

Accommodation is in a private beach camp and the breathtaking Bay of Fires Lodge:

“Two long timber and glass pavilions allow maximum connection to the landscape with minimum impact on the environment: all building materials – Tasmanian hardwood and plantation pine – were lifted in by helicopter or hand carried to the site, and the lodge is autonomous in providing and managing its existence. Here you will experience true communion with nature in accommodation that combines simplicity of design with comfort and warmth.”

Otway Eco Tours: a rare experience

Victoria Winner

Otway Eco Tours specialises in a rare experience – seeing platypus in the wild.

Coupling this with one of the country’s most sought-after drive destinations, the Great Ocean Road, puts Otway onto a winner.

The setting is Great Otway National Park, two hours from Melbourne, an area blanketed with eucalypt forest, temperate rainforest and waterfalls.

Tour guide, Bruce Jackson, takes small groups by canoe on Lake Elizabeth to spot the quirky creatures in their natural habitat.

Bruce achieves a spotting rate is a massive 95%, including babies in the breeding season. The beauty of specialising means that Bruce’s knowledge about the platypus is second to none, captivating guests from the word go.

Otway Eco Tours has recently added Great Ocean Walk and Forrest Mountain Bike Trail tours to help grow the business and showcase the best of the region.

Seahorse Sanctuary: acquaculture as a tourist attraction

Western Australia Winner

Seahorse Sanctuary is an aquaculture business that has been breeding and selling seahorses for the marine aquarium market for the past eight years, and opened as a tourist attraction two years ago.

The Sanctuary is run by biologists, Michael and Wendy Payne, who describe the tour as: “a true ‘eye opener’, revealing an industry that has been under visitors’ noses all their lives without them ever being aware of its existence”.

The Sanctuary currently breeds more tropical syngnathid (seahorse family) species than anywhere else in the world, most of which have never been previously cultured or displayed.

To enhance the experience of touring a functioning aquaculture facility, a video shows a “behind the scenes” view of a seahorse’s life, including birth and mating scenes of species never before captured on film.

Michael and Wendy also enthuse about their location – the delightful coastal town of Kalbarri on Australia’s Coral Coast.

Often bypassed by tourists travelling from Perth to Shark Bay, Coral Bay or Exmouth, Kalbarri has long been a favourite holiday town amongst locals.

The Paynes would love to see the town getting more attention from interstate and international visitors too, and no doubt their unique business will help to make this happen.