Residents of outback New South Wales have survived three years of drought and three months of COVID-19 lockdown — now they are ready to rebound when travel restrictions are eased next month.
Jenny Greentree is an artist and owner of the Back O' Bourke Gallery, which is situated on the banks of the Darling River at North Bourke.
"Everyone is just busting to get going," she said.
"We weathered the drought and now we've weathered COVID-19, and now we are ready."
Ms Greentree said COVID-19 allowed her to keep selling paintings, but she cannot wait to welcome tourists back to the town.
"We've probably worked harder than we ever have, getting our website fixed up — we've had to be learning it as we go," she said.
"We had an online exhibition and had sales from across the country, which helped tick things along as we had zero income before that.
"Hopefully now they all come in person."
The town has struggled through the past few years with drought, but the Darling River is now flowing, thanks to much-needed rain.
Jenny Greentree said now is a perfect time to visit.
"We're a perfect picture at the moment," she said.
"We've waited years for the water to come back into the river, the river is beautiful — we're green and no one has been able to see it, so I'm expecting that people will come.
"I know from the travellers that we've seen come through the past 14 years, they live to get out to warmer places in these winter months."
Don't worry about Queensland border closure
Seventy kilometres downstream of Bourke you will find Garry Mooring's farmstay in Louth.
He said even though people cannot travel through to Queensland he is confident they will still travel to the western region.
"We were hanging and waiting for the decision to be made, we are excited that visitors will be heading back west, hopefully they'll call in and see us, stay with us, we've missed out in the season but hope that we gain more now," Mr Mooring said.
He said the easing of travel restrictions will help save their business.
"As far as the season goes, up until now it's [been] a 100 per cent loss but if we have people visit now it will be about 30 per cent loss for the year," Mr Mooring said.
