Travelcade was an Australian travel documentary series produced in Townsville, North Queensland. It debuted on 21 July 1990 and ran regularly through the 1990s, on Australian television. It was one of the first Australian travel shows produced and became a multi-award-winning program and was a major breakthrough for local production at a time when regional and Australian television series were at a minimum.
Travelcade was unique at the time in that it was a sort of pictorial current affairs program – as opposed to a straight documentary – that had a news angle, featuring the cultural, historical, environmental and social impacts in addition to the in-depth interviews with the locals and characters of the destination.
History
Travelcade was the first Australian weekly holiday and travel show to go to air in Queensland and was produced and directed by award-winning journalist and producer Rick Anderton for Anderton Enterprises and N.Q Media Services. Travelcade was produced and conceived by Anderton with the focus on tourism and its future – focusing on developments and initiatives that would have a major bearing on the tourism industry's future in the 1990s. It was a half-hour weekly television program that featured resorts, holidays destinations, events and attractions involved in tourism and travel throughout Australia and the Asia Pacific region.
The program first aired in 1990 as a trial called Travelcade '90 and later changed its name to Travelcade. The program initially started out featuring different travel highlights around Queensland and then extended right across Australia and to the Asia Pacific region, focussing on the outback and more isolated locations that were more difficult to access but ideal for family holidays.
The first show broadcast in 1990 reported on what people in Far North Queensland were doing to cope in the wake of the 1989 pilots’ dispute. It took a look at how Queensland promoted itself internationally and overseas and how Australia was seen as a tourist destination by TV viewers.
Achievements
Travelcade soon became a multi-award-winning program, running for 6 years, and became one of the longest running travel documentaries in Australia at its time. It was relayed to an estimated 6.8 million viewers throughout Australia and Oceania. Broadcast areas included Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Central Australia and Papua New Guinea on the TEN Queensland, Prime and the QSTV Satellite Networks.
Within a year of going to air, it won its first award and was praised by tourism bodies for its coverage and authenticity. In 1991 it won the Queensland Tourist and Travel Award for Electronic Media. It won the 4MK/Whitsunday Tourism Award in 1994, and was twice a finalist in the Australian Tourism Awards.
Historical significance
Travelcade reflects the regional production standards of its time in Australian film and television, and also preserves historical snapshots of different locations and their cultures in the 1990s.
Travelcade was one of Australia’s first and longest running multi-award-winning Travel documentary programs of its time that was produced in a regional location, Townsville. The program ran on prime-time television for 6 years reflecting Australian viewers’ interest in the travel documentary genre, and Travelcade in specific, during that period.
The programs followed current issues of the time including in-depth interviews with key figures and tourists of different destinations. It featured professional cinematography to highlight the natural wildlife, scenery, and different cultural events, issues and attractions of varying locations. This video evidence provides information and footage for an accurate reflection of how things were at the time. Many episodes highlighted the historical, environmental and cultural significance of the location.
Many of the destinations selected featured remote locations and involved all forms of travel, as such Travelcade was one of the first television crews to film and produce documentaries in some areas. Feature stories were produced on Rotorua and Queenstown in New Zealand, the Pilbara region in Western Australia and many remote villages and places in Papua New Guinea such as the Kokoda Trail, Sepik River, Mudmen of Asaro, Huli Wigmen of Tari Basin, Bilolo Highlands, the Manus Island and Rabaul (before and after the volcanic eruptions of 1994).