When Australian Survivor comes to town everybody wins

With Australian Survivor filming in Charters Towers in Queensland, local business is booming.

About 350 production crew members have descended on the small town, about 130kms southwest of Townsville.

Production has been 10 months in the making for the Blood v Water series due in Q1 2022. A temporary accommodation camp has been set up on the outskirts of town.

Charters Towers Mayor, Cr. Frank Beveridge said, “Having a TV production like Survivor film here will create over 100 local jobs and provide over 5 million dollars into our local economy. The show will also showcase our beautiful natural environment to the world.

“Obviously with COVID it’s meant the major capital cities have closed down and people have come to the regions, but this is really the icing on the cake.

“We believe the local spend will be somewhere between $4 and $5 million, so it’ll be absolutely massive.

“Just one of the hardware [stores] alone, they’re selling enough equipment to build between four and five houses for this one production.”

Brad Chilton’s holiday park is fully booked with production crew and contractors.

“It’s been a godsend, particularly after last year when COVID first hit,” he said.

This is now his best year on record and Mr Chilton said he’d love to see the crew come back.

Charters Towers publican Jane Jesberg also says Survivor has “breathed life” into town.

“A lot of them have come from Melbourne, just in the last couple of weeks, and hadn’t eaten in a restaurant in 12 months,” she said.

Source: ABC
Photo: Charters Towers Regional Council.