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Oprah: Day #1

Oprah Winfrey arrived in "Carnes" yesterday and headed off to a wildlife park at Hamilton Island.

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After arriving in “Carnes” US talk show host Oprah Winfrey headed to Hamilton Island where she drove a golf buggy to a wildlife park with best pal Gayle.

There she was interviewed by TEN entertainment reporter Angela Bishop, saw some dingoes (mistaken for jackals) and mating koalas -not necesarily in that order.

Curtis Stone is cooking her a bbq dinner to be enjoyed by members of her audience.

Today she heads off to Uluru after musician Paul Simon insisted it was unmissable.

Next stop will be Melbourne on Friday, expected to be Federation Square.

Sydney will greet her on Saturday.

21 Responses

  1. Ok since everyone is commenting on this lol. I don’t watch Oprah at all but the publicity she is bring is positive as I think it will ultimately be a boost to the tourism industry (so its not a waste of taxpayers money at all) money. That being said I find her show soooo boring and cringeworthy its not my kinda thing at all but good luck to those who like watching the show and reading cheap celebrity magazines.

  2. Wow. So many Oprah-haters here.
    The fact that you Posted means that you Do care. Thanks 🙂

    I’m not bothered by Oprah being in Australia. And No, she’s not “just a talk show host”. You people are weird.

  4. The fact is money can’t buy the kind of publicity and advertising for Australia the Oprah shows will deliver when aired back in the US and around the world.
    It will literally translate into Ten’s of millions if not hundreds of millions of dollars in tourism.
    For those of you who are not aware the Oz tourism biz is in the midst of the biggest downturn in 20 years. We need this

  5. How do we know the investment we get back when we spend the millions on advertising Australia and I’m sorry as of late the last few Aussie tourism ads I’ve seen this is one that will actually look good and get a return! She’s known as the most influential women in the world, sorry but when she comes down here to promote the country we love… yea the media is going to follow her around a bit, especially the network that has the right to her TV show!!

  6. Sams either a Geeup or he’s been living under a rock,I personally do not watch the show or even like the woman but to her credit she does some good things even though when you make that much money you should give some back.
    Facts are though this is the best use of Australian Tourism Money ever conceived being heavily subsidised and promoted World wide only the most narrow minded and ill informed could give this a negative tick.

  7. @Lee of carnes….I completely agree with you. We are bombarded daily with negative and awful news stories that affect our world. Is it really that horrible to have something positive like this happen to our country and to be reported on? As for those complaining about the 4 million being spent, we have spent 10x that amount on other tourism campaigns in the past and that is what this is, a tourism campaign, just a slightly unique one. I think we’re getting a bargain! And after saying all that, can I just say, I can’t stand watching the Oprah show…way too over the top..lol. However, I think this is a great thing for our country and we should celebrate it not constantly criticise it.

  8. I’ve been trying to bite my tongue on Oprah’s visit, but…

    I agree the media frenzy on her visit is totally over the top. She isn’t actually royalty or a head of state, she is in fact just a TV star.

    It’s a bit disturbing the Australian media needs to feel good about their country by focussing on a foreign visitor. Australia really is a lucky country – everyone just needs to see it.

    As a visitor I hope she has a nice time – although there are other unsung heroes out there far more deserving of publicty.

  9. @lee. … Totally agree – good on u. It seems australia is full of whiners n whingers.. . Seriously, they whine about everything – they never seem to see e good in much at all

  11. @Not Happy Sam – it will be difficult if not impossible to accurately track the impact – you’d have to survey every person who came into the country and ask them if Oprah’s visit influenced them coming. The Tourism authorities are usually able to put an estimate on these things. How they work that out is probably a mix of science and experience.

    Even if they invest $5m in this, it’s likely to earn a lot more than that in long term good will and dollars for the country.

    Same thing goes for bringing Tiger Woods or getting the Olympics or World Cup. I mean look at the World Cup, they invested $30m+ and we got basically nothing out of it. At least this one has an excellent chance of making a good return.

  12. I have no problem with what Oprah is doing. But it is this ludicrous media frenzy around it that is all out of proportion. Do we have such an inferiority complex as a nation, that we can be whipped in to this frenzy of sense of self worth by the arrival of a daytime talk show host?

  14. @Clarence: you missed the whole point.
    You say $2-3 million, are you sure it is not a lot more?
    Who and How will anyone measure the actual return on the expense?

    A 50% or more Real return would be the minumun that an investment should return.o

  15. all you negative Oprah bashers really need to lighten up a bit, the world is full off misery and sadmess ,what oprah is doing at the moment is making hundreds if not thousands of people happy at the moment , whats wrong with that? go and find some real horrible news to spread your misery of words too.

  16. @Not Happy Sam – Not sure if you’ve followed the Oprah juggernaut in the past, but when she opens her mouth and endorses something, be it a book, product, person or place, it can result in huge amounts of good will and/or money being spent on that thing not just by Americans but people all around the world.

    She is very much a trusted international celebrity and has a worldwide following – her show is broadcast in 145 countries.

    For an investment of $2-$3m it is projected to return tens of millions of dollars of tourist investment worldwide.

  17. Why do journalists make such a big deal about an American (socalled) TV Star?
    So she saw a Koala, big deal
    She saw dingoes, wow, exicting stuff

    This is not really news, just cheap filler.

    To much of our tax paying money has been wasted on this person for what will end up, virtually no return. Unless when she goes back, she really makes a big positive deal about her visit here, but with the world economy, who from USA will actually come here just because she may have liked it?

    How will this be measured by the government departments?

  21. Oh come on, Oprah hasn’t heard of Uluru before Paul Simon mentioned it to her? If there’s a couple of things American’s know about Australia it’s the Opera House, kangaroos, koalas, and Uluru.

    I want to know what else Paul Simon recommended and is she up for taking travel suggestions from other musicians?

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