LOUIS BURKE | Culture | CONTACT
During a bustling era of domestic Australian travel, one small town is doing their best with their frankly limited attributes.
For many years now, the greater Betoota town of Mt Quilby has been trying to become a tourist hotspot with classic cars shows and a pizza joint but has been unable to usurp Betoota as the cultural hub of the Queensland channel country.
With the town’s tourism budget already mysteriously spent, Mayor Garth Guiness floated the idea of authorising the dangerous jump into the Cotton Darling river from the Stalin Steel bridge, which he suggested via Zoom call from a villa in Fiji.
Somewhat of a right of passage for Mt Quilby youth, the jump from the Soviet era surplus bridge is a dangerous feat made more hazardous by strong river currents and deadly for the six months of the year the riverbed is dry.
Regardless of the human cost, the Mt Quilby tourism board (made of of Trish, Pat and Jenny when Pat has bookclub) has decided to legalise the bridge jump as promoting the east coast’s most northerly Ned Kelly bakery (Such Is Loaf) has yet to bring in the crowds.
“We’ve always been a town known for convincing people to jump off a bridge,” stated Pat via a video cross as not even our intern travel writer could be bothered making the two hour drive to Mt Quilby.
“It’s also going to be creating jobs which will be going to locals and not backpackers as we still haven’t had one stop by yet.”
More to come.
