Vast stretches of railway in outback Queensland will be home to trains of a different kind next year.
The first of two Queensland Rail heritage 2000 class silver bullet rail motors arrived in Longreach on Thursday afternoon, bringing with them the hopes of a new rail tourism experience.
Standing in the shadow of the 22-tonne, 17-metre-long rail motor, tourism operators Alan and Sue Smith can't help but reminisce about how it all began over three decades ago.
"It's funny how things happen," Mr Smith said.
"We've just slowly built the business up from a troop carrier, an answering machine and a billy made out of a 3-litre juice tin.
"I had no bloody idea what it would all turn into, and I think that's the beauty of having a creative mind and such an amazing canvas of stuff to play with in western Queensland.
"We had never dreamt of this."
The owner of Outback Aussie Tours has a one-track mind when it comes to the future of his rail experience, and how it might help extend the tourist season into the hot outback summer.
"The reality is, towns are shrinking, and towns are dying, but some towns have the fortune, and the people that are getting behind their assets to make them work,' Mr Smith said.
"Imagine what we could do if we could use this train to build up reasons for conferences and events to come out to western Queensland and extend our season.
"Imagine what would happen if, say, two thirds of our workforce could actually get full time work instead of casual work which tourism mainly is. All of a sudden we'd get people living and buying houses more in Longreach than what we've even seen.
"We'd actually see a lot more prosperity for these western communities if we could get another three months of the season out of it."
Full steam ahead
The Outback Rail Adventure is expected to cost at least $2,500,000 to get on the rails, with $1,000,000 coming from the Queensland government's Outback Tourism Infrastructure Fund.
With a boat and several buses already in his fleet, Mr Smith knows adding two trains brings with it plenty of risk.
"To be honest, this is a big step for Sue and I," Mr Smith said.
"This is a big gamble, there's no doubt about that."
It is a gamble that Ben Lyons, the director of the Rural Economies Centre of Excellence, said could be successful in creating employment opportunities into the shoulder of the tourist season.
"It's definitely a risk; an investment that's going against the trend which has been a slow but sure overall decline in rural economies," Mr Lyons said.
"The investment is to be applauded, but there are some underlying economic challenges to it.
"I think innovative, creative adaptations like this are few and far between; there's not enough of them."
Sights trained on extension
Outback Aussie Tours hope the rail motors will be carrying tourists and locals alike around the Longreach region by May next year, with future destinations to include Barcaldine, Emerald, and Winton.
Mr Smith believes it will take a united effort from outback people and businesses to make tourism sustainable into the shoulders of the season.
"We're really looking for that point of difference," Mr Smith said.
"Something that will separate us apart not from what's in town, but what's in the rest of Queensland, and what's around the world."
Outback Queensland Tourism Association chief executive Denise Brown says western Queensland tourism is going ahead in leaps and bounds.
"There's been a lot of work done in anchoring the experiences, bringing them up to world class standards, bringing the accommodation up to world class standards," Ms Brown said.
"The thing is we've got a lot more work to do in making sure we give reasons for people to come back.
"It's not about the volume, it's about giving them more reasons to stay longer in Longreach, Winton, or Quilpie."
