This remarkable landscape offers an experience that’s unique in Australia

In Far North Queensland’s Burketown, 450 kilometres from the nearest big town of Mount Isa, Yagurli Tours has been a thriving business, with grey nomads a big part of their clientele. The adventurous set stop by as they explore the Savannah Way, a 3700-kilometre touring route running from Broome, Western Australia, to Cairns, Queensland.

A venture operated since 2017 by the region’s Gangalidda and Garawa people, Yagurli Tours has run fishing charters (yagurli means “fish” in local language) for barramundi enthusiasts, as well as cultural tours and star-gazing experiences showcasing the remarkable landscape surrounding Burketown, a place on the Albert River surrounded by wetlands, savannah, and the Gulf of Carpentaria only 25 kilometres away.

A few years back, a brainstorming session was held between leaders and Yagurli Tours management to conceive new ideas for the business and in turn, economic opportunities for the community. The notion of hot-air ballooning was floated. And from there, it took flight.

Yagurli approached Australia’s longest running hot-air ballooning company, Balloon Aloft, to partner with them in the venture. The Balloon Aloft owners were at once daunted, excited and honoured to be asked. But the daunted part of the response soon disappeared when Balloon Aloft pilots and crew took equipment up to Burketown for test flights.

Now Yagurli Tours is Australia’s only Indigenous-run hot air balloon operator. And thanks to a recent grant from the federal government, Yagurli has its very own balloon to fly proudly over the remarkable landscape.

The early birds of Melbourne might have seen it recently – a striking blue balloon with Yagurli’s logo, a stylised fish emblem by an Indigenous artist was running flights over the city as part of Balloon Aloft’s metropolitan adventures, before heading up to Queensland for the 2024 season.

That commences in June and runs until August. Besides the traditional morning flights, Yagurli is able to offer trips in the afternoons and evenings - making Burketown the only place in Australia where you can experience a commercial hot-air balloon flight in the PM hours.