Gidji Café opens doors to Mon Repos visitors
Delicious menu items including barramundi spring rolls, pepper berry chutneys, and lemon myrtle sauces are set to make visitor experiences with Mon Repos turtles even more enjoyable.
Visitors to the Mon Repos Turtle Centre near Bundaberg are in for treat with bush-tucker inspired food on the menu at the centre’s new Gidji Café that opened for the start of turtle-nesting season on 7 November 2021.
The Gidarjil Development Corporation received $490,000 through the State Government’s $7 million Growing Indigenous Tourism in Queensland (GITQ) Fund to build the Gidji Café at Mon Repos and the Burnett Heads commercial kitchen and training facility that will make some of the café’s food.
A new catering van, purchased with government support, will service the Gidji Café as well as corporate businesses in Bundaberg.
The café, commercial kitchen and catering business will provide training that helps young Indigenous people in the Wide Bay – Burnett region find jobs.
The GITQ Fund offers Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples an opportunity to run tourism operations based on their culture.
It was set up in 2019 to support new and unique Indigenous tourism products and experiences found nowhere else in the world.
Mon Repos is a significant tourism drawcard with approximately 12,000 visitors during turtle season from November to March and 30,000 visitors across the whole year.
It is a world-renowned site where Gidarjil Land and Sea rangers work with Queensland Parks and Wildlife rangers to protect flatback, loggerheads and green turtles that return to their natal beaches along the Woongarra Coast for nesting.