The Cloncurry version of Australian Survivor is coming to TV screens soon but the impact on the town itself will be felt for a long time.
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Previously hosted by Samoa and then Fiji, Australian Survivor's sixth season was filmed in Cloncurry and Cloncurry Mayor Greg Campbell played one of the video clips advertising the series to a MITEZ forum in Mount Isa which highlighted some of the contestants and showed some of the background scenes used.
Cr Campbell said when the Queensland government made the original announcement there was talk of a $15 million benefit to the state and Cloncurry would get at least a third of that,
"That's well and truly the mark that was hit and just on (postcode) 4824 businesses it's just shy of $5 million in Cloncurry," Cr Campbell said.
"And that doesn't include the hire car companies, the fuel companies whose head offices are away but that money still turned over in Cloncurry."
Cr Campbell said they would have spent money on anything from hardware to local labour.
"Labour was one of the interesting ones as when they were coming out I told them they would struggle to get the same amount of local employees that they get in Fiji but people really embraced it," he said, Council staff took leave to work for Survivor as they wanted to get involved."
Cr Campbell said around almost 100 locals were involved in the production.
"They might not have all been full time, they might have just done a couple days a week at the dam when they did the water challenges," he said.
Cr Campbell said the experience showed they were capable of producing TV successfully in Cloncurry and local businesses can meet their needs.
"And then there was our landscapes and our connectivity - everything stood up to the challenge," he said.
Cr Campbell said there would be naming opportunities for Queensland Outback, Western Queensland and Cloncurry when Survivor does go to air.
"That's clear intent from Screen Queensland, Tourism Queensland and Council," he said.
"There's a lot of challenger shots at Chinaman Creek Dam and as part of our contract with them there's a certain amount of time that footage gets highlighted so we've got publicly accessible land where Survivor was filmed.
With Winton seen as the outback favourite for moving making and the Winton Outback Film Festival in full flow at the moment, Cr Campbell said the industry was big enough for Cloncurry to also get some of the action.
"I don't think we need to compete with Winton, we complement each other," he said.
"The landscapes are different and we have access to big permanent blocks of water as well."
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