Travel
Cracow, Queensland: A hidden gem in the Australian Outback with a storied past
Not all roads lead to Cracow. In fact, getting to this town in the heart of the Outback requires careful preparation.
Halfway there, the GPS signal disappears. And, as there are no petrol stations along the route, you need to bring an adequate supply of fuel if you don’t want to get stuck in the middle of nowhere.
Cracow, however, rewards the traveller’s effort. After a long, pothole-laden journey, you finally see a town that — although it does not resemble Kraków, the better-known Polish city — has its own subtly charming, albeit austere, character.
The town’s ties to Poland remain unclear.
Some say that the founder of the first settlement in the area had a Polish wife and was moved by her compatriots’ struggle for freedom in the 19th century.
But others believe that the name comes from the rustling of dry branches (or crack), which are abundant in this harsh climate.
Either way, what is beyond doubt is that this place has long attracted people with an explorer’s spirit and a desire for something more than an ordinary life.
Cracow was one of the last towns to emerge during the gold rush of the 1930s. At its peak, it had a bustling population of around 10,000 people, and almost 20,000 kg of gold was mined locally.
Eventually, its good fortune came to an end — the gold mine closed and Cracow turned into a ghost town.
The population dropped to around 50, and its centre was filled with rusty buildings no longer reminiscent of its past vibrancy.
Prominent among these dilapidated locales, however, is the Cracow Hotel and Pub, run by Stuart and Nikki Burke along with their two children, Brophy and Chilli.
Although the local gold mine has resumed operations after being deserted for years, the town is far from revived.
Euronews headed to Cracow to find out how a pub in the middle of nowhere works, and to tell the story of the people who have decided to breathe life into this forgotten place.
A magnet for adventurers
Cracow Pub and Hotel owner Stuart Burke is one of those rare free spirits willing to choose the Australian wilderness as his home.
Stuart was part of a troupe of tent boxers in his youth and participated in fights under the nickname “Kid Goanna”. He and other fighters travelled from town to town, offering a rare moment of entertainment for hard-working farmers and miners in the Australian Outback.
The Cracow Hotel had been in the hands of another boxer before — for many years it was owned by legendary boxer Fred Brophy, an icon of the Australian tent boxing scene.
It was with this troupe that Stuart Burke first came to town, and the Cracow pub is where he met his future wife, Nikki.
When Brophy announced that he was going to sell the property, the Burkes immediately decided to buy it — to ensure that the Cracow story continued.
“Twenty-three years later, we’re married, have two children and run the pub where we met,” says Stuart.
But life in the Australian wilderness is far from perfect. Parcels cannot be sent to Cracow, and the nearest shop is a 3.5-hour drive away. The Burkes do what they can, but at the height of the tourist season they have to travel this route up to once a week.
Stuart isn’t complaining, however: “We didn’t even have a road until 10 years ago.”
Despite the obvious challenges of living in Cracow, the family cannot imagine living anywhere else. They agree that Cracow is their home, and running the pub is their way of life. As Nikki recalls, since its founding in 1938, the pub has showed its “ability to survive” even through the worst of times.
‘You have to get lost’ in order to get to Cracow
Stuart stresses that there are two ways to get to Cracow. “You either have to be very meticulous to get to us or get very, very lost!”
The spiritual atmosphere and reputation of the last town of the gold rush era attracts a particular type of visitor.
“All types of people visit us, but especially vagabonds, travellers and even rock stars,” he says. The walls and ceilings of the pub, covered from top to bottom with visitors’ signatures, are an archive of all those who have managed to reach this remote place.
But Cracow values loyalty above all: the area’s permanent residents visit the pub regularly, and the staff know their orders by heart. It is a place to exchange good and bad news, overhear local gossip and complain about the weather.
The pub’s owners are particularly proud that they manage to attract customers despite not having the poker machines, so-called ‘pokies’, that are booming in popularity in the Australian Outback.
Gambling addiction is one of the country’s leading public health challenges. Australians lose more than $25bn (€13.9bn) each year on legal gambling, making them the world “leaders” in terms of per capita losses.
The Cracow Pub is resisting these trends by trying to build a local identity around other activities.
The owners recently became involved in organising a rally of Cracovians — both descendants of former miners and those whose ties to the town are purely emotional.
Residents also recognise the role played by the reopened mine. Although it has not contributed to significant population growth, it is sustaining the local community.
The Cracowians stubbornly refuse to let their town disappear from the map.
Is it haunted?
In recent years, the town has gained yet another face and one straight out of a horror film.
A film crew has moved into the abandoned hospital in Cracow, and the town has grown into a mecca for independent horror films.
Special effects creator and make-up artist Kadey Platt, who works as a bartender in the Cracow pub after hours, explains that although she ended up in the town by accident, she has now lived there for two years.
“I’m a city girl. I never imagined myself in a place like this,” she says.
Platt and her team were looking for a location for a horror film about a zombie kangaroo. The strangeness of the Cracow pub seemed ideal, and she later decided to stay on.
Along with her crew, she bought a nearby abandoned hospital and turned it into their command centre. As she recalls, “the quietness that Cracow offers is conducive to creativity. There are no distractions, instead you can find a kangaroo mum relaxing by the threshold”.
Platt emphasises that the contrast between the quiet town and the lively pub never ceases to amaze her. “These walls are full of history,” she says.
Small-town ghosts
The spirits of Cracow are particularly looked after by Brophy, the 20-year-old son of the pub’s owners, who was named after the legendary boxer through whom his parents met.
Together with his mum, Brophy has been researching unmarked graves in Cracow. Thanks to their efforts, they were able to restore the cemetery and commemorate the miners and locals buried there whose names are no longer remembered.
As he points out, although no one has found gold in Cracow on their own for years, the ground here hides other stories.
Brophy is interested in the fate of the indigenous inhabitants of the area — their culture, customs and tragic fates. He explores the traces of massacres perpetrated on Aboriginal people by white settlers in pursuit of gold. “It’s an unwritten chapter,” he says.
Just as we were about to leave Cracow, a car pulled up in front of the pub.
One of the locals came up to Brophy with a box full of old newspaper cuttings, found somewhere in an attic in Cracow. “I’ve got some new stories for you,” he said.
And so we saw with our own eyes how a pub in the Australian wilderness had become a custodian of the memory of a small town and its intricate history.
“That’s the way it is with Cracow,” says Stuart. “It may not be on the way, but you can’t stop coming back to it!”
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By Euronews Travel
Published on
Norway is set to become the latest European destination to introduce a tourist tax to combat concerns about rising visitor numbers.
Lawmakers approved the new levy on Thursday, which allows municipalities to introduce a 3 per cent tax on overnight stays in “areas particularly affected by tourism”.
The law allows local authorities to apply the tax at their own discretion, and it will be added to accommodation charges. Authorities will also be allowed to adjust the percentage based on the season.
The funds raised by the tax will be used exclusively to improve tourism infrastructure projects that benefit both visitors and local people. Municipalities will have to demonstrate that their facilities are inadequate and have their plans approved by the government to spend the funds.
Cecilie Myrseth, Norway’s minister of trade and industry, said on social media that her government had reached a “historic agreement” to introduce a tourism tax that was “in line with what they have in the rest of Europe”.
The country is the latest in a string of European nations introducing or increasing visitor levies to tackle the growing problem of overtourism. A tax may also be applied to cruise ships that make stops in the country, particularly in areas that are most affected by overtourism.
Norway is experiencing a tourism boom
As tourists increasingly choose cooler, northern European destinations to get away from the heat, Norway has experienced a boom in visitor numbers.
Last year, a record-breaking 38.6 million people booked accommodation in the country. That includes more than 12 million overnight stays by foreign tourists – a 4.2 per cent increase from 2023.
Some previously quiet destinations have been overwhelmed, like the Lofoten islands, where eye-catching images of hiking trails posted on social media have led to an influx of visitors. With a population of 24,500 people distributed across several small towns and villages, keeping up with the cost of all these new visitors has been hard.
A recent survey by industry organisation Norwegian Tourism Partners found that 77 per cent of people in Tromsø, in northern Norway above the Arctic Circle, thought there were too many tourists there. Visitors have been drawn by the Northern Lights, wildlife excursions, Sami cultural experiences and what the city itself has to offer.
The increase in tourism has caused tension with local residents across Norway as infrastructure has struggled to keep up with the boom. Facilities like public toilets and car parks have been overwhelmed in popular destinations.
Some residents have even reported cases of people using their back gardens as toilets, and bemoaned the increased traffic clogging up Norway’s roads.
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As millions of holidaymakers prepare to head to the Canary Islands this summer, authorities have issued a wildfire pre-alert across the archipelago.
The warning, announced by the General Directorate of Emergencies on Sunday, applies to tourist hotspots El Hierro, La Palma, La Gomera, Tenerife and Gran Canaria.
It comes as the islands enter a high-risk fire period following the wet season, as hot, dry winds known as the ‘calima’ begin blowing in from the Sahara Desert.
Fires are common, but they haven’t slowed tourism
The risk of wildfire is nothing new for the Canary Islands.
The volcanic terrain, Mediterranean climate and fire-adapted vegetation – plants that have evolved to thrive in fire-prone environments – make them susceptible to summer blazes, and scientists say wildfires are part of the archipelago’s ecological rhythm.
Some of the worst occurred in 2023, when forest fires ravaged Tenerife, destroying more than 15,000 hectares of land and forcing 12,000 people to evacuate. The blaze was later found to have been started by arsonists.
This year, officials are urging tourists and locals alike to take extreme caution, warning against launching fireworks near forests and discarding cigarettes on dry ground.
But even as the fire warnings roll in, the Canaries’ appeal shows no signs of slowing down.
In 2024, the islands welcomed nearly 18 million tourists, including a record-breaking 15.5 million international arrivals. Among them, British travellers led the way, recording 6.3 million visits – up 500,000 from 2023.
Concerns about overtourism mount amid record arrivals
While the Canary Islands continue to attract record numbers of tourists, residents are increasingly voicing concerns about overtourism.
In April 2024, tens of thousands of islanders participated in protests, holding signs that read “the Canary Islands have a limit” while rallying against rising housing costs, environmental damage and the strain on public services.
Over Easter this year, about 80,000 hospitality workers in Tenerife, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierrowalked out in a dispute with unions over pay.
The surge in short-term rentals has been especially contentious. Locals have reported getting priced out of their neighbourhoods as properties are converted into holiday lets, the cost of living soars and wages stagnate.
Despite these concerns, tourism remains a significant part of the Canary Islands’ economy, accounting for approximately 35 per cent of its GDP.
Tenerife still reigns supreme
After welcoming seven million tourists in 2024, Tenerife remains the most visited island.
Its year-round sunshine and wide beaches keep it a firm favourite among families, especially during the UK’s summer school break and throughout the winter months.
As the peak summer season picks up, local tourism boards have made no indication that the fire pre-alerts will disrupt travel plans.
But authorities remain focused on prevention this year.
More than 2,000 firefighters are on standby. Meanwhile, the government has distributed detailed safety advice, urging people to prepare a go-bag, stay informed and follow emergency evacuation or shelter-in-place instructions if fires erupt.
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Travel
Violent turbulence hits Ryanair flight in Germany, forcing an emergency landing and injuring 9
By Euronews Travel with AP
Published on
Severe storms in southern Germany forced a Ryanair flight to make an emergency landing late Wednesday after violent turbulence injured nine people on board, German police said in a statement Thursday.
The flight, travelling from Berlin to Milan with 179 passengers and six crew members, encountered turbulence so intense around 8:30 pm that the pilot was forced to make an unscheduled landing at Memmingen Airport in Bavaria.
Eight passengers and one crew member were hurt.
Three people were taken to the hospital in Memmingen for treatment; the other injured people were released after receiving outpatient treatment. As a precaution, all passengers were checked for injuries by the emergency services.
Authorities did not permit the plane to continue flying, and the airline arranged bus transport for passengers. Milan is about 380 kilometres south of Memmingen.
More bad weather expected in Germany
Elsewhere in the region, storms damaged several homes in Ulm, Baden-Württmberg, according to the German news agency dpa.
In the Donaustetten district, strong winds tore roofs off multiple row houses, rendering them uninhabitable, though no injuries were reported. Fire officials suspect a small tornado or waterspout caused the damage. The German Weather Service (DWD) is investigating, according to dpa.
Storm-related emergency calls also came from other areas in southern Germany, where damage was mostly limited to fallen trees and flooded basements.
The DWD warned of further storms on Thursday, 5 June, with hail, strong winds, and localised heavy rain expected.
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