Flesh and fruit boost tourism

Tori Mainey | 5th May 2009

MICHELLE Burton doesn't imagine herself as a Miss October.

Nude not rude: The owner of Bella Rosa's Tea Rooms Michelle Burton takes it off to promote the GBWT Nude Food Trail calender competition.

Warwick Daily News

MICHELLE Burton doesn't imagine herself as a Miss October but the Thulimbah woman is sure - with a few strategically-placed fruits and a bit of imagination - Granite Belt Wine and Tourism (GBWT) will create a 2010 nude calendar with a difference.

The owner of Bella Rosa's Tea Rooms is one of many businesses on the self-drive food and wine trail launched last November and will be the focus of a calendar competition open to photographers throughout the region and beyond.

“We hope to see something like strategically-placed lemons or watermelons depending on how big the model is,” Mrs Burton joked.

“Each month has a different theme, for example October is sweet things; we hope people will be creative with their photography.

“It's all very exciting and we are trying to get the community involved.”

GBWT director of marketing Michele Cozzi assured nude did not necessarily mean rude, with the images submitted intended to be “fun or modestly suggestive”.

“It will be like the film Calender Girls - that sort of thing with nothing untasteful,” she said.

“It might not even be women... it could be a couple of two year olds in a paddling pool eating an ice cream - as long as it was berry ice cream.”

Aside from it being the Queensland wine capital, the Granite Belt has a fruit and vegetable industry worth $130 million annually.

“Nude means as nature intended and food that is in our region and consumed when it is in season,” Mrs Cozzi said.

“We all think it is progress to be eating strawberries in the middle of winter but really they have been flown from across the world and nature didn't intend that.”

Mrs Cozzi said not only would the calendar encourage tourists but it was intended to encourage people to eat more local produce.

“Cherries should be eaten when they are being harvested in our region,” she said.

“Really what we are trying to communicate is we are a big producing region.”

Send your photos to GBWT Calendar Competition, 157 High Street, Stanthorpe by May 20.

Participants may be amateur or professional photographers but must be over the age of 18.

Photo Themes

January - berries

February - vintage wines

March - apples

April - pears

May - olives and savouries

June - green vegetables