Tourism Australia Announces Graduate Program, Describes 60,000 Years of Shared Culture as a “Tangible Chance to Build a Career” for Applicants With a Good Cover Letter

Tourism Australia has launched a First Nations Graduate Program to bring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander professionals into the tourism industry – an industry which has, for decades, used imagery and stories derived from 60,000 years of Indigenous culture to market Australia internationally and which has now concluded it would be quite nice if some First Nations people were involved on a salary basis as well.

“For decades, the warmth and generosity of 60,000 years of Indigenous culture has been shared to sell the Australian story to the world,” the agency’s announcement read, noting this without appearing to notice that it was, in the same breath, the argument for why the program was overdue rather than innovative.

The program offers flexible working arrangements, above-minimum superannuation and a “robust learning and development platform” – which Tourism Australia describes as a culturally safe environment where First Nations individuality is “celebrated” and voices are “genuinely heard,” representing an estimated improvement over environments where voices were moderately heard or heard but then immediately overruled by a steering committee.

Industry experts noted that 82 per cent of international travellers say they are interested in First Nations experiences when visiting Australia, while only 12 per cent are actually aware those experiences exist. Tourism Australia’s communications team, which is responsible for awareness, was not asked to comment on this particular statistic.

Applications for the post-July 2026 intake close 30 April. Candidates must submit a CV and a cover letter. Sixty thousand years of living connection to Country is not a mandatory requirement but will be viewed favourably.