Gold Coast offers Australian way of life

Qantas Airways and the Queensland Tourist and Travel Corporation (QTTC) recently invited The Jakarta Post to visit Brisbane and the Gold Coast in Australia. A. Junaidi wrote the following article on his week-long stay in the two Queensland tourist destinations.

GOLD COAST (JP): The Australian way of life, including sheering sheep and milking cows, has become one of the many attractions in Queensland, Australia's most popular tourist destination.

"The main reason we invited you is to introduce the Gold Coast, not just its white sandy beaches, but also its various attractions, including the Australian way of life that must be very attractive to Asians tourists," Bita Seow, QTTC's Southeast Asia sales manager, told the six Malaysian and three Indonesian journalists and 11 Indonesian travel agent executives visiting the Gold Coast.

Most tourists I met during my visit, who were mainly from Taiwan and Japan, enjoyed seeing the old Australian traditions.

We were invited to participate in activities like sheering sheep, spinning wool, milking cows, bush crafting and whip cracking, and to see sheepdog shows.

These traditionally Australian attractions are held at many tourist places, like Country Paradise, the Original Avocado and the Kooralbyn Hotel and Resort.

Just 15 minutes drive from the Gold Coast, the 40-acre Country Paradise gave us a glimpse of times gone by, when the only means of transportation were horses and walking. A three-and-a-half hour tour to the farm costs A$30 (Rp 56,000).

After a delicious barbecue lunch at Country Paradise, Bruce, a guide, invited us to watch a sheep sheering display and a dog herd dozens of sheep.

Spectators, mostly Asian tourists, sat on benches while Bruce stood on a stage. Bruce then called in the sheep. Suddenly one sheep came from behind the spectators and went and stood on the stage. Four other sheep followed suit.

"Once a year, the sheep have to be sheered," Bruce said. He explained how each of the five sheep was different from each other and showed us how to sheer a sheep. He then invited us to sheer one of the sheep.

Following the sheep sheering, we were invited to go horse riding. At least 10 of us rode horses around Country Paradise's extensive grounds.

Then, in a field, Bruce showed us how to throw a boomerang. Visitors seemed very happy to experience throwing the traditional weapon of the Aborigines.

Another attraction was the sheepdog show. Bruce called the dog to herd dozens of sheep which were grazing in a field. The dog barked orders and gathered the sheep in a corner of the field.

The guide, who was kind and humorous, was an important factor in making the attractions enjoyable.

The Original Avocado is located on Mount Tamborine, a 40- minute drive from the Gold Coast and a one-hour drive from Brisbane. It offers bush-craft shows, including a display of axe- cutting trees.

There we also felt friendship and warmth when we met the guide, Crocodile Ronnie. He gave us a special barbecue, avocado jams and sang Australian farm songs.

Ronnie took us on a tour to see his hundreds of avocado trees. He explained how to plant, pick and market avocados.

Another place which offered similar attractions was the Kooralbyn Hotel and Resort, 90 kilometers from the Gold Coast. It had its Aussie Muster Farm Show, which included horse riding, cow milking and wool spinning.

The hotel, which also has an international school, has an 18- hole golf course, 11 tennis courts, four swimming pools, a skydiving school and ultralight planes.

An elementary school student said some Indonesian students studied at the school, which offered Indonesian as a subject. The boy then began counting in Indonesian, "satu, dua, tiga."

Whenever I met other Asian tourists, I saw delight on their faces after they experienced the Australian traditions.

I realized that even things which are simple but unique, like sheering sheep and spinning wool, could become tourist attractions if managed professionally.