Our Country Advisory Service

The Our Country Advisory Service (OCAS) provides targeted support, advice, toolkits and voice to emerging and established Indigenous tourism operators, sectoral aligned businesses, and community owned organisations.

The service helps businesses to establish and grow their tourism products and services, so they can expand the tourism sector and create new jobs.

The OCAS is delivered by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples employed by the department to provide one-on-one culturally trusted engagement with the tourism sector, so businesses and aspiring enterprises can identify their tourism commercial offering and focus in on business establishment and grow through consumer uptake.

Our dedicated Indigenous Tourism Business Development Officers in Thursday Island, Northern Peninsula Area, Cairns, Gold Coast and Brisbane have been critical in providing access to support, advice on ways to pivot businesses and identifying industry mobilisation opportunities.

The OCAS has supported more than 200 Indigenous businesses through guidance and referral pathways, and assisted more than 130 businesses to grow and progress through the discovery phase.

Senior Business Development Officers

The OCAS includes dedicated officers for each region in Queensland:

• Torres Strait Islands, Perina Drummond (perina.drummond@dtis.qld.gov.au)
• Northern Peninsula Area, Stephanie Toy (stephanie.toy@dtis.qld.gov.au)
• North Queensland, Mali Ingram (mali.ingram@dtis.qld.gov.au)
• Central Queensland (including Cherbourg), Christina Canendo (christina.canendo@dtis.qld.gov.au)
• South East Queensland, Penny Hamilton (penny.hamilton@dtis.qld.gov.au)

Download the OCAS Senior Business Development Officers’ boundaries map [PDF 540KB].

More information

Email Tourism@dtis.qld.gov.au to access the service.