About Quilty Tours
A passion for the Outback
For more than 40 years, driven by a love for the remote parts of this country and for the people who live out there, intrigued always by the history of these places, Richard Quilty has turned his passion for the ‘Outback’ into the reality that is a Quilty Tour today.
Space and Comfort
Restricting his tours exclusively to members of the National Trust, Richard applies the same standard of care to each passenger today as he did when he first took his extended family into the country so many years ago. Both Richard and a member of the National Trust Tours Committee, personally accompany each tour. Only ever half filled, each passenger is offered the space and comfort of 2 seats on a large rest-room equipped coach. The tours are fully accommodated in the best available accommodation, all meals and drinks are included – ‘all inclusive’ means just that. There is no camping!
The Outback a place of city dwellers dreams
Richard has an ability to identify some of those characters who turn the Outback into that place of city dwellers’ dreams. These characters he blends into the tours – the hospitality of a CWA branch, dinner with a young family who run 9,000 sq km of cattle country, the custodian of the Dig Tree, an Aborigine of the Simpson Desert, third and fourth generation station owners, dinner with a psychologist who thrives out there so much more than he ever did lecturing at La Trobe University, or a Melbourne girl who races camels. The long list of such people, some of whom you will meet on any Tour, will stimulate every enquiring mind.
Unforgettable Experience
The western escarpment of the Flinders Ranges at sunset – changing colours of the range for 100km; 9,000 sq km of shimmering white salt rolls to the horizon as you top a gentle sandhill at Lake Eyre, blue smoke curls from the fire as water boils for morning tea on the banks of Cooper Creek, sunset on the most beautiful solitary red sandhill west of Windorah, the frost at Mintaro on a cold winter morning, the overpowering birdsounds in the gorge at Carnarvon after dawn. The list is as endless as the country is big – the Mitchell Grass Plains beyond Winton give an entirely new meaning to the expression ‘open space’. Combine the remarkable beauty of this Outback with the hospitality and friendship of people you will meet along the way - a Quilty Tour really does provide an unforgettable experience.
About the Coach
Richard charters the coach from a small efficient company in Sydney. A 48 seater, rest-room equipped, sealed against dust, air bag suspension enables the coach to ‘lift’ over creek crossings or rough sections. Since 2004 ‘Freddy’ who works for the company has driven every Quilty Tour; Freddy is now a fixture on every tour. Not only is he an extremely careful and competent coach driver, Freddy is also a fully qualified mechanic. The coach is equipped to travel in country where coaches are seldom otherwise seen, and it comes equipped with a satellite phone for emergencies.
Weather Conditions
The routes of Quilty Tours means that much travelling is often undertaken on gravel or unformed roads and station tracks. The routes are always subject to prevailing weather conditions. Tours may be delayed or significantly re-routed because of weather events. Richard and Freddy will always seek to avoid or overcome these events in the most appropriate manner – your safety and comfort is always their first priority.