Economic Goal: Creating Culturally Appropriate Job Opportunities

The business owners are strongly motivated to create jobs on Country, so that family and community members do not have to move away to find work. This can enable Nyungkal people to derive an income on the land as well as fulfil cultural obligations to that land. The aim is to use the enterprise to create tourism jobs to ensure future livelihoods for family and the younger generation.

We hope to do something like that- train our young people. Every bit of training helps. And watering that plant [the young person] to help them get their roots down. And no-one else is doing it in our community.. .We want to take these guys as far as having their own business or having a share in the business. And looking at the caravan park and camp ground ... and invest in the whole thing, create real jobs for them. We want to take them that far...

(P. Wallace, personal communication, 2013).

Despite the goal of job creation, the ability of the enterprise to make a profit and provide employment is very constrained. One of the reasons for this is that the business owners lack business experience, particularly in the tourism sector. Another constraining factor for the enterprise is the small-scale and seasonal nature of the tourism business. The family usually close their business during the wet season (which runs from November to April) as tourists numbers drop with the difficult travel conditions. Even during the tourist season, the tourism enterprise can only support a limited number of employees and is vulnerable to international conditions. This is partly due to the small volume of visitors and low profit margins of the enterprise. In addition, cultural obligations impact the ability of social enterprise to run effectively. The business owners are often obliged to share profits and business assets with extended family members, resulting in lack of capital accumulation and constant replacement of assets.

The development of the business has also been impacted by the current nature of land administration and land use planning regimes for Aboriginal land. Aboriginal land is granted as communal title and formally held by land trusts on behalf of the traditional owners of the land. The land cannot be bought, acquired or forfeited, which prevents land being used to access capital and therefore prohibits tourism business growth (Schmiechen & Boyle, 2007). An Aboriginal leader describes how “the great majority of our assets are tied up in dead capital. We can’t use our buildings, land, resources and other assets in the same way as other people in the Australian economy” (Ahmat, 2003). In addition, even if resources can be found to start a business, individual or family-run Aboriginal tourism operations face extreme challenges establishing tourism infrastructure on Aboriginal lands. This is because of the complex regulatory and planning regimes that prohibit much development on Aboriginal land in northern Queensland (Wallace et al., 2011). In the case of Bana Yarralji Bubu, this regulatory and planning system has resulted in a 7 year battle to build even the basic amenities (such as a toilet block) required for the tourism enterprise. They have succeeded because of their persistence and ability to use non-Aboriginal social networks to get pro-bono specialist advice and support for their development applications. They have also used their personal skills to access resources from the wider community to help them establish their enterprise. Over the years, this has included everything from getting business expertise and planning knowledge from corporate mentors, to getting volunteers to help build tourism facilities at the enterprise site.