tourism australia indigenous

Australia Recommends 2024

Come and Say G'day

G'day, the short film

Discover your Australia

Travel videos

Deals and offers

Australian Capital Territory

New South Wales

Northern Territory

South Australia

Western Australia

External Territories

The Whitsundays

Mornington Peninsula

Port Douglas

Ningaloo Reef

Airlie Beach

Kangaroo Island

Rottnest Island

Hamilton Island

Lord Howe Island

Tiwi Islands

Phillip Island

Bruny Island

Margaret River

Barossa Valley

The Grampians

Hunter Valley

Yarra Valley

McLaren Vale

Glass House Mountains

Alice Springs

Uluru and Kata Tjuta

The Kimberley

Flinders Ranges

Kakadu National Park

Eyre Peninsula

Karijini National Park

Great Barrier Reef

Blue Mountains

Daintree Rainforest

Great Ocean Road

Purnululu National Park

Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park

Litchfield National Park

Aboriginal experiences

Arts and culture

Festivals and events

Food and drink

Adventure and sports

Walks and hikes

Road trips and drives

Beaches and islands

Nature and national parks

Eco-friendly travel

Health and wellness

Family travel

Family destinations

Family road trips

Backpacking

Work and holiday

Beginner's guide

Accessible travel

Planning tips

Trip planner

Australian budget guide

Itinerary planner

Find a travel agent

Find accommodation

Find transport

Visitor information centres

Deals and travel packages

Visa and entry requirements FAQ

Customs and biosecurity

Working Holiday Maker visas

Facts about Australia

Experiences that will make you feel like an Aussie

People and culture

Health and safety FAQ

Cities, states & territories

Iconic places and attractions

When is the best time to visit Australia?

Seasonal travel

Events and festivals

School holidays

Public holidays

How to get to Australia's most iconic cities

How long do I need for my trip to Australia?

How to travel around Australia

Guide to driving in Australia

How to hire a car or campervan

How to plan a family road trip

How to plan an outback road trip

Voyages Indigenous Tourism, Mossman Gorge Centre, Queensland © Tourism Australia

Unique Aboriginal guided walks in Australia

• Share Share on Facebook Share on Messenger Share on Twitter Share on WhatsApp Copy Link

Ancient caves, rock engravings, native wildlife and oyster foraging. Experience it all during these immersive, First Nations guided walks in Australia.

By Amy Fraser

The Daintree Rainforest , about two hours north of Cairns, is – in a word – breathtaking. This World Heritage-listed site is home to the Kuku Yalanji people, to whom the rainforest is more than trees and vines; contained within its canopy are traditional medicines, delicious native foods and sacred stories. Join a full or half-day guided Ngadiku Dreamtime Walk to meander through this enchanting environment, learning about ancient traditions – from medicinal plant use to foraging techniques and ochre painting. The tour begins with a traditional smoking ceremony.

Aboriginal rock art is one of the oldest forms of art in the world, so witnessing these ancient depictions is like looking straight into another time. Some of Australia’s most impressive Indigenous artworks can be found in South Australia’s Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park , a mecca for Aboriginal cultural sites including the Sacred Canyon, home to the Adnyamathanha ‘rock’ people. On a Yura Malka Cultural Walk from Wilpena Pound Resort, you can discover the rock engravings of the Sacred Canyon, while your guide talks through the significance of the site to the Adnyamathanha people.

The traditional custodians of the Dampier Peninsula, the Bardi (land) and Jawi (island) people, have been working with their natural environment for tens of thousands of years, using sustainable hunting techniques, fishing practices and bush ingredients for both food and medicinal purposes. Here, about two hours north of Broome , you can combine a cultural experience with world-class seafood. The Borrgoron Coast to Creek Tour at Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm will open your eyes to this unique Aboriginal culture that revolves around the land and sea. Join Bardi Jawi man Terry Hunter on a walk across the farm, where you’ll put your learnings to practice as you forage for fresh oysters.

Borrgoron Coast to Creek Tours

https://www.cygnetbaypearlfarm.com.au/borrgoron-coast-to-creek-tours/

Lutruwita ( Tasmania ) is steeped in First Nations culture, and one of the best ways to experience it is by traversing the land with a local palawa guide. wukalina Walk is more than a walk; it’s a spiritual, cultural and physical journey. On this experience, you’ll be invited to ‘takara waranta’ (walk with us) across your guides’ homeland in Tasmania's east, including remarkable sites such as the Bay of Fires and Mt William National Park. Expect four incredible days of luxury accommodation and native food alongside cultural activities, wildlife encounters and breathtaking landscapes.

Looking for an experience you can’t find anywhere in the world? Among Australia’s fascinating ancient landscapes is the phenomenal Cutta Cutta Caves National Park, just 30 minutes south of the Northern Territory’s Katherine. Just like many things in this country, these tropical cave systems – formed millions of years ago – are unique to Australia, as is the array of wildlife that calls them home. Wander deep into the caves on a one-hour guided tour with Nitmiluk Tours to feast your eyes on dazzling limestone formations while you listen to the history of this remarkable ecosystem.

Cutta Cutta Caves Nature Park Tour

https://www.nitmiluktours.com.au/cultural-experiences/cultural-tours/cutta-cutta-caves-nature-park/

Worn Gundidj at Tower Hill is a must-stop along the Great Ocean Road . A guided walk through the nature reserve offers more than just close-up encounters with iconic Australian animals, but a glance into 65,000 years of the Gunditjmara Aboriginal culture, the Traditional Custodians of this land. If that doesn’t blow you away, the landscape will. Tower Hill is one of Victoria’s oldest dormant volcanoes, believed to have erupted over 32,000 years ago – an event known to have been witnessed by the Gunditjamara people. Immerse yourself in the history on a two-hour walk, where you’ll learn to identify native plants, meet wildlife such as koalas, kangaroos and echidnas, and learn to throw a returning boomerang.

Even in the heart of Australian cities, you can experience the wonders of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens are home to stunning native plants and traditional bush foods – not to mention unparalleled views of the harbour. Embark on a one-hour Aboriginal Bush Tucker Tour to learn about native plants and bush foods used by the Traditional Custodians of Gadigal Land. Afterwards, you’ll be served traditional damper bread and tea – the perfect way to round off your urban First Nations experience.

There’s nothing quite like the sight of the National Arboretum’s immaculate landscape; a scene that encapsulates the connection between nature, culture and education in Canberra . Across 250 hectares sits over 44,000 endangered trees, an abundance of native Australian plants – commonly used in Indigenous cultures – innovative sculptures and forest walking trails galore. Join an experience with Ngala Tours to connect with the National Arboretum’s fascinating landscape. Listen to ancient stories of the forest, weave native plants into a piece of art, and gain a greater understanding of the benefits of bush ingredients for medicinal and culinary purposes.

More articles like this

We use cookies on this site to enhance your user experience.  Find out more . By clicking any link on this page you are giving your consent for us to set cookies.

Acknowledgement of Country

We acknowledge the Traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Owners of the land, sea and waters of the Australian continent, and recognise their custodianship of culture and Country for over 60,000 years.

• International (English)
• New Zealand (English)
• Canada (English)
• United Kingdom (English)
• India (English)
• Malaysia (English)
• Singapore (English)
• Indonesia (Bahasa Indonesia)
• Deutschland (Deutsch)
• France (Français)
• Italia (Italiano)
• 中国大陆 (简体中文)

*Product Disclaimer:  Tourism Australia is not the owner, operator, advertiser or promoter of the listed products and services. Information on listed products and services, including Covid-safe accreditations, are provided by the third-party operator on their website or as published on Australian Tourism Data Warehouse where applicable. Rates are indicative based on the minimum and maximum available prices of products and services. Please visit the operator’s website for further information. All prices quoted are in Australian dollars (AUD). Tourism Australia makes no representations whatsoever about any other websites which you may access through its websites such as australia.com. Some websites which are linked to the Tourism Australia website are independent from Tourism Australia and are not under the control of Tourism Australia. Tourism Australia does not endorse or accept any responsibility for the use of websites which are owned or operated by third parties and makes no representation or warranty in relation to the standard, class or fitness for purpose of any services, nor does it endorse or in any respect warrant any products or services by virtue of any information, material or content linked from or to this site.

25 July 2022

Training gives Indigenous people a pathway into tourism

First Nations cultures are a unique drawcard for Australian tourism. 

Before the pandemic, interest in Indigenous tourism experiences was growing strongly. According to Tourism Research Australia, 2.5 million Australian and international visitors took part in an Indigenous tourism experience in 2019. This was a 42% increase over 2013.

The national long-term  THRIVE 2030 Strategy  prioritises First Nations participation in the visitor economy. To achieve this, the sector needs more Indigenous-owned businesses and more trained Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff.

Working in tourism can help First Nations people to stay on country and earn an income while sharing their culture and traditions. Visitors benefit from authentic immersive experiences they cannot get anywhere else in the world.

These organisations are working to attract, train and retain First Nations people in the visitor economy.

NITA: Changing lives by empowering First Nations people

On the lands of the Anangu lies the National Indigenous Training Academy (NITA). NITA has been helping young Indigenous Australians forge careers in tourism and hospitality since 2011.

Both NITA and the Ayers Rock Resort are divisions of Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia (Voyages). Trainees gain valuable practical experience while doing an accredited course in tourism and hospitality, retail, or landscaping.

First Nations people come from all over Australia to train at NITA. The Academy has focused on building relationships with the local Indigenous community. It aims to attract more Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara into its courses.

Expanding into new territory

Voyages also opened a training site at Mossman Gorge on Kuku Yalanji country in 2011.

The Mossman Gorge site gives Kuku Yalanji people the opportunity to train in tourism and hospitality while gaining practical experience. Tourism trainees work as tour guides, conducting Dreamtime walks, tea ceremonies and Welcome to Country.

Hospitality trainees gain on-the-job experience in the area’s leading resorts and hotels.

Transitioning into employment

To date, 610 First Nations people have graduated from NITA’s courses. They have transitioned into the visitor economy workforce.

Once trainees have graduated, both sites provide employment opportunities. The Ayers Rock Resort is one of Australia’s largest employers of Indigenous hospitality staff.

In fact, NITA reached a special milestone in 2022. Four of its first graduates celebrated 10 years of working at the Ayers Rock Resort.

NITA graduates have also gained employment in NITA and Voyages itself.

Accor: Supporting First Nations talent

Hotel chain Accor is committed to cultural tourism and Indigenous careers.

It introduced an Indigenous Employment Strategy in 2001. The program aims to increase engagement and employment for talented individuals in Australia’s Indigenous communities.

The program ramped up in 2015, when Accor received Government assistance to support pathways to employment for Indigenous Australians.

Today, First Nations people make up nearly 4% of the workforce across Accor’s hotel network. Almost a third of them are under 25, and more than two-thirds are women.

Building relationships with Indigenous communities

Accor’s specialist Indigenous recruitment team works to build strong relationships with local Indigenous communities. This ensures potential talent is aware of the career opportunities Accor offers.

Accor’s Indigenous Careers Program is a 4-day learn, train and trial program. It introduces prospective employees to the organisation and the industry.

Once employed, Indigenous staff can benefit from a full suite of training and development opportunities. They include mentoring, industry certification and leadership development training.

In its most recent Leadership Development Programs, Indigenous team members made up 15% of leadership training participants. Accor has appointed 2 Indigenous hotel general managers since 2016.

Learn more about the priority to grow a secure and resilient workforce at  THRIVE 2030 Strategy .

Related news

Austrade grant helps tathra eco camp take flight.

Tathra Beach Eco Camp has emerged as a triumph after bushfire – helped by the Australian Government Caravan Parks Grant Program that Austrade runs.

Tourism and travel support

$48 million for tourism and travel to support tourism sector recovery.

Cultural insights help tourism businesses welcome Indian visitors

India is one of Australia’s fastest growing tourism markets. Tourism businesses can realise the potential of the Indian market by learning about travellers’ culture and service expectations.

Footer content

I spent the past year taking Aboriginal tours - here's what I learned

Apr 22, 2021 • 5 min read

Aboriginal culture is one of the oldest in the world © Culture Connect

As a non-Indigenous Australian with much to learn about our nation’s First People, I saw the past year (with the country's international travel ban) as an opportunity to support the travel industry while learning from its leaders. 

We’re talking about people who coexisted with three-ton marsupials and lizards as big as cars . People who were baking bread 18,000 years before the Egyptians . And people who were likely to have been the world’s first astronomers . So as domestic travel restrictions began to ease in Australia , I hit the road to discover some of the secrets of the world’s oldest living culture.

Indigenous tourism rebooted

While the promotion of Indigenous tourism hasn’t always done the best job of showcasing an authentic version of Aboriginal culture, the industry has come a long way since it began to take off in the 1990s.

From discovering the Dreaming stories connected to the twinkling canopy above Uluru in the Northern Territory to bedding down at an award-winning Aboriginal-run ecolodge on Western Australia ’s Dampier Peninsula, there are now hundreds of incredible Aboriginal-owned, run and supported tourism experiences available in every corner of the country, including more than 185 in Tourism Australia’s Discover Aboriginal Experiences collective alone.

A not-for-profit launched nationally in 2020 with a vision to enable prosperity in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities through tourism, booking platform Welcome to Country has made it even easier to plan memorable – and sustainable – Indigenous tourism activities.

Connecting with Country

On the New South Wales South Coast , Brinja-Yuin woman Trisha Ellis reveals why the ancient shell midden that covers Bingi Bingi Point isn’t just an indicator that this place was once the region’s most popular seafood restaurant. It’s also an early example of sustainable farming.

“When Yuin people came back to the coast after the cold season, they’d choose two or three shellfish species to eat, and leave the rest alone,” says Trisha, who offers walking tours and cultural awareness training through her business Minga Aboriginal Experiences . “When the next lot came along, they’d look at the midden to see what people had been eating, and choose a different species to eat so the others could regenerate. Instead of trying to control the environment like European farmers, we let nature do the work for us.”

On a two-hour walk on a section of the Bingi Dreaming Track – an ancient wayfaring pathway linking significant Yuin sites – Trisha reveals the myriad ways her ancestors have lived in harmony with this wild stretch of the Eurobodalla Coast, where sapphire blue seas pound deserted golden beaches, for more than 20,000 years. From the bright magenta fruiting bodies of the pigface plant that taste like a pleasantly salty kiwifruit, to the controlled burns that ensured a plentiful supply of wildlife to hunt around the calendar, there’s so much to know.

At the other end of Australia’s east coast, on the doorstep of the World Heritage-listed Daintree Rainforest in Far North Queensland , Kuku Yalanji man Aaron Port, a guide with Walkabout Cultural Adventures , schools me in the art of using a traditional spear to catch my own mud crab – the ultimate bush tucker feast – or would have been, if the crab we found was large enough to sustainably harvest. But I soon learn that our tropical surroundings are bursting with snacks so tasty, it’s a challenge to abide by the Aboriginal custom of taking only what I need from nature.

Further north, near Cooktown, Balnggarrawarra man Vince Harrigan, a guide with Culture Connect , led me on a bushwalk to a series of beautifully persevered ancient rock art galleries few non-Indigenous people have ever clapped eyes on. Before we enter the site, Vince calls out to his ancestor spirits in language to announce our arrival – a tradition highlighting the deep connection Indigenous Australians have with their Elders that transcends the physical realm.

See Australia differently

Back home in northern New South Wales , Arakwal-Bundjalung woman Delta Kay recently launched a series of cultural and bush tucker walks. Despite being familiar with local Aboriginal culture and history, I was gobsmacked to learn during Delta’s Byron Bay walking tour that the Bundjalung word for my hometown is not Cavanbah, as it has always been known by non-Indigenous locals, but Gabanbaa, the proper pronunciation having long-been lost in translation. From Delta’s moving Welcome to Country to the evocative Dreaming stories she shares, this walking tour grounds me to this land in a way that Byron’s gamut of wellness gurus could only hope to master.

I’m currently in the midst of planning an adventure to Queensland’s northern tip to get a taste of Torres Strait Islander culture, and having just finished reading renowned Aboriginal author Bruce Pascoe’s latest book, Loving Country: A Guide to Sacred Australia , an Aboriginal-guided tour of the 40,000-year-old fish traps of Brewarrina in central-northern New South Wales is now high on my list.

At times Aboriginal guides are unable to go into more depth about particular Dreaming stories or significant sites for cultural reasons. And with English a second, third or even fourth language for some guides, particularly in remote areas, communication can sometimes be a challenge. But this is all part of the Indigenous Australian cultural experience. I’ve also been lucky to participate in some transformative non-Indigenous Australian tourism experiences in my time, but there’s something incredibly special about exploring Australia with a Traditional Custodian that every traveler should experience at least once. Now, more than ever, the takeaways are invaluable.

You might also like:

Learning from Australia’s Indigenous storytellers Unforgettable road trips on Australia’s East Coast Australia's 10 best road trips

Explore related stories

Jan 16, 2022 • 10 min read

Australia has an abundance of choice when it comes to beaches where nudism is legal and accepted. Check out our list of the best nude beaches in Australia.

Mar 31, 2021 • 8 min read

Mar 31, 2021 • 6 min read

Sep 28, 2020 • 5 min read

Sep 24, 2020 • 7 min read

Aug 8, 2020 • 5 min read

Aug 6, 2020 • 6 min read

Jun 16, 2020 • 7 min read

Mar 4, 2024 • 8 min read

Feb 27, 2024 • 6 min read

• Areas of Focus

You are here

First nations tourism.

NIAA is supporting the sustainability and growth of the First Nations tourism sector. Sharing cultural experiences with tourists can boost economic activity and employment opportunities for First Nations peoples, including in regional and remote communities. It can also contribute to reconciliation efforts and support First Nations peoples maintain connection to Country.

NIAA is collaborating with partners on a range of initiatives, developed in consultation with the sector, focused on growing the size and number of First Nations owned tourism businesses across Australia.

Direct assistance for First Nations Tourism

Grants for first nations tourism operators.

Tourism grant opportunities have been provided to assist First Nations owned businesses and community organisations to invest in new equipment, develop new and extend existing activities, plan for future opportunities and strengthen marketing in the tourism sector.

Through two grant opportunities $9 million has been offered to support First Nations tourism operators. These grants have been capped at $50,000 for First Nations owned tourism businesses and $100,000 for First Nations community organisations.

For a list of organisations recommended for funding through NIAA’s second tourism grant opportunity, refer to: Tourism Grants for Indigenous Business – Round 2 Funding Offers .

This will be the final tourism grant opportunity available through this program.

First Nations Tourism Mentoring Program

The First Nations Tourism Mentoring Program will offer place-based, tailored services from industry experts, to support First Nations tourism businesses across the country. The program will assist operators take full advantage of the increasing market for visitors interested in experiencing cultural tourism activities.

The program has been developed after a comprehensive design process involving First Nations tourism stakeholders. First Nations tour operators and industry experts, across the country, contributed on the needs and challenges facing the sector. Their input has shaped how the program will deliver support across urban, regional and remote Australia.

The program is expected to offer mentoring services from the second half of 2023. First Nations tourism businesses interested in mentoring support can register at www.fntmp.com.au

Strategic First Nations Tourism Projects

The Australian Government will co-invest with state and territories in large scale First Nations tourism projects. This will stimulate and strengthen the economic participation of First Nations peoples and communities in the Visitor Economy.

Each co-investment will be delivered in partnership with State and Territory Governments. Projects selected will align with each jurisdiction's First Nations tourism priorities and have the support of local community and Traditional Owners. The projects will help to increase the supply of First Nations tourism experiences and may also create supply chain opportunities for First Nations tourism businesses and organisations.

NIAA is working with State and Territory Governments to confirm arrangements for the co-investment opportunity.

Elevating First Nations Participation in Visitor Economy

The Australian Government's strategic priorities in the visitor economy include a focus on increasing the involvement of First Nations peoples in the sector, recognising its role in advancing self-determination and supporting employment and economic opportunities for First Nations peoples. NIAA is working with the Australian Trade and Investment Commission, along with states and territories to increase opportunities for First Nations peoples to participate and lead discussions about tourism policy and programs.

Priorities for this dialogue will include:

• Respectfully embedding First Nations cultures throughout the visitor economy, promoting universal respect for First Nations ownership and cultural knowledge.
• Considerations of new, and expanded support for existing, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander owned and operated tourism enterprises.
• Promoting access to increase mentoring opportunities and foster improved training and workforce opportunities.

More information

For further information on First Nations Tourism please email [email protected] .

Latest News

Supporting a diverse First Nations tourism sector: Wijingarra Tours

Tourism Grants for Indigenous Business is Now Open

National Indigenous Tourism Mentoring Program

Related News

Tourism grants for Indigenous business round 2 – applicants offered funding agreements

Tourism Grants for Indigenous Business – Grant Opportunity Guidelines

Indigenous Tourism Fund: Discussion Paper

Related Resources

12 Meaningful Ways to Experience Indigenous Culture in Australia

Get to know the world’s oldest continuously living culture through these dozen enlightening (and fun) tours..

• Copy Link copied

There are a number of ways to connect with Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander culture all across Australia.

Courtesy of Wula Gura Nyinda Eco Cultural Adventures

Despite a (very disappointing) failed referendum in October that would have given Indigenous peoples greater political representation, Australia hasn’t completely turned its back on the world’s oldest living cultures. Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders have been on the continent for more than 65,000 years, a lasting heritage represented by 250 distinct language groups. Thankfully, Indigenous tourism is alive and well and actively promoted by Tourism Australia , a government agency. Its curated list includes some 168 experiences offered by 45 businesses, a mix of tour operators, storytellers, activities, guides, and accommodations in every region. How to choose?

We know AFAR readers seek meaningful connections to places and people. They want to authentically engage with Indigenous cultures, listen to their stories, and view the world through their eyes. So two of our most frequent Australia travelers reviewed the tourism board’s list, and cross-referenced it with our own, to surface 12 of the best Indigenous-owned, -operated, and -acknowledged experiences in Australia. Here’s how to enjoy ancient rock-art safaris, bush tucker, Dreaming (creation) stories, desert stargazing, and more.

Cicada Lodge serves as the perfect base from which to explore Nitmiluk Gorge National Park.

Courtesy of Cicada Lodge

1. Check into Cicada Lodge and explore with Nitmulik Tours

• Location: Gorge Rd., Katherine, Northern Territory | Find on Google Maps
• Book now: From $285 per night. nitmiluktours.com

Owned and operated by Jawoyn Traditional Custodians, Cicada Lodge , about 215 miles southeast of Darwin in the Northern Territory’s Top End (far north), makes the perfect base for exploring Nitmiluk National Park . The Jawoyn-owned park is an Edenic land of waterfalls, river systems, millennia-old rock paintings, secluded water holes, and 13 gorges. The park’s most famous, Nitmiluk Gorge (formerly known as Katherine Gorge), is marked by towering cliffs and a river wide and deep enough to cruise. The eco-lodge’s 18 rooms have polished timber floors and balconies—some with panoramic views of the sandstone landscape above Nitmiluk Gorge—and also feature paintings and carved works by local Aboriginal artists. There’s an outdoor pool for splashing around after a sweaty day adventuring in the Outback with its sister company Nitmiluk Tours , which offers guided gorge exploration.

Lords Kakadu and Arnhem Land Safaris is able to take visitors to areas of the Northern Territory that are normally inaccessible to other tour companies by getting permission from Traditional land owners.

Courtesy of Vladimir Haltakov/Unsplash

2. See ancient rock art with Lords Arnhem Land and Kakadu Safaris

• Location: Arnhem Land | Find on Google Maps
• Book now: Because tours are custom-tailored, prices vary. lords-safaris.com

Best known for its beauty, isolation, and outstanding rock art, Arnhem Land (a vast wilderness area in the Northern Territory) is one of the largest Indigenous-owned reserves in Australia. It’s perhaps one of the last few places in Australia where Indigenous culture is still dominant. Like Arnhem Land next door, the UNESCO World Heritage–listed Kakadu National Park is also a place of immense cultural, religious, and social significance to the local Aboriginal people.

The terrain in the Top End switches from floodplains and rock escarpments to woodlands, waterfalls, and vine-filled monsoonal rain forests—and the diversity of wildlife is extraordinary. (To wit: Visitors can encounter wallabies, wallaroos, quolls, dingoes, bats, goannas, frogs, pythons, saltwater crocodiles, and 280 species of birds.)

Sab Lord, owner and expert guide at Lords Arnhem Land and Kakadu Safaris , based in Darwin, provides some of the best tours of this culturally rich destination thanks in part to his strong working relationship with local Indigenous groups. At Injalak Hill, for instance, Lord employs Aboriginal guides who originally hail from the area. The small outfitter offers three-, four-, and five-day private safaris to Arnhem Land and Kakadu National Park. Guests will encounter wildlife—even crocs—up close, discover a pristine waterfall, swim in crystalline water surrounded by towering rock walls, visit an Aboriginal sacred site, and gaze at rock art estimated to be between 6,000 and 9,400 years old, engraved on overhangs and inside caves.

Depending on the length of the safari, accommodations range from glamping tents at an exclusive, permanent bush camp to comfortable private tent-cabins at a luxury safari lodge. All itineraries are bespoke, with prices available on request.

Uluru, one of the country’s most recognizable landmarks, is a sacred site to many Indigenous Australian communities.

Courtesy of Antoine Fabre/Unsplash

3. Try high-end bush tucker at Ayers Rock Resort

• Location: 170 Yulara Dr., Yulara, Northern Territory | Find on Google Maps
• Book now: From $350 per night. ayersrockresort.com

“Bush tucker” is an Aussie term that refers to native foods and medicinal plants that Indigenous peoples in Australia have been eating and using for 60,000 years. Long disparaged by European settlers, dishes made of bush tomatoes, lemon myrtle, kakadu plums, desert lime, quandong, green ants, crocodile, emu, and kangaroo now take center stage in fine-dining establishments across the country. In particular, Uluru, formerly known as Ayers Rock, has been earning a reputation in foodie circles as the bush tucker gastronomy capital of Australia. Ayers Rock Resort , adjacent to Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park , offers gourmet bush tucker dinner experiences paired with modern retellings of the Dreaming stories.

The Wintjiri Wiru Sunset Dinner takes place in an open-air theater atop a dune overlooking Uluru and the many domes of Kata Tjuta, a group of rock formations formerly known at the Olgas. It’s an apt name since Wintjiri Wiru means “beautiful view out to the horizon” in the local Pitjantjatjara language. Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia created this experience in consultation with Indigenous chefs. The makers acknowledge that “as custodians of the land, the Anangu hold the Mala story from Kaltukatjara to Uluru. To share their story from Kaltukatjara to Uluru, RAMUS designed and produced an artistic platform using drones , light, and sound to create an immersive storytelling experience.”

During the dinner, guests arrive to cocktails with bush-tucker infusions of lemon myrtle, desert lime, or mulga berries and sit down to a gourmet dinner hamper filled with foods like smoked emu with saltbush chili crust. Once the sun drops over the rocks, it’s time for the show: Wintjiri Wiru is a new state-of-the-art sound-and-light show that tells the ancient story of the Mala (rufous hare-wallaby) people who came to Uluru, with choreographed drones, lasers, and projections creating an immersive and contemporary rendition of the spiritual story.

“Karrke” is the word in the Aranda language for “bower bird,” a striking species with blue-black plumage that lives in Kings Canyon and throughout Central Australia.

Courtesy of Philippe Wuyts/Unsplash

4. Go on a guided walk-and-talk with Karrke Cultural Experience and Tours

• Location: Wanmara, Petermann, Northern Territory | Find on Google Maps
• Book now: $63 for adults, $30 for children. karrke.com

A three-hour drive from Uluru takes you to the magnificent red rock formations of Kings Canyon and Watarrka National Park , parts of which are sacred for the local Indigenous peoples. Established in 2014, Indigenous-owned and -operated Karrkke Cultural Experience and Tours , on the southeastern fringes of the park, offers one-hour guided walk-and-talks about bush tucker foods, dot painting, and Indigenous artifacts. Owners Peter Abbott, his partner Christine Breaden, and his sister Natasha Abbott sit with participants in a shaded area to talk about native foods—edible tree seeds and grass seeds, witchetty grub (moth larva) and honey ants—in addition to medicinal plants and how they’re used by the local Luritja and Pertame peoples of Central Australia. They also explain the cultural significance of the patterns in dot art and show off local crafts made of wood or seeds, such as music sticks, clap sticks, seed necklaces, bracelets, and weapons.

Woormulla Ecocultural Journeys share stories and histories with guests that have been passed down for hundreds of generations.

5. Learn about the Dreaming with Wula Gura Nyinda Eco Cultural Adventures

• Location: Denham, Western Australia | Find on Google Maps
• Book now: From $60 per adult, 30 per child. wulagura.com

Owned and operated by Darren “Capes” Capewell, a descendant of the Nhanda and Malgana people, Wula Gura Nyinda Eco Cultural Adventures is based in idyllic Shark Bay, 500 miles north of Perth. Translation: It’s a two-hour flight, or an eight-hour drive up National Route 1, or a slightly longer scenic ride along State Route 60, which hugs the Indian Ocean coastline up to the Coral Coast. The “ Coral Coast Highway ” is said to be one of the most beautiful drives on earth.

Capewell, who also works as a guide, runs a range of outdoor tours: kayaking and wildlife, standup paddle boarding, camping, and an evening experience. The “ Didgeridoo Dreaming Night Tour ” combines Dreaming stories of how Earth and life on the planet came to be, and the ancient tribal tones of the didgeridoo under a blanket of stars, accompanied by tastings of seafood and bush tucker. (Note that in some Indigenous cultures, only men play the didgeridoo; women and children are offered a traditional conch shell to play.)

6. See the night sky with Wooramulla Eco Cultural Journeys

• Location: Carnarvon, Western Australia | Find on Google Maps
• Book now: From $80 for adults, $40 for children. wooramulla.com

Wooramulla Eco Cultural Journeys , owned by Yinggarda guide Rennee, is located in Carnarvon, 550 miles from Perth, or a little beyond Shark Bay. Rennee provides a variety of fun, educational tours aimed at sharing Yinggarda culture and customs. One shows visitors how hidden claypans erupt in the spring with the crazed mating of burrowing bees. Another tells the Ant Dreaming story at the spiritually significant Honeycomb Gorge (Mingah Munda), where she also points out hidden petroglyphs and other traces of her ancestors. During her Murroo Nungnah (Go See the Night) experience, she shares Yinggarda Dreaming stories of the night sky accompanied by Billy tea—a traditional Aussie campfire tea blended with Kooloo red leaf tea—and damper, a simple but classic bread.

Baiyungu Dreaming founder Hazel Walgar is one of the Traditional owners of the Ningaloo Coast.

Courtesy of Andrew Tom/Unsplash

7. Visit the Ningaloo Coast World Heritage Area with Baiyungu Dreaming

• Location: Ningaloo Coast, Western Australia | Find on Google Maps
• Book now: From $30 adults, $20 children, age five and under free. baiyungudreaming.com

The Ningaloo Coast, 800 miles north of Perth, is the site of the UNESCO-listed Ningaloo Reef , the world’s largest fringing coral reef, as well as the Ningaloo Coast World Heritage Area . It’s a place of impossible beauty and stark contrasts between the parched, rugged landscape of Cape Range National Park’s gorges and escarpments, the white-sand beaches of the coastline, and the clear, highlighter-blue waters of Ningaloo Reef. Home to whales, dolphins, manta rays, orcas, sharks, turtles, tuna, and more, it is also a place of immense biodiversity.

With Hazel Walgar’s tour company Baiyungu Dreaming , visitors to Ningaloo can see the coast through an Aboriginal lens. Launched in 2020, Baiyungu is the first Indigenous tourism operator on the Ningaloo Coast. Having worked on the Ningaloo archaeological project, excavating Indigenous artifacts found in the Western Australian desert, Hazel takes visitors to Coral Bay and into Cape Range National Park to see a shell midden littered with signs of early Aboriginal occupation. She also teaches her clients how to dig for fresh drinking water in the sand dunes, takes them to a sheltered turtle nursery, and tells the Dreaming story of the octopus and how Five Finger Reef was formed. During her Coral Bay sunset tour , guests sit around the campfire sipping Billy tea and munching freshly baked damper (bread) as Hazel recounts Dreaming stories and talks about her work on the Ningaloo archaeological project.

The Borrgoron’s Coast to Creek Tour explores the Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm family’s four-generation-long history in the area.

Courtesy of Marty Southwell/Unsplash

8. Forage for fresh oysters with Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm

• Location: Dampier Peninsula, Western Australia | Find on Google Maps
• Book now: $55 adult, $20 children. cygnetbaypearlfarm.com

The traditional custodians of the Dampier Peninsula, the Bardi (land) and Jawi (island) peoples, have been working with their natural environment for tens of thousands of years, using sustainable hunting techniques, fishing practices, and bush tucker for both food and medicinal purposes. Here, about two hours north of Broome , you can combine a cultural experience with world-class seafood.

Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm’s Borrgoron’s Coast to Creek Tour will open your eyes to the local culture that revolves around the land and sea. A two-hour walking tour (some level of fitness required) takes you through mangroves and over the rocks of King Sound at low tide, where you’ll be able to put your learnings to practice as you forage for fresh oysters. Pair this with a pearl discovery tour, “sea safari,” or sunset dinner cruise.

Guests stay in Aboriginal-inspired lodgings during a trip on the wukalina walk, one of the Discover Aboriginal Experiences in Australia.

Photo by Adam Gibson

9. Hike Tasmania’s rugged coast on the wukalina Walk

• Location: palawa Country, 163 St. John St., Launceston, Tasmania | Find on Google Maps
• Book now: From $1,845. wukalinawalk.com

“Completely owned and operated by Tasmania’s Indigenous palawa community, the four-day, three-night wukalina Walk is a unique way to explore the island’s rugged northeast coast and gain insight into Australia’s Aboriginal heritage,” writes AFAR contributor Eric Rosen . ( Note: The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre has reconstructed an Indigenous language, now called palawa kani , using only lowercase.) “My journey began with a hike to the peak of wukalina (aka Mount William). Six fellow travelers and I enjoyed a picnic lunch with views stretching from the Furneaux Islands in the north to the Bay of Fires in the south. A few hours later, we tramped into Krakani Lumi, a secluded camp a few hundred feet from the shore. Eco-chalets were inspired by traditional palawa huts, with pitch-black walls and domed interiors. The next morning, we walked along the white-sand beach to shell middens where ancient clans came to feast.

“Before a final goodbye back in Launceston, I spoke to Clyde Mansell, the community elder who spent over 15 years setting up the wukalina walk. ‘The experience and scenery are just beautiful packaging,’ he said. ‘The real purpose of the walk is to keep the community’s young people engaged with our culture and provide them with jobs in hospitality.’”

Dreamtime Dive and snorkel was given an Advanced Eco accreditation by Ecotourism Australia, which means that the company operates with little impact on the local environment.

Courtesy of GeoNadir/Unsplash

10. Snorkel the Great Barrier Reef with Dreamtime Dive and Snorkel

• Location: Dreamtime Dive & Snorkel Wharf, Reef Fleet Terminal, 1 Spence St., Cairns City, Queensland | Find on Google Maps
• Book now: $140 adult, $90 children, age three and under free. dreamtimedive.com

“Some 70 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups have a continuing connection to the world’s largest coral reef system, and in 2018, Dreamtime Dive and Snorkel launched trips led by Indigenous Sea Rangers who share cultural knowledge passed down from their ancestors,” writes AFAR contributor Sarah Reid . During the day trips from Cairns to the Outer Barrier Reef, “guests listen to evocative creation stories about how the reef came to be, and learn about hunting practices, such as seasonal harvesting, that have safeguarded the reef’s biodiversity for millennia.” This adventure acknowledges the Gimuy Walubara Yidinji, Mandingalbay Yidinji, Yirrganydji, and Gunggandji cultures.

Worn Gundidj at Tower Hill has been in operation for over 20 years.

Courtesy of Enguerrand Blanchy/Unsplash

11. Go inside Tower Hill volcano with an Indigenous guide

• Location: Unit 2/104 Liebig St., Warrnambool, Victoria | Find on Google Maps
• Book now: $55 adults, $10 children (under 12). worngundidj.org

Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve sits inside a 30,000-year-old dormant volcano about 170 miles southwest of Melbourne, just north of the Great Ocean Road and the iconic Twelve Apostles, a collection of limestone stacks jutting out of the water. The verdant reserve, once a denuded wasteland thanks to the devastation caused by early settlers, is a haven for Australia’s most iconic species: emus, koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, echidnas. Many of the 200-plus kangaroos and koalas live around the visitor parking lot, so they’re not hard to spot. The parks’ boardwalks, nesting boxes, and bird hides make it easy for bird-watchers to get a glimpse of birds like chestnut teals, musk ducks, and spoonbills.

Worn Gundidj , an Aboriginal social enterprise working in partnership with Tower Hill, offers a two-hour interactive tour. Guides lead visitors around the animals’ natural habitat while providing insight into Indigenous traditions like how to identify edible and medicinal plants and how to properly throw a boomerang.

Wilpena Pound Resort is the only hotel within the boundaries of Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park.

Courtesy of Rowena Shaw/Unsplash

12. Experience a “Welcome to Country” ceremony at Wilpena Pound

• Location: Wilpena Rd., Via Hawker, South Australia | Find on Google Maps
• Book now: From $110 per night. wilpenapound.com

To the local Adnyamathanha people, Ikara, known as Wilpena Pound in English, is a sacred site. A crater-like elevated basin in the remote desert wilderness of South Australia’s Ikara-Flinders Ranges, Ikara is not as well known or instantly recognizable as Uluru, even within Australia, but it’s arguably just as spiritually moving. And at 800 million years old, it’s 250 million years more ancient than Uluru. Ikara is remote —not near any major city or airport, about 275 miles north or a five-hour drive from Adelaide. Once there, getting around is a challenge without a four-wheel drive. It’s also possible to travel by small plane from Adelaide, but it may be necessary to change planes in Port Augusta.

Wilpena Pound Resort , located in South Australia’s Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park , is the only accommodation within the park. While not Indigenous-owned, the resort falls under the aegis of the Traditional Custodians, the Adnyamathanha, who offer guided walks and cultural experiences like a complimentary “Welcome to Country” ceremony. It is normally performed by an Aboriginal Traditional Owner for people visiting their land; visitors may experience a welcome speech, traditional dance, and a smoking ceremony. Other activities include a rock art tour, a tour of Sacred Canyon, or a sunset storytelling experience.

Read Before You Go

Celebrated Australian Indigenous lawyer and author Larissa Behrendt is brilliant at creating engaging, accessible stories with social justice issues at their core. One of her latest novels, After Story (2021), doesn’t even take place in Australia; it follows an Indigenous lawyer and her mother on a rare vacation together, hitting England’s great literary sites. As their trip unfolds and painful memories come to light, we witness Australia’s worst prejudices—and a funny, hopeful outlook on the future of Indigenous culture.

Indigenous tourism presents new opportunities for Australia's travel industry

It’s no big secret that Australian tourism has faced a tough time over the past two years, and now the industry is looking for new ways to create exciting domestic travel experiences

According to Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data , overseas arrivals to Australia dropped from a whopping 2.26 million in January 2020 to just 10,000 by August the same year. It's a drop that presented a major issue for travel operators in the form of tourists who could no longer visit Australia, with international borders closed to contain COVID-19. 

While this sudden lack of international tourists presented a major challenge for Australian tourism operators, a new opportunity was born – catering for the domestic population who were now staying put because of the Australian border closures.

A window of opportunity: the switch from international tourism 

According to Phil Lockyer, Head of Indigenous Affairs at Tourism Australia, grounded Australian travelers have presented a great opportunity for the tourism industry. Domestic travellers – who might have gone jet-setting overseas – were suddenly limited in their own enormous, and rather beautiful, backyard, due to a ban on outgoing trips.

“[The situation] has allowed is for domestic travelers, the Australian population, to jump in their cars, drive and see different parts of the country,” he says to Nick Wailes, Director, AGSM and Deputy Dean at UNSW Business School as a guest on the ‘ Business of Tourism’ – the second episode in The Business of Leadership podcast Season Two, hosted by AGSM at UNSW Business School . 

“[Australians] are traveling to parts of the country they potentially haven't been to before.” 

But the shift in circumstances isn’t just a massive opportunity for the tourism industry, it means there is also increased momentum from the market for Australians to listen to and meaningfully engage with the stories and experiences of Indigenous Australians, suggests Lockyer.

“Indigenous tourism has grown significantly over the last number of years,” says Lockyer to the Business of Leadership audience . “1.4 million international tourists enjoyed an Indigenous experience in 2019 and that has grown each year.” 

A chance to seek connection and understanding

He says that during the period of closed borders, it was the turn of domestic travelers to engage with the great diversity of Indigenous cultures on offer in Australia.  

"Many non-Indigenous people don't have personal connections with Indigenous people, so being able to engage in a tourism experience, which helps better understand their country,” he says. “If engaged in an experience that is potentially somewhere where they live, then they're getting a better sense of their sense of place, and their sense of connection to what this country is about.”

“They want to have an experience, a cultural experience different to what they normally have in this country,” says Lockyer. And he says the best way to do that is to truly engage with Indigenous culture.

“I think there's a sense that non-Indigenous Australians, so whitefellas in this country, want to feel that we are connected, and we are reconciled in a way that can help overcome the challenges of the past, so there can be a healing process for all of us,” he says. 

Read more: How agribusiness could generate opportunities for Indigenous Australians

But he points out that there seemed to be the understanding among non-Indigenous travelers that one had to ‘travel a long way' to get an ‘authentic’ Indigenous Australian experience – something which is not the case.  

“[It] could be in an urban setting like Sydney, or Melbourne. That could be up on the reef in North Queensland you know, in red desert country like Central Australia, the Kimberley, Kakadu, but also in coastal areas like Margaret River, South Coast as well.” 

How can Indigenous tourism benefit communities? 

While Lockyer says that tourism may be ‘a bit behind’ other industries in terms of partnering with Indigenous communities, there are great opportunities for it as a business to partner in meaningful ways with Indigenous communities and entrepreneurs. But he warns that it is easy for businesses to fall into the trap of approaching communities in the wrong way, even in an attempt to do the right thing. 

“Often businesses (and it's not just tourism) talk to Indigenous people, businesses, and communities and go, "This is what we're looking for. Can you help us?", as opposed to really understanding the needs of that community, and building trust with that community, and those individuals, and then identifying from there, what might flow from there,” he says. 

"When you can build that trust, build those relationships, sit down, have a yarn, understand who they are, what their motivations are, you being able to share that, then you're going to build something far more meaningful, and far more authentic, and far more based on joint aspirations and needs.” 

“There are some stories, there are some places that are too sacred to share. That's fine as well.” 

For the full interview, listen to the Business of Tourism episode , or listen to all the Business of Leadership episodes .  

You are free to republish this article both online and in print. We ask that you follow some simple guidelines .

Please do not edit the piece, ensure that you attribute the author, their institute, and mention that the article was originally published on Business Think.

By copying the HTML below, you will be adhering to all our guidelines.

Press Ctrl-C to copy

How mobile app data privacy concerns impact firm performance

Three steps for leaders to harness ai-powered decision-making, what really happens when tourists turn to algorithms for fair pricing, james cameron on how ai will impact creativity and innovation.

We have revealed a unique time capsule of Australia’s first coastal people from 50,000 years ago

Laureate Professor in Archaeology, The University of Western Australia

Professor, California State University, Sacramento

Adjunct associate, The University of Western Australia

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, The University of Western Australia

Adjunct Research Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia

Disclosure statement

Peter Veth receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Kane Ditchfield receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Peter Kendrick was previously employed by the government of Western Australia, and assisted in implementation of the Barrow Island Archaeology Project throughout its field work period. He consults part time as a zoologist and ecologist to Biota Environmental Sciences.

David W. Zeanah and Fiona Hook do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

University of Western Australia provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation AU.

View all partners

Barrow Island, located 60 kilometres off the Pilbara in Western Australia, was once a hill overlooking an expansive coast. This was the northwestern shelf of the Australian continent, now permanently submerged by the ocean.

Our new research, published in Quaternary Science Reviews , shows that Aboriginal people repeatedly lived on portions of this coastal plateau. We have worked closely with coastal Thalanyji Traditional Owners on this island work and also on their sites from the mainland.

This use of the plain likely began 50,000 years ago, and the place remained habitable until rising sea levels cut the island off from the mainland 6,500 years ago.

Read more: People once lived in a vast region in north-western Australia – and it had an inland sea

A unique time capsule

The northwestern shelf and the submerged coastlines of Australia are immensely significant for understanding how and where First Nations people lived before and during the last ice age.

When the last ice age was at its coldest (24,000 to 19,000 years ago), sea levels worldwide were about 130 metres below current levels. As the ice melted, the sea rose rapidly, eventually flooding the connection between Barrow Island and the mainland.

Since Aboriginal people did not occupy the island after this time, the human archaeological record of Barrow Island is a time capsule, unique in Australia. Most other coastal occupation areas from this period are now beneath the sea, but these drowned landscapes were once vast and habitable.

The largest rock shelter on the island is Boodie Cave , one of Western Australia’s oldest archaeological sites. Excavations here revealed evidence of Aboriginal occupation dating back at least 50,000 years.

Read more: Cave dig shows the earliest Australians enjoyed a coastal lifestyle

As sea levels fluctuated through time, the distance from Boodie Cave to the seashore varied significantly. Aboriginal people brought shellfish back to Boodie Cave even when it was many kilometres from the coast.

As the sea rose, people’s diets changed. The quantity of shellfish, crabs, turtles and fish consumed in the cave increased through time.

Aboriginal people here mainly used local, silica-rich limestone for crafting their stone tools. While this material was readily accessible, it blunted easily. Instead, people used thick and hard shells from large Baler sea snails to make knives for butchering turtles and dugong.

43,000 years of exchange

In contrast to the cave deposits, the open-air archaeological sites present a different picture. Three years of systematic field surveys recorded over 4,400 flaked and ground stone artefacts from nearly 50 locations.

Excluding one limestone source, most of these stone tools represent geological sources not found on the island. This means they were made out of rocks more typical of the west Pilbara and Ashburton regions.

The artefacts we’ve found on Barrow Island show that Aboriginal people transported and exchanged stone materials from inland or places now under the sea for over 43,000 years.

We don’t yet know why the artefacts in the cave are so different to the ones found in the open air.

The numerous open sites leave a record of how Aboriginal people adapted to sea-level changes. Both the surface and cave records suggest that Aboriginal people used more local limestone and shell tools as rising sea levels cut off access to the mainland or drowned sources.

Imported stone tools were precious and therefore conserved and heavily used for grinding seeds, working harder materials such as wood, and likely for cutting softer materials such as skins and plant fibre.

While early Aboriginal people continued to use coastal resources, they maintained social networks and exchanges with the mainland. The open sites from Barrow Island provide one line of evidence connecting contemporary Aboriginal people to the now-drowned coastal plains, coastlines and continental islands.

An ancestral connection for Thalanyji peoples

Despite the distance of Barrow Island from the mainland for most of the last 6,500 years, Thalanyji knowledge holders refer to the use of the island from both historic-era fishing activities and as forced labourers in the early pearling industry.

They know the Sea Country between the islands, and the songline connections linking the mainland to the islands. Traditional Owners involved in our project see the artefacts as evidence of their ancestral connection to the island, old coastlines and now drowned coastal plain.

The Barrow Island open-air sites are a significant time capsule, offering unique insights into coastal Aboriginal lifeways over tens of thousands of years.

These sites, combined with the cave records, provide scientists and Traditional Owners with invaluable opportunities to understand and preserve Australia’s rich and deep history.

The authors would like to acknowledge the Buurabalayji Thalanyji Aboriginal Corporation, recognised communally according to their cultural preference, as co-authors of this study.

• Western Australia
• Archaeology
• Australian history
• Aboriginal history
• Stone tools
• First Nations

Biocloud Project Manager - Australian Biocommons

Director, Defence and Security

Opportunities with the new CIEHF

School of Social Sciences – Public Policy and International Relations opportunities

Deputy Editor - Technology

Our Organisation

Our Careers

Tourism Statistics

Industry Resources

Media Resources

Travel Trade Hub

News Stories

Newsletters

Industry Events

Business Events

Tourism statistics

Industry resources

Latest News

More resources.

National Experience Content Initiative

Resources for media

Market Regions

Subscribe to our newsletter

Acknowledgement of Country

We acknowledge the Traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Owners of the land, sea and waters of the Australian continent, and recognise their custodianship of culture and Country for over 60,000 years.

*Disclaimer:  The information on this website is presented in good faith and on the basis that Tourism Australia, nor their agents or employees, are liable (whether by reason of error, omission, negligence, lack of care or otherwise) to any person for any damage or loss whatsoever which has occurred or may occur in relation to that person taking or not taking (as the case may be) action in respect of any statement, information or advice given in this website. Tourism Australia wishes to advise people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent that this website may contain images of persons now deceased.

We use cookies on this site to enhance your user experience. Find out more .

By clicking any link on this page you are giving your consent for us to set cookies.

Historical ties between Indonesia and Australia's top-end illuminated after photo discovery unravels a family mystery

A young man stands on a beach, watching the water.

Behind him is everything he's ever known – his country, his family, the rhythms of life on a small, isolated island.

Ahead? A hazy horizon, and a foreign boat crew about to sail beyond it.

As the tide begins to turn, he has a big decision to make.

Soon he is on the boat, wind whipping his curly dark hair, on a historic, international voyage that's being pieced together for the first time in more than 150 years.

This is a personal story of heartache, lost love, and splintered families.

But it is also sweeping in scale, illuminating a little-known era in the history of the Australian continent, when the first waves of international travel created a web of cross-cultural romance and relations.

"The man in the photos is Dirrikaya, and he was my great-grandfather," says Sylvia Tkac.

"He went overseas and had a family we've never met — and he wasn't the only one.

"So it's like a love story — and it's wild."

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are advised that this article contains images of people who have died.

A photo mystery

The identification of Dirrikaya brings full circle a history mystery triggered by the discovery of a trove of black and white photos in a dusty Italian museum collection in 2011. 

The portraits were taken in the Indonesian port city of Makassar in the 1870s and show a group of Indigenous people from Australia — including a young child.

The photos raised many questions.

Who were the young men, how did they get to South-East Asia, and how many other First Nations people moved overseas prior to contact with British colonisers?

Ms Tkac was at her home at Groote Eylandt on Australia's remote north coast when she first saw the photos broadcast on ABC News in early 2023.

"My cousin Amos rang me and goes, 'Guess what, those photos on ABC are our great-grandfather Dirrikaya.'

"I was so shocked!" she exclaims.

"And he started telling me about how our ancestors had sailed away to Indonesia with the visiting fishermen."

It is impossible to prove beyond doubt that the man in the photos is Dirrikaya. 

But local families say the body markings, physical resemblance and oral history make for a compelling case.

Who was Dirrikaya?

According to family lore, Dirrikaya was a slender teenager when he made the fateful decision to sail overseas.

He was an Anindilyakwa man, who bore scars etched in flesh during coming-of-age ceremonies.

"That scarification, only the men have that, not the women," explains great-grandson Amos Wurramarrba.

"He would have been a strong cultural man."

Dirrikaya's ancestors are believed to have lived on their island archipelago for thousands of years before the Makassans arrived.

Anindilyakwa country covers several islands on the eastern edge of Arnhem Land, a mere 600 kilometres from the Indonesian archipelago.

In the 1600s and 1700s, as the trading of spices and seafood escalated across the Asia-Pacific region, things began to change for tribes across the northern coast.

Waves of Asian fishing crews from Makassar —   the Dutch-run port of the eastern Indonesian island of Sulawesi — began to arrive. Sailing south with the trade winds, they set up camps on local beaches for months to harvest sea cucumber on an industrial scale.

It appears they were cautiously welcomed by local Aboriginal tribes who recognised a mutually beneficial arrangement.

"We gave the Makassans permission to get pearls and trepang [sea cucumber] and in return, they traded cloth and rice and knives and hooks," Ms Tkac explains. 

Over the decades the visits became more regular.

Indonesian words were incorporated into local dialects, and the arrival of the Makassan boats woven into ceremonial dance and rock art still scattered in caves and cliffs.

Romances formed between the visiting fishermen and local women, resulting in babies and complex, cross-cultural family trees.

And, at some point, Aboriginal people started moving overseas with the visiting fishermen.

Among them was Dirrikaya.

'He wanted adventure'

It's thought the men and women who boarded the boats did so voluntarily.

"Think about it – you're on this isolated island, and you're offered the chance to sail away – I think he wanted to go," Ms Tkac says.

"I think Dirrikaya wanted adventure."

Mr Wurramarrba agrees.

"It feels good to be here, in my great-grandfather's footprints," he says, gazing out across the wind-rippled bay from where Dirrikaya departed.

"I think he and the other men that left with him wanted excitement and they wanted to travel.

"But the problem was Dirrikaya didn't tell his family where he was going, so they thought he must have died and were wailing for him."

According to oral history, a total of four Anindilyakwa men set sail with the foreign crew. 

Not long after, the boat docked in the bustling port city of Makassar.

Clues buried in historic documents

Little is known about Dirrikaya's years in Indonesia.

But there's growing evidence that a significant number of Aboriginal people were living there at the time.

In 1824 the Dutch governor-general wrote in his journal of seeing Aboriginal people from Australia walking the streets.

"They are very black, tall in stature, with curly hair, long thin legs, and, in general, are quite well built."

But the black and white photos are the only visual evidence that has surfaced of their presence during   this period.

The studio portraits were taken in Makassar in 1873 by Italian naturalist Odoardo Beccari.

At the time he was travelling through South-East Asia, documenting the mix of people and cultures he encountered.

The same year he took the photos, Mr Beccari wrote in his journal:

"To Makassar come some [boats] every year from northern Australia … and Indigenous Australians are not uncommon in Makassar where you see them moving about in the streets."

His photographs remained buried in the archives of the Pigorini Museum in Rome until 2011 , when they were unearthed by University of Western Australia Professor Jane Lydon.

They're an invaluable piece of historical evidence, according to Monash University Professor Lynette Russell.

She's heading an international research project called  Global Encounters, which is investigating early contacts on the Australian continent .

"This is a story that most people have no idea about, but there is no doubt that Aboriginal people came to Makassar and stayed and had families," she says.

"Some voyaged back to Australia, but others did not.

"I suspect the scale of the movement is probably larger than what we first thought." 

The scenario challenges Australia's national origin story of a continent of landlocked people living in isolation for tens of thousands of years.

Professor Russell — who has Wotjobaluk heritage herself — says the migration north   shows more than a sense of adventure.

"I think the Aboriginal people who decided to join the Makassan fleets showed extraordinary agency and entrepreneurship," she reflects.

"There was obviously also a network of friendships and relationships that developed.

"I think it's extremely likely that there are descendants of Aboriginal people here in Makassar, and descendants of Makassan sailors in Australia."

Family connection lost

According to family history, Dirrikaya lived in Indonesia for several years and had a wife and children.

But the pull of home proved too strong.

"He decided he needed to come home to see his country again and his parents … so he sailed back to Australia," explains Ms Tkac.

It was a tearful reunion. Dirrikaya was back from the dead, and telling strange stories about a land far, far away.

But one thing had changed.

"He had two gold teeth!" reveals Ms Tkac.

"They sparkled in the sun. The family couldn't believe it."

But for Dirrikaya, amid the elation, there was grief.

He had left his wife and children across the ocean.

"He was hoping they would come to see him on the Makassan boats," Ms Tkac explains.

"But he watched the horizon every year when they came, and his wife and children were never there ... he cried for them."

A few years later came a decision that shut down any chance of contact.

As British settlements expanded across northern Australia, resistance to foreign visitors grew, and Australian authorities shut down the Asian trepang trade in 1907 .

"It was very sad for our old people," says Mr Wurramarrba.

"They didn't understand what was going on, and why the Indonesians stopped coming."

"Lots of families were torn apart."

Dirrikaya went on to have a wife and children back at his home on Groote Eylandt, but he never forgot his family in Makassar.

The Wurramarrba family is now on a mission to try to locate Dirrikaya's descendants in Indonesia.

"They're our family," Ms Tkac reflects.

"Who are they, where are they — I want to meet them."

And they are not alone.

Across the ocean, another family searching

The historic port precinct of Makassar is as viscerally different from Groote Eylandt as can be imagined.

A mosque looms over the glistening water.

In the bustling backstreets of Losari Beach vendors crowd the pavement, hustling to sell smokes and sweet biscuits. 

Here, the Aboriginal families from the vast southern land would have stepped off fishing boats and surveyed the scene.

Professor Russell is wandering the laneways tucked behind the waterfront.

"What an overwhelming experience it must have been for them," she marvels.

"To be in this new place, full of different languages and food and smells – I think it's a universal feeling, that desire for adventure and to be outside of your comfort zone."

There are accounts of Aboriginal men living in homes in the area as trusted employees of well-to-do fishing captains.

And buried in the busy streets is a family with their own extraordinary personal story to tell.

Kaharuddin Lewa, who is known as Pak Kahar, and his family are also searching for long-lost relatives.

His great-grandfather was a Makassan fishing captain named Using Daeng Rangka, who had an Aboriginal wife and children during his decades sailing to Australia.

"He liked and respected the Aboriginal people," Pak Kahar explains.

"He wanted to help them, and share with them his Islamic religion."

The family knows that Captain Rangka, an experienced trepang fisherman of the era, had journeyed to Australia dozens of times between 1855 and 1907.

And there's evidence he   partnered with a Yolngu woman in Arnhem Land and had several children.

Pak Kahar unfurls a carefully drawn genealogical map on the living room table, as his cigarette smoulders in a silver ashtray nearby.

"We think   that they had four children in Australia – two boys and two girls ," he says.

But contact was lost in the early 1900s when the fishery wound up.

Now the family wants to find their relatives in Australia and meet them.

"I really want to meet them, to complete the family tree with my Aboriginal family," Pak Kahar says.

"I will welcome them with joy and happiness, and gather everyone together.

"I want to get to know them closely, so our family ties grow stronger through the generations."

Their situation is a mirror image of the Wurramarrba family in remote northern Australia.

Two families, with lineage cut off by ocean and history, anxious to reconnect with relatives before the knowledge of what occurred on those remote northern beaches is lost forever.

The physical links to the era are fragile and vanishing.

Every year, the graves of Makassan trepang ship captains weather and crumble, while one historic ship captain's house — rumoured to be made from Australian timber — was recently demolished.

A rare recording revealed

There are no written records of Dirrikaya's departure and eventual return — the story has been passed down four generations of the Wurramarrba family by word of mouth.

But recently a rare audio recording from more than half a century ago was found.

It contains Dirrikaya's story as told by his eldest son Charlie Galiawa Wurramarrba .

Ms Tkac plays the tape for her 78-year-old mother Margaret, who is Charlie's daughter.

Unmute to watch the emotional moment when the Anindilyakwa matriarch hears her father's voice for the first time since he died in 1978.

Charlie's voice is melodic and calm; a fragile wire connecting two eras.

"Long ago my father told me his story," the old man tells the interviewer. "He went away when he was young, while he was single, before he grew up. "Wanabadi the Makassan took him, took him away, and he went to their country. "My father was away for four years."

The recording is significant as it helps verify the accuracy of the narrative handed down over several generations.

Search for traces of Dirrikaya

Mr Wurramarrba has taken the family to a remote beach on an unusual quest — they're trying to locate Dirrikaya's remains.

After returning from his overseas adventure, Dirrikaya married a local woman and had several children.

He died an old man and was laid to rest at a beach along the western edge of Groote Eylandt.

Crucially, the family believes the gold teeth he had implanted in Makassar were buried with him.

Could they be the final and only physical evidence of his trip?

"When he died, his remains would have been put up in a tree and dried out," Mr Wurramarrba explains.

"Then the bones were wrapped in paperbark and tucked away where they were safe."

But the exact site is hard to find. Over the decades the landscape has changed and memories have faded.

But as she walks along the beach, Dirrikaya's closest living relative — Margaret Wurramarrba – has a flashback.

The frail matriarch becomes animated as she describes a memory from adolescence.

"I was here at the beach collecting berries, and I suddenly saw the gold teeth!" she exclaims.

"They were in a bower-bird's nest. The bird had found the gold teeth.

"I told my father and he told me to return them to where my grandfather was buried, under a big tree."

It's a tantalising lead, but after several hours of surveying the coastline, the search is called off.

The sun is starting to set, and the location of Dirrikaya's gold teeth — for now — must remain a mystery.

The family is determined not to give up.

DNA testing remains a possibility to prove a connection to relatives in Makassar.

But first, the search would need to be narrowed to a family group or community linked to Dirrikaya in a city of more than 2 million people.

"Seeing Dirrikaya's face for the first time lit something up inside me," Ms Tkac reflects.

"I want to know more now. What happened to our family in Indonesia, and can I meet them?

"His story has been passed down, it is our family's story, and we need to do our bit to keep it alive."

• Images and video by Paul Bell, Mitchell Woolnough and Erin Parke
• Graphics by Shakira Wilson and Gabrielle Flood
• Production by Fran Rimrod and Kit Mochan

Editorial note: Images of deceased people have been published with permission.

Watch more of The Lost Families in the latest episode of Compass on Sunday, March 31 at 6:30pm on ABC TV or stream any time on  ABC iview.

• X (formerly Twitter)

Related Stories

Proof of mystery settlement of aboriginal australians and indonesians found in an italian library.

Tip-offs narrow search for descendants of Australia's mysterious overseas colony

• Academic Research
• Ancient History
• Colonialism
• Indigenous (Other Peoples)
• Indigenous Culture
• International Law
• Photography
• Race Relations
• Stolen Generations

Eco Lodges Anywhere

10 Indigenous Tribes Offering Unique Stays Where Culture Meets Conservation

Posted: March 31, 2024 | Last updated: March 31, 2024

In an era marked by a growing commitment to sustainable travel, eco-lodges have emerged as sanctuaries for conscientious adventurers. Beyond their eco-friendly practices, these lodges offer an opportunity to immerse in indigenous cultures, support their heritage, and absorb their profound wisdom. They enable you to step foot on sacred lands and learn about their legacy.

This blog post invites you on a global expedition spanning Australia, Ecuador, Guyana, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa, each boasting awe-inspiring landscapes and eco-friendly accommodations within indigenous tourism.

Kapawi Eco Lodge, Ecuador

One of the world’s most blissful indigenous destinations lies in the heart of the Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest. The Kapawi is an award-winning ecotourism lodge that invites guests to a relaxing and hypnotic glimpse into the life of the Achuar people.

The Kapawi invites guests to participate in traditional ceremonies held by the Achuar people and even has an onsite museum that provides an extensive outlook on their intriguing practices and traditions.

Napo Wildlife Reserve, Ecuador

Covered by the blissful shade of the Ecuador-Amazon rainforest, Napo Wildlife Reserve is a spot that caters to naturalists and history lovers. It is just one of the many eco-lodges in Ecuador, but certainly a special one.

Run by the Napo Runa people, this sustainable destination is a way for guests to become one with nature while learning all about the natives. Guests can partake in traditional ceremonies, enjoy storytelling by indigenous leaders under the starry sky, or make a trip to the local museum to learn more.

Water’s Edge Eco Lodge, Canada

Hidden within the tall trees of the Meadow Lake Provincial Park in Saskatchewan, Water’s Edge Ecolodge is a stunning destination owned and operated by the Waterhen Lake First Nations.

At the ecolodge, First Nations elders host informational tours and occasional traditional ceremonies open to all guests. People staying at the ecolodge can also head to the local library, which provides an extensive account of the resort’s history. The First Nations tourism here is truly one-of-a-kind.

Haida House, Canada

Another stellar destination offering an extraordinary First Nations tourism experience, Haida House in Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, Canada, is a dreamy adventure waiting to happen.

Haida House is a prime spot for those seeking to learn more about the First Nations; guided tours of the Haida villages and totem poles are among the most popular experiences. But guests are welcome to try their hand at fishing, canoeing, kayaking, and guided wildlife tours.

Nemiah Valley Lodge, Canada

An off-the-grid resort situated against the stunning backdrop of Chilcotin in British Columbia, the Nemiah Valley Lodge offers an all-inclusive wellness experience that truly encapsulates the spirit of First Nation tourism. Owned by the Xeni Gwet’in of the Tsilhqot’in Nation, the lodge is basically an amalgamation of luxury, modernity, and indigenous ecotourism.

Klahoose Wilderness Resort, Canada

A two-hour float plane ride from Vancouver transports you to the serene setting of Desolation Sound, where the Klahoose Resort awaits. Klahoose offers guests the opportunity to explore the stunning culture of Homalco Nations and the Tla’amin, making it one of a kind, even when it comes to First Nations tourism.

The resort offers an immersive experience where guests can interact with Mother Nature and learn about the indigenous tribes through guided excursions or participate in bear viewing or whale watching to get closer to nature.

Bulungula Lodge, South Africa

Imagine staring at a sky filled with billions of sparkling stars from the comfort of your bed. Perhaps a bit too dreamy, but that’s exactly what Xhosa’s Bulungula Lodge is all about. Run by the local Nqileni village, the Bulungula Lodge invites guests to experience the marvels of mother nature like never before. As guests connect with Earth, the lodge’s commitment to indigenous ecotourism provides them with an experience one can call ethereal.

Wilpena Pound Resort, Australia

Snuggling the Flinders Ranges in Adnyamathanha County in Australia, Wilpena Pound Resort offers an unparalleled experience of aboriginal tourism. Spread across the rugged terrains of the outback, the resort offers glamping tents, campgrounds, and resort rooms. 

The resort pays homage to its aboriginal roots and offers an experience that stays true to the UNESCO World Heritage Site. Wilpena Pound offers exclusive learning tours about the Adnyamathanha.

Rewa Ecolodge, Guyana

One of South America’s most stunning indigenous destinations, Rewa Ecolodge is like a trip to the heavens. Perched onto the confluence of Rewa and Rupununi Rivers, the eco-lodge provides a panoramic view that truly brings you closer to mother nature.

Built with sustainable and solar-powered materials, Rewa Ecolodge truly commits to the role and supports local businesses. But let’s talk about how this community-based tourist destination enriches people’s hearts and souls. The resort offers an extensive insight into the culture of the numerous indigenous groups that reside there by hosting inclusive indigenous ecotourism activities.

Owhaoko, New Zealand

Taking off-the-grid literally, Owhaoko is only accessible by helicopter, making it one of the most secluded indigenous destinations you’ll find. Nestled between the Kaimanawa and Kaweka forests in New Zealand, Owhaoko is a charitable trust that preserves the culture of the Maori that first settled there.

It offers guests the chance to disconnect from life and enjoy simple activities like bird-watching, fishing, and hiking, but also introduces them to the indigenous culture that inspired the peaceful retreat. 

More Eco-Lodges in Ecuador

The 10 Most Sustainable Eco-Lodges in Ecuador

More Eco-Lodges in British Columbia

The 13 Most Sustainable Eco-Lodges in British Columbia

More eco-lodges in Australia

The 15 Most Sustainable Luxury Australian Eco Lodges

More eco-lodges in South Africa

The 13 Most Sustainable Safari Eco-Lodges in South Africa that are located in a game reserve.

More for You

After bridge collapse, Maryland governor urges Congress to pass funding for rebuild

12 Ordering Mistakes You're Making At Subway, According To Employees

How to Get Rid of Ants in Your House and Yard

Nate Berkus And Jeremiah Brent's Simple Tip For Making Any Home Smell Amazing

18 Of Our Best Cold Sandwich Recipes

Are There Any B-36 Bombers Still Flying?

The 43 Best Shows to Stream on Netflix Right Now

I'm a Swede who used to work with Americans. These are the main differences I saw in our working cultures.

What Is a Carbuncle?

Costco brings back a food court fan favorite

The Secret Ingredient For Ridiculously Creamy Scrambled Eggs

10 Hiding Spots Burglars Always Look First

'Have Gun - Will Travel': The Cast Through The Years

5 Things You Didn't Know About The Outer Casing Of Aircraft Engines

These Are the 16 Smells Rats Hate the Most

KFC rolls out new menu item to challenge McDonald’s, Burger King

‘I have no time for foolishness’: Maryland Gov. on some in GOP blaming bridge collapse on diversity policies

Can You Eat Potatoes with Sprouts?

18 Things the Police Cannot Do if You Are Arrested

Banish Blood Stains From Clothing With A Simple Item From Your Kitchen

Indigenous Tourism Australia

Sit yarn listen learn.

We combine 30 years of tourism experience with 15 years of indigenous tourism mentoring to help indigenous individuals and organisations establish viable tourism businesses.

Specialising in fishing tourism, we are award-winning in this market.  We are actively and consistently uncovering new Indigenous product, specifically relating to the fishing market.  We are guiding and mentoring Indigenous organisations to own and manage a tourism, trade-ready product and we connect that product to the tourism resources at our fingertips.

Whether that’s saltwater or bush fishing, catch and cook, bush tucker, cultural trails, turtle monitoring or simply walking on Country, the business will be a fully owned and operated entity of the Traditional Owners for the benefit of future generations.

Our one wish is to be invited back to Country for many years into the future to sit, yarn listen and learn. 

Consistently work within tourism and indigenous communities to uncover new product, specifically but not restricted to fishing, unearth new ideas and connect passionate people to the resources they need.  Understanding the delicate balance between a good idea and the multi-level agreements necessary to proceed, is paramount to collaborative success.

Sit, yarn, listen, learn.  These are the principles of connecting to the Traditional Owners of the Country we have been welcomed to stand on.  Always be reminded that we are the visitor and we have a lot to learn about an important elder, a particular mob or a unique individual.  Understand that the idea is theirs and we are simply the conduit, offering connections and skills, yet never losing sight of the ownership of the idea or the product.

How do you develop a new product? You start at the end! What does the product look like? How will it make people feel? Who is the guest demographic? Who is the face of this product? Who will manage and promote this product? How will we cost this? How will this be marketed? Who’s looking after the finances? How will it present on social media?  Sounds like hard work? Well, it is! But with the guidance of a tourism professional with over 30 years of doing exactly this, it’s going to be worth it.

• Copy shortlink
• Report this content
• Manage subscriptions

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

Labor’s deportation bill could be used to blacklist entire countries’ citizens from obtaining visas to Australia

Greens attack legislation, now the subject of a Senate inquiry, as a ‘Trump-style travel ban’

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
• Get our morning and afternoon news emails , free app or daily news podcast

Entire countries could be blacklisted by Australia under proposed visa changes that have been described by migrant groups as “appalling” and by the Greens as a “Trump-style travel ban”.

The legislation – that will now be subject to a six-week Senate inquiry – could affect applicants from Russia, Iran, Iraq and South Sudan, as well as other countries unnamed by the government, that refuse to accept the forcible return of their nationals.

Refugees living in Australia and migrant community groups say the law could cut them off from their families and friends permanently.

“It’s appalling,” Betia Shakiba, an Iranian refugee and lawyer, said, “and a slap in the face.

“This bill is a pure definition of discrimination. Australia prides itself on being a multicultural society and on being non-discriminatory, but this bill says the opposite.”

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

At a hastily organised Senate committee hearing on Tuesday night, the secretary of the home affairs department, Stephanie Foster, was asked about further countries that could have travel bans imposed. She told the committee: “I don’t have the list with me,” before amending her self-described “very loose wording” to say: “I do not have a list.”

The government wanted the migration amendment (removal and other measures) bill to be passed on wednesday – after less than 36 hours of consideration by the parliament – but the Senate, instead, voted to send it off to a six-week Senate inquiry.

The legislation seeks to criminalise non-citizens in Australia refusing to cooperate with a forced return process (but excludes refugees being compelled to return to a country where they faced persecution).

The law would impose a mandatory jail sentence of one to five years and a possible fine in excess of $90,000 for non-citizens who refuse to cooperate with their forced removal from Australia, such as failing to attend an interview or providing certain documents.

But legal and migration experts say the details of the bill are far broader and give the government sweeping powers, including the ability to impose travel bans on all citizens from certain countries.

The bill creates an executive power for the government to designate any country as a “removal concern country” if it refused to accept its own nationals being returned from Australia, imposing an outright ban on any visa applications from any citizen of that country.

Migrant communities in Australia fear they could be cut off from friends and family.

“If this bill passes, this is going to permanently strip people of the right to reunite with their families,” Shakiba said. “This is not a fair bill.”

In the case of Australian-Iranians: “We are being discriminated against because of the regime running out of my former country.

“We have to be distinguished from our regime, we have to be seen as contributing members of the Australian society that we are already a part of.”

The Greens spokesperson for immigration, Senator David Shoebridge, told the Senate hearing there was an obligation on the government to reveal which countries were “on the list” of potential proscribed countries, otherwise there were “millions of Australians who have family in other countries … thinking ‘is my family on the list?’”

after newsletter promotion

He said later the legislation “effectively introduces a Trump-style travel ban”.

“This has not been the focus of a lot of media, but has been the focus for many in Australia with loved ones overseas. If the government ever uses these proposed powers it will separate families and undermine the multicultural Australia we are all proud of.”

Foster told Tuesday’s Senate hearing the legislation contained ministerial discretion to “lift the bar” for particular individuals, or entire classes of people, from proscribed countries to allow them to apply for a visa.

And Foster said the simple fact of the government having the power might act as a suasion on other countries, without ever having to use it.

“We very much see it as a diplomatic tool that will give us leverage in working with countries to try to make sure we have effective options to return people … not necessarily to have to put it into place,” she said.

She pointed out that the UK government has had a similar power for two years, but has not used it.

The bill’s explanatory memorandum said designating a “removal concern country” would “slow down that entry pipeline into Australia and reduce growth in the cohort of potentially intractable removals over time”. But the Senate hearing heard it could have the unintended consequence of driving people – unable to lawfully travel with a visa – to enter Australia by irregular means, such as by undeclared journey on a small boat.

There are also concerns the power could provoke retaliation from some of the countries targeted.

The US Congressional Research Service has previously considered “recalcitrant” countries and the use of visa sanctions, finding that some nations “may retaliate in ways detrimental to bilateral trade, tourism, law enforcement, or other forms of cooperation”.

The Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at the university of New South Wales said it was concerned by the proposal to blacklist entire countries.

“From a human-centred perspective, punishing people who may wish to work, study in or visit Australia for the actions of their government is punitive – particularly when the relevant countries are non-democratic autocracies.”

• Australian immigration and asylum
• Australian politics
• Clare O'Neil
• Andrew Giles
• Australian Greens

Most viewed

• Azerbaijani
• Chinese (Simplified)
• Chinese (Traditional)
• Haitian Creole
• Kinyarwanda
• Kurdish (Kurmanji)
• Kurdish (Soranî)
• Odia (Oriya)
• Scots Gaelic

WA Rural Women's Award winner for 2024 unveiled

• AgriFutures 2024 WA Rural Women's Award winner announced as Wheatbelt businesswoman Mandy Walker
• The award showcases the essential role women play in rural industries, businesses and communities

Regional businesswoman Mandy Walker has been awarded the 2024 AgriFutures Rural Women's Award for her project to help Wheatbelt businesses participate in the defence industry supply chain.

The prestigious award, presented last night in Perth, aims to celebrate and empower women in Western Australia's rural and emerging industries, businesses and communities.

Ms Walker runs a mechanical and engineering business in Wongan Hills with her husband, servicing the agriculture, transport and mining sectors.

She is focused on paving the way for regional engineering businesses to participate in the defence industry, beginning with a pilot project targeting the Wheatbelt region.

Ms Walker will receive a $15,000 business development bursary towards her project and will represent Western Australia at the national AgriFutures Rural Women's Award in August.

She follows in the footsteps of 2023 State winner, Bunbury businesswoman and grief support group founder Michelle Moriarty.

Other finalists were apiarist Jay Page, who aims to expand her bee education program from Perth schools to the Wheatbelt, and Farming Champions chair Nicola Kelliher, who wants to bring consumers closer to family farmers to understand their food origins.

The award is supported by the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, Westpac, CBH Group and the Rural, Regional and Remote Women's Network of Western Australia.

Comments attributed to Agriculture and Food Minister Jackie Jarvis:

"I congratulate Mandy, whose project has the potential to have a significant and clear impact on regional businesses and, in turn, regional communities.

"All three finalists have demonstrated innovative thinking, strong community links and a passion for regional businesses."

Comments attributed to Regional Development Minister Don Punch:

"These three inspiring women are strong advocates for their industries and local communities and are all great connectors of people.

"These awards are a fantastic forum to showcase the breadth of innovative and impactful work by women across the regions."

Hon. Jackie Jarvis

Hon. Don Punch

Acknowledgement of country.

The Government of Western Australia acknowledges the traditional custodians throughout Western Australia and their continuing connection to the land, waters and community. We pay our respects to all members of the Aboriginal communities and their cultures; and to Elders both past and present.