Desert Knowledge Australia
Desert Knowledge Australia is a national organisation with the long-term vision of building harmony, sustainability and prosperity for all Australian desert people, both Aboriginal and non- Aboriginal. It takes an innovative approach based on building partnerships between individuals, communities, government and business, to create opportunities and work together to meet desert challenges.
One of Desert Knowledge Australia’s current projects is the Our Outback Tourism Partnership.
This is an attempt to make real progress by putting together people from all different sides of the tourism industry. There are six things the group is trying to do.
1. Develop the Outback experience - establish connections between existing experiences and operators,
create new connections and coordinate better use of the scarce support services available to the industry.
2. Develop Outback tourism collaboration to provide a borderless and consumer-focused approach.
3. Link the visitor information and referral services across the Outback to better meet the needs of travellers.
4. Develop opportunities to bridge existing transport gaps between major Outback travel centres to better serve the needs of travellers.
5. Use and/or adapt technologies and methods to build greater capacity in the Outback travel industry.
6. Examine existing State and Territory regulations to identify opportunities to simplify tourism connections
This project connects small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) across desert Australia. It’s an attempt to deliver to desert communities the same kinds of benefits that businesses achieve through networking in metropolitan markets.
SMEs are the vital foundation for sustainable and healthy remote communities. These businesses have developed innovative ways of meeting the challenges of working in desert regions.
The Project will tap into this knowledge and work with SMEs to:
* build critical mass
* increase business
* expand markets
* generate cost savings
* access information and services
This follows the success pilot project - the Desert Knowledge Australia Linked Business Networks Project. Networks were set up in tourism, bush products and local foods, mining and sustainable buildings in eleven regions of desert Australia.
The business network project is being rolled out over eleven regions of outback Australia and we will visit
Broken Hll, Port Augusta and Kalgoorlie offices. The Our Outback part of the program is aiming to help coordinate and develop outback cross border networks and help tourism operators. (eg developing links between tourism pathways and trails ,encouraging good ideas developed in the outback to spread across australia).