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The outback is full of creative inspiration

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10 ideas for artists and writers

Most artists’ and writers’ groups tend to be in the bigger towns and cities, where inspiration comes from urban situations, nearby rainforest and ocean.

Now Outback Pioneers is inviting those groups to come to Outback Queensland and discover new inspiration and stories from the iconic heartland of Australia.

Group facilitators and guest-speakers can easily set up inspiring workshops and situations in Longreach, thanks to our group facilities at the historic The Welcome Home.

Here are just a few of ideas that may inspire your group:

For writers

  1. So many outback characters – resilient, uncomplaining and inventive but also often isolated and forgotten in a country where 90% of the population is urban
  2. Our 6-year drought, the longest in living memory, and its effect on families, businesses and futures – get the real story not just the media slant
  3. The pioneering story of Australia – when you are in Longreach, inspiration is everywhere
  4. Pioneers of flight – adventurous, risk-takers who saw the potential of flight for covering the vast distances and founded Qantas
  5. Cobb & Co. Who travelled on those stagecoaches and where were they going? Who was waiting for mail and what did it mean to them?
  6. Captain Starlight (Harry Redford), a notorious cattle thief who operated in the Longreach region and was much loved for his larrikin audacity and bush skills
  7. The Welcome Home – our restored hub for groups was once a hotel named ‘The Welcome Home’ in honour of outback lads returning from the Boer War
  8. The Station Store – based on a traditional outback emporium. When shopping was an exciting trip across hundreds of kilometres of dirt tracks, each special purchase had a story.
  9. Horses, cattle, sheep. Without these animals, the early settlers would not have survived and the stockmen, shearers and Indigenous station hands are part of our history.
  10. The women of the homestead who were independent, inventive and incredibly courageous long before ‘women’s lib’.

For artists, photographers and poets

  1. The sunrises and sunsets – nowhere is as spectacular as the outback with its big skies and iconic silhouettes
  2. The architecture – glorious Queensland buildings from early pioneer settlement through the first half of the 20th century – grand or simple, they all had character
  3. Textures and tones – corrugated iron, baked earth, rust, rutted tracks, windmills, weathered timber…
  4. Native flora and fauna – even in times of drought, Longreach abounds with birdlife and you’ll often see roos and emus
  5. Faces and hands that show a life lived in sun with hard work and their share of human happiness and heartbreak (ask us to arrange models for you)
  6. The Thomson River – a picturesque waterway alive with colour and birdlife at sunrise and sunset
  7. Old trucks, farm vehicles, farm machinery, iconic planes – the workhorses from another era
  8. Billabongs – clusters of trees around water – a lifeline for creatures of the outback
  9. An outback town today – old and new, often struggling but optimistic, tradition sitting side-by- side with contemporary technology
  10. Did we mention the space and the huge outback skies? The outback landscape is on a different scale and lures you with its ever-changing dance of light and colour.
We are particularly inviting special interest groups in the summer when the tourists are few and far between and you can experience the outback from the locals’ perspective. Find out more about the possibilities for summer special interest groups on our Clubs page.