Interview with Shane O’Reilly

One of the pioneers of ecotourism in Australia, since long before that word was coined, is O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat at the edge of Lamington National Park, and is well-known to bird-twatching tourists around the world, also for its frog weeks, wildlife weeks, bird weeks and other special events. .Shane O’Reilly, one of our keynote speakers for the national wildlife tourism workshop in May 2012, is part of the third generation of original O’Reilly family that started the lodge back in the 1930s, and for several years now has been its managing director. Shane also has extensive experience in other management roles and in tourism in South Africa, and has been involved in various committees and director of a number of tourism related boards including Gold Coast Tourism, Queensland Wine Industry Association, Gondwana Rainforests Reserves Australia and Tourism Queensland.

Q. Shane, I hear that just before the workshop you will be cycling 1000km to raise money for the Starlight Children’s Foundation and the Royal Children’s Hospital. Before we start discussing wildlife tourism, would you like to let folk now how they can sponsor you for these causes, and very briefly tell us what Starlight does for sick children?

A. Yes both organisations look after serious ill children – one makes them better – the other keeps them laughing and happy and children need both to recover completely. The website is www.chain-reaction.org.au and look under the Queensland ride and team Gowdie to find me. Three weeks to go and plenty of fitness still to be found. Considering I hadn’t been on a bike for 20 plus years until December I’m going ok but still slowly.

Q. A very worthwhile endeavour. Let’s hope you’re not too exhausted to participate in the workshop afterwards, although growing up in the mountains and continuing to regularly walk there I think you must be pretty fit. Shane, the O’Reilly’s bird week has become quite a famous annual event, and  other special wildlife-related weeks have been added into the calendar in recent years. Have you seen any changes in types of interest over the years, or in the demographics of people who attend these events?

A. Interesting question because the answer is a general “no” strangely enough. The people who attend bird week are maybe more affluent these days but isn’t everyone? Those attending the other wildlife weeks are generally of a younger age bracket than the birders, but similar in most other aspects. Interest in all these special interest/ educational groups is still quite strong. The strongest growth however has been in photography weeks which we now have half a dozen of and while not directly related to the other weeks  in a research mode, it is centred around wildlife and the natural surrounds.

Q. Talking with Greg Czechura of the Queensland Museum a few years ago, he told me he’d noticed a rise in sophistication of questions by the general public, indicating a general increase in public knowledge, understanding and interest in our native fauna.  Have you been noticing any similar trend, both in Australian guests and visitors from elsewhere?

A. There is an extremely notable rise in the level of expectation and interest from younger guests – say sub 25 years and starting as young as 9 or 10 years old.

 Q. You’ve had some experience in the tourism industry in one of the world’s most exciting destinations for wildlife – South Africa.  I don’t think you were directly connected with wildlife tourism yourself (please correct me if this is wrong) but you presumably saw and heard quite a bit about it while there.  What do you think would be the most important lessons Australia could learn from South Africa for providing wildlife experiences? I realize we cant have elephants and lions, but we do have some pretty special animals, and wide open spaces and so on to offer, but many people seem to think only of seeing kangaroos and koalas.

A. A great question because I did learn one real important lesson here and that’s we don’t play to our strengths in Australia and what we do sell we mostly under charge for. In Africa one thinks nothing of paying $200 to go on an evening spotlighting tour looking for Cheetah. If you’re lucky you get to see a hyena. Yet the tour still seems like good value because you’re out there at night looking at shadows wondering if there is something close by that could eat you!

We don’t have things – a part from the crocs that generally eat people and Australia Zoo live on that same principle. However at O’Reilly’s guests get a real buzz out of being shown trap door spiders in the bank of the graded paths. After being shown this for the first time they rarely sit down or lean against the bank again! Seeing a snake on the track is that same sensation of being close to something that is stronger than us and only distance gives us comfort.

So while we market the koala, the memory they’ll take home is having to walk around the red belly black they found on their morning stroll.

 Q. On the topic of accommodation in national parks, I don’t think too many people would have a problem with for instance opening up the pre-existing shearer’s quarters in the very large Currawinya National Park in Queensland’s outback for low-impact accommodation, but of course there has been considerable controversy over the idea of providing accommodation in national parks elsewhere in Queensland, and Australia generally.  Accommodation seems to blend in very well in Kruger National Park in South Africa, from overnight hides through to small village-style rest camps, but of course Kruger is about the size of Israel, and most of our parks are nowhere near that big. What do you see as the main reasons one might want to open up some kind of accommodation in or next to our national parks, and if this was ever to happen what should the limitations be? And would there be possibilities of recreating a similar experience by restoring habitat and building adjacent to rather than actually in a national park? What restrictions should there be then, in terms of type of building, numbers of guests and so on.?

A. You would expect a person in my position to say no accommodation in National Parks because that protects my business from direct competition. However I feel that very small individual huts could be used for overnight experiences with careful management and rotation. The places in Africa in say Kruger in South Africa and my favourite Hwange in Zimbabwe have great camps but they are real developments and are large and so not suited to our Parks generally because our reserves are smaller in most cases. The huts would need to be basic – not a 5 star facility and probably a max of two or three at any site. Could talk about this one for hours but not enough time today.

Q. Another controversial topic is that of feeding wildlife, some polarising towards extremes of either never allowing feeding because wildlife should always be allowed to stay completely wild, or  that feeding is never likely to do any harm and it allows visitors to see animals they may never otherwise get a close look at during a short stay and also adds to positive feelings towards wildlife and therefore support for conservation issues. Increasingly though, there seems to be support for a middle ground that says ok in some situations, not in others (for instance WTA’s own policy: https://www.wildlifetourism.org.au/experiencing-our-wildlife/policies/policies/tourist-wildlife-interactions/).  I understand there has been considerable research into the effects of feeding birds, both at O’Reilly’s and at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary where our workshop is to be held, and that O’Reilly’s (and also Currumbin) has taken on board many recommendations to ensure birds do not become dependent, contract diseases or indulge in unhealthy diets.  Would you like to expand on that a little and also tell us a little about what your guests say about the experience? 

A. This I will cover more thoroughly in my address but let me give you these couple of facts. Feeding the birds is the most liked experience noted by people in our feedback forms. There is increasing concern expressed by people about bird feeding. However the concern is not about the experience just about the philosophy of whether or not it is a sustainable practice. There is very little research on this topic but lots of emotion. The most recent in depth research conducted as part of a doctorate study showed the O’Reilly’s site to be sustainable in that birds spent an average of 20 minutes there and were healthy. This however was not the case at another site as part of this study but the other site was surrounded by suburbia.

Again a big topic but no further time.

Q. From your recent experience with various tourism boards and committees, do you feel there is any increase in the demand for wildlife tourism amongst both domestic and international tourists, or that there is potential which at present is not being sufficiently realised?  Potential that is for an environmentally sustainable growth in providing high-quality wildlife experiences?

A. It is interesting because it seems to me that more people are looking for experiences with nature but in controlled and therefore “certain” environments. This I feel partly explains the rise of places like Australia Zoo. People have less time but still want the experience. At O’Reilly’s we have eagles and owls and falcons all living naturally in our surrounding environment. Birders see them but need to spend the time and effort to see them and may miss out on some of their rarer ones. However our Birds of Prey show where you see the same birds but these are not wild birds and you see them up close and its guaranteed is so popular. More people see that show in a week than we have in our two bird weeks and our many private guiding excursions all combined over a year.

That said our private guiding – while much smaller has grown each year since its introduction over 4 years ago and is now quite a contributor to our monthly revenue and it is definitely a high quality personal wildlife experience.