An Invitation to Participate
The Outback is the Australian icon, the globally recognised symbol of our Island Continent. Its spirit has no boundaries: every Australian is bound by it.
This nation was built on the foundations laid in the outback. Our unshakeable values of family, mateship, community, hard work and an unfailing camaraderie had their origins from life in the bush.
Yet population drift from rural regions persists, with Australia moving further towards an almost urban society, clinging to an increasingly crowded seaboard.
Rural producers are suffering hardship resulting in family breakdown. We are seeing the demise of enterprises that have been in families for generations. Young Australians are leaving the Bush.
Outback Calling Ltd has a bold dream and a clear strategy to work with country and city Australians to reverse this trend.
We want to resettle Rural Australia: to again see thriving towns and districts: an outback that offers hope, career opportunities and a vibrant lifestyle for its people. The need for this is heightened by the global food shortage which presents both responsibilities and opportunities for our nation.
The process that is now known as Outback Calling began with the highly successful Year of the Outback 2002. It provided an apolitical banner for Australians to run Outback orientated projects and events with an enthusiasm, drive and cohesion never before seen. The campaign detonated an unstoppable chain reaction: Australians rallied to the call of the outback and it was estimated that the benefits exceeded $300 million in publicity, tourism and commercial activity. The Australian Outback Development Consortium Ltd was the not for profit company formed to continue the process and the success of 2002 was followed up with another Year of the Outback in 2006.
However there was a sense that to see a vibrant outback we needed much more than a quadrennial cycle of events. We conducted nationwide research and produced a fresh strategic plan to refocus our commitment to empower a vital outback.
From this, Outback Calling has evolved and Outback Calling Ltd, the entity driving the process, is now moving to provide:
- a catalyst organisation and a uniting banner for individuals, communities and organisations supportive of the bush
- a stronger nationwide voice for the bush in the political sphere
- a catalyst for leadership development for young Australians
- an advocacy for entrepreneurship an online hub for all things outback – a central ‘portal to the bush’
- a driver of marketing to attract residents and tourists facilitation of major Expositions in rural locations to put Outback skills, knowhow, lifestyles, attractions, trading and promotion opportunities on a vast global stage
Outback Calling will be driven by national and regional representative groups – by the bush, for the bush – with participation limited only to the extent of Australian resourcefulness and imagination.
As Founder and Chairman of Year of the Outback 2002, it was my greatest wish that 2002 would provide a catalyst for the empowerment of rural and remote Australia.
Outback Calling is the plan to expand what 2002 began. However Outback Calling Ltd cannot do this alone. I extend an invitation to all Australians – individuals, communities and organisations – to consider the part you could play in this outback adventure and to contact us to discuss opportunities to be involved and in turn support our Outback.
BRUCE CAMPBELL AM MBE
Chairman Outback Calling Ltd;
Founder and Chairman – Year of the Outback;
Senior Australian of the Year 2003
