THE humble quad bike, and it’s newer, easier-ride mate the side-by-side utility, are a vital part of getting the job done on the Aussie farm but these machines also have the potential to provide another lucrative income stream for producers and to boost the economies of small bush towns.
That’s the word from off-road vehicle (ORV) enthusiasts who are lobbying hard for changes to the regulatory and insurance hurdles stifling the recreational vehicle industry in Australia.
They are backed by entrepreneurial agritourism operators at the forefront of the ORV game in the United States, where purpose-built ATV (all-terrain vehicle) and UTV (utility terrain vehicle) tracks on former agricultural country are becoming one of the fastest-growing sectors of the tourism industry.
For the most part, off-highway vehicles, as they’re called in America, are bought for fun – to take on the challenge of seemingly unconquerable terrain, to be raced and to sightsee wilderness and rangeland.
The ORV juggernaut has pumped substantial tourist dollars into farming areas and there is huge untapped potential in Australia, says one US property owner at the forefront of the trend.
Gary Harpole (pictured above) owns what is arguably a unique world-wide facility, the upscale Harpole’s Heartland Lodge set in Mid West hunting and farming country, where a whopping 600 hectares of scenic former agricultural country between the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers has been dedicated to ORV tracks.
Growth in ORV business at the Harpole facility had been “phenomenal” in the past five years and Gary anticipates it will possibly double again in the next few years, particularly given the rise in side-by-side use.
“It’s year-round family fun and the machines and equipment keep getting better, which improves both the riding experience and the safety aspect,” he said.
Australia, he said, was rich in untapped ORV agritourism opportunity.
Gary, who has a business management background and has worked on cotton operations in Australia, is keen to take up a consultancy role to get similar ORV operations off the ground here.
“Australians love adventure, the land and people,” he said.
“I’ve no doubt recreational vehicles will take off there in a big way and that means for farmers there is enormous scope to introduce this sort of thing as an agritourism diversification.”
Australasian Off-Road Vehicle Association (AORVA) general manager, Darrell Knight, agreed.
He sais it was nothing short of “weird” the industry was missing from the Australian landscape.
“It’s big business in the US – there are millions of kilometres of track but here legislation has suppressed the industry,” he said.
“Australians are even more outdoor-focused than Americans so the potential is enormous.
“More than 30,000 people in Australia already use an off-road vehicle for recreational purposes and that’s is not including the farmer market, which makes up 80 per cent of sales.
“These vehicles are important work tools on nearly every farm but most farmers also use them recreationally.”
He said ORV riding was a healthy form of recreation that could make substantial inroads in problems Australian society faced.
“We have drug epidemics, obesity, depression and economic hardship in the bush and this is an industry that could help in all those areas,” Darrell said.
“We’ve become a nanny state – our governments are so risk-adverse they are not taking into account the consequences to society of not enabling this type of industry to develop.”
Shan Goodwin was a guest of recreational vehicle makers, BRP, who launched the new side-by-side, the Can-Am Defender at Harpole’s this month.