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Posted: 2021-09-11 23:14:44

The arid red plains of North West Queensland could be home to a new tourist attraction aimed at putting even the most brawny and brainy of outback survivors to the test.

One of the hottest places in Australia, Cloncurry proved the perfect setting for this year's Australian Survivor.

The host town experienced an economic boom and local authorities are already thinking of other ways to put the small town on the map.

"We can get really creative and do some really cool tourism initiatives," the former head of media and PR at Cloncurry Shire Council, Luke Chaplain, said.

Police officers stand in a campsite surrounded by bush huts
Members of the Cloncurry Police attended 'tribal council' during filming of Australian Survivor in 2021.(

Supplied: Queensland Police

)

"We're definitely planning on working out some sort of 'Survivor' product," Cloncurry Mayor Gregory Campbell said.

"Once people can travel more freely, there's a whole market there with fanatical Australian Survivor fans. So we want to get them to come to Cloncurry and have that experience.

A bald man stands in the shade, leaning on a pole.
Cloncurry Mayor Greg Campbell.(

ABC North West Queensland: Kelly Butterworth

)

"We're keeping the huts from 'tribal council'. So we're just working out where we can place them so people can go and take their photo with them or write somebody's name down on a piece of paper and put it in the jar," he said.

Boost to the local economy

As the final episode of the TV show airs this weekend, Cloncurry locals say playing host to the series brought big economic rewards.

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"It was anticipated that the production coming to Queensland was going to be worth about 15 or 16 million and that the North West would be getting about a third of that," Mayor Campbell said.

"A couple of hundred staff members needed accommodation, meals, and then all the private expenditure on top of that meant it was a real boost to the town."

Local boilermaker Jack Green was tapped on the shoulder to create props for the show.

A young man wears a protective helmet and holds an industrial tool in a workshop
Cloncurry boilermaker Jack Green.(

Supplied: TAFE Queensland

)

"They needed a couple of blades and swords made up along with a big meat cleaver and a skinning knife. I got to see them used in the show," the 22-year-old said.

Assistant manager at the Leichhardt Hotel Josh Telford said it was great to see a boost to trade during the filming of the show.

"You had everyone frequenting the bottle shop and the grocery stores, so it was a good couple of months for the town."

Materials needed for constructing sets were sought from local hardware stores including Brodie Mitre 10.

A view from the street of a Mitre 10 hardware building in Cloncurry
Brodie Hardware supplied much of the materials used to construct the Australian Survivor set.(

Supplied: Brodie Hardware

)

"They were great. By the end of it, we'd exchanged Facebook details and all that and had built up a really good relationship with them," Lisa Cunningham from Brodie Hardware said.

"Anything you saw on the set was sourced through us or the other local hardware store. They were a massive client. We would have seen them every day."

Off set, clothing shops like Lemmons saw a surge in customers keen to wrangle some country clothing.

"They needed shirts and clothes for work while a lot of the crew, who are from the bigger cities, were looking at the different range of country clothing and products in a shop like ours," Allan Abdy from Lemmons said.

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