An award-winning new tourism business, Mandingalbay Authentic Indigenous Tours, is primed to welcome international tourists in Cairns, Queensland. Australian Government grant funding administered by Austrade and partners has helped boost the 100% Indigenous-owned and -operated company’s confidence with international visitors.
Mandingalbay Tours arose from Indigenous rangers leading ad hoc sightseeing trips to protected Aboriginal land near Cairns. In 2022, the company began regular tourist cruises from the city’s marina. These travel across Trinity Inlet and up to HIlls Creek to the traditional lands of the Mandingalbay (mun-din-gul-pie) Yidinji people.
The business’s 42-seat boat arrives at a landing and dramatic stingray-shaped shelter. Here, guides welcome tourists to country with a smoking ceremony or traditional face-paint. Then visitors walk through local rainforest, learning about different bush foods and medicines. Traditional soap from a tree is just one highlight.
Outstanding tours in a World Heritage area
The 3-hour journey involves learning about culture and discussing history. The guides – described in many glowing reviews as friendly and fun – are also happy to talk about current Australian topics.
‘That makes us stand out,’ says Marcus Brady, Mandingalbay’s launch sales and marketing manager.
‘We’re also showcasing a part of the World Heritage Wet Tropics of Queensland that’s little known,’ he adds. ‘These wetlands, mangrove and salt-marsh environments are extremely important.’
Bringing worlds together
Like any young company, Mandingalbay has valued outside advice and help. This includes mentoring to make the business ‘international ready’, under the Australian Government’s Tropical North Queensland International Tourism Recovery Grant Program. The Queensland Government also contributed funding. Tourism Tropical North Queensland (TTNQ) delivered the program.
‘Our guides are young Indigenous people,’ says Brady. ‘They haven’t all travelled the world or had a lot of tourism experiences themselves. Without that insight, it is hard for them to understand what visitors’ expectations are.’
This is especially true, he adds, when tourists come from another country or older generation – for example, Americans in their 60s.
A consultant hired under the mentoring program trained the Mandingalbay guides. He rehearsed tours with them to perfect their commentary. The guides are now extremely well-trained to look after customer safety during rainforest walks.
‘Reconciliation in action’
Brady says that tourism offers employment opportunities for local Aboriginal communities. He also believes ‘Indigenous tourism is reconciliation in action’, and ‘it works both ways’.
‘It’s a reconciling reconnection to country and community for our tour guides. It’s also reconciling for the audience, whether they’re an Australian or an international citizen. Being with the traditional owners, it’s a very relaxed experience.’
In 2024, Mandingalbay was a winner in the Queensland Reconciliation Awards.
The tour boat cruises between mangrove forests to the traditional lands of the Mandingalbay Yidinji people. Image: Tourism Australia
Strong interest from overseas
On the domestic front, Mandingalbay wants to expand its business with educational and corporate groups. It has added a shorter, 2-hour ‘Deadly After Dark Sunset Cruise’ to its mainstream tours.
However, the overseas market for its tours is strong, Brady says. Mandingalbay had 5,500 customers in its first 18 months, some 70% of them from abroad. This included from the US, Germany and Brazil. Some had already enjoyed Indigenous tours in North America or northern Europe.
Given this, Mandingalbay hopes to continue to see growth from increasing direct international flights into Cairns. These include services from Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand and Singapore. TTNQ has been working to support these growing flights via the International Tourism Recovery Grant Program.
‘We’re already seeing Singapore nationals on our tours as a result of direct Singapore Airlines flight to Cairns,’ says Brady.
Looking further afield, operations manager Dale Mundraby has visited the UK to promote Mandingalbay Tours.
Mentoring creates a solid footing
Brady says it’s always hard work to establish a self-sustaining business. Part of the beauty of the mentoring program has been that ‘it’s about sustainability’. It has helped set the company up for future success, he says.
Today’s team of tour guides includes 3 young mothers. For some it is their first job. Yet, Brady is proud of their ability to take on more duties.
The reservations and admin officer is already comfortable doing some business development. Others are at ease speaking to the media.
Brady has now stepped back from his funded position into a more backseat role. However, he is upbeat about Mandingalbay Tours’ future. ‘We’ve now got a great workforce of tour guides. You can throw anything at these guys and they just shine,’ he says.
Learn more
Mandingalbay was one of 4 Indigenous and 20 other operators in Tropical North Queensland to benefit from the International Ready Mentoring program funded by the Australian and Queensland Governments. The Australian Government provided $55,000 under its Tropical North Queensland International Tourism Recovery Grant Program. Another $45,000 came from the Queensland Government.
Under the Tropical North Queensland International Tourism Recovery Grant Program, the Australian Government granted up to $15 million to TTNQ over 2 years. This was to drive international visitor growth to the Tropical North Queensland region, including visitation to the Great Barrier Reef.
The Tropical North Queensland International Tourism Recovery Grant Program has been part of the Government’s wider Supporting Australian tourism and travel package delivered by Austrade.
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