Surviving the desert track PhD researcher Greg Cartan is looking at four wheel drive (4WD) bush track survival. But it’s survival of another kind — that of the businesses, not the users. Using two case studies, South Australia’s Oodnadatta Track and Western Australia’s Gunbarrel Highway, he is studying the potential for collaboration between land and business owners to better meet the needs of tourists along remote 4WD routes. Using semi-structured interviews with track stakeholders, Cartan is finding out what they think about tourism and the possibility of collaboration. “I’m looking at the supply side, at the small businesses, those people trying to etch out a living around the major tracks. Are these businesses viable or not? How might the situation be improved?” he said. “Identifying what four-wheel-drivers want, and how people living along the track can work collectively to service them is the crucial fit.” But he has identified several barriers to collaboration: isolation, distance (the Oodnadatta Track is about 600km, the Gunbarrel Highway 1400km), and possibly, the people themselves. “It takes an independent and strong minded person to create a life in such isolation. So by nature, collaboration might seem foreign to some of them,” he said. But solutions may lie in creative management practices. “The literature from the management arena on virtual teams might offer opportunities to make improvements,” he said. It would mean using technology to give people within the track system the ability to meet electronically and to work towards a common goal. “Like any team, a virtual team needs some kind of management structure. Critically, it needs some form of leadership. But these people don’t want a formal leader sitting on them. The answer might lie in treating these stakeholders as a type of self-managing team with a very light leadership hand. That could be the key to making significant improvement,” he said. Cartan expects to complete his PhD by the end of the year. |
The Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre (DKCRC) funds Cartan’s PhD research. CDU is a partner in the DKCRC along with 29 other organisations. For more details about his study, go to the Desert Knowledge CRC website. |
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