Outback
The Outback is our ultimate mystery. It’s a massive place
where the immense distances, raw nature and vast
emptiness of our land are most impressive, yet you won’t
find it on any map!
A place stretched so far across endless tracts of the oldest, driest and flattest country in the world that you can see the curvature of the Earth from its dead straight roads, where the silence can be deafening and yet is a doorstep to World Heritage wonder, and runs rich with water - if you know where to look.
The Outback is as much an idea as a place. When we say ‘Outback’ we mean all of it; the land, the sky, the stars, the pubs, the tough early settlers and their descendants who run cattle, sheep, camels, emu and other industries in the middle of this Great Southern Land. The early passion, determination, mateship and vision of this breed of pioneering Australians have become a legendary part of the national identity.
The Outback has a remarkable history too, rich with tales of bushrangers, hero pioneers, gold rushes, farmers, eccentrics, Aboriginal myths and tribal history, even famous dogs and camel drivers. This is where doctors arrive by air and children travel to class by radio and satellite TV. It’s where people have learnt to respect the forces of nature; heat, cold, crocodiles and loneliness, and carve a life out of them too.
Some Outback facts
• Australia is the oldest, flattest, most stable continent in the world – this is the essence of our Outback.
• The longest stretch of straight railway track in the world crosses the Nullarbor Plain. From Nurina in Western Australia to near Watson in South Australia, the track is dead straight for 487 kms. The Nullabor Plain also hosts the longest stretch of straight tarred road in the world at 146.6 kms.
• The remote Kimberley in Western Australia is one of the world’s last great wildernesses, covering 420,000 sq kms (around 42% larger than the United Kingdom and 20% larger than Germany). It features vast horizons, ancient gorges and places of immense beauty unlike anything on Earth.
• Coober Pedy in South Australia is known as the opal capital of the world. Its population is made up of more than 40 nationalities and, with year-round extremes in temperature, more than 50% of the population live in below-ground ‘dugouts’.
• Kalgoorlie in Western Australia is not only Australia’s largest producer of gold, but has the world’s largest political electorate - covering a mammoth 2.2 million sq kms.
• The world’s longest continuous fence known as the ‘dingo fence’, runs through central Queensland for 5,531 kms. It is 1.8 metres high.
• The callout area for doctors of the Royal Flying Doctor Service (which provides aeromedical emergency and health care services for people in regional and remote Australia) is 7 million sq kms (or 4/5ths of the continent).
• Anna Creek Station in South Australia is the largest cattle station in the world, covering an area of 24,000 sq kms (6 million acres) – making it about the same size as Belgium.
• The Outback town of Silverton near the New South Wales/ South Australia border has featured in more than 140 films and commercials including Mad Max 2, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Razorback, Young Einstein, and A Town Like Alice.
• Australia produces 95 per cent of the world’s precious opals and 99 per cent of its black opals
• The Combo Waterhole outside Winton in central Queensland is a peaceful billabong lined by paperbark gums. It is also the birthplace of Australia’s national folk anthem, Waltzing Matilda, which was first performed here in a local pub.
• More than 80 per cent of our entire population live on just one per cent of Australia’s land.8 The outback of South Australia contains 80% of the state’s area but less than 0.75% of its population.
• In some parts of Australia, mail is delivered by light plane. The 2,600 km Port August-Boulia mail run is believed to be the longest in the world. Commencing in South Australia, the run incorporates 25 Outback cattle stations and small Outback towns like Birdsville and Innamincka. It takes two-days to complete.
Uniquely Australian
• Be immersed in an Outback experience on a cattle and sheep station where you can join in mustering, shearing, whip cracking, horse riding and cooking a meal or two around the campfire while watching the billy boil. Discover just how remote these stations can be when you realise you need to travel tens, or even hundreds, of kilometres just to visit a neighbour.
• Fashion yourself in the style of Outback people, with a uniquely Australian Akubra hat, Drizabone jacket, Blundstone boots and dungarees.
• Cool off at an Outback pub – where you’ll be sure to meet plenty of locals. The pub is the one place guaranteed to bring people together eager to share their news and stories, to build relationships, escape the extremes of the land, have a bit of fun and a good Aussie ale. Bring some spare change as you may be asked to buy a raffle ticket, to shout the bar, to bet on a cane toad race or to partake in a game of ‘Two-Up’. And don’t worry if you over-indulge as there’ll always be a bed for you and a hot meal.
• Make a splash in a wonderland of waterholes, rivers, gorges and creeks that course through our massive Outback deserts. Many of these waterholes are bone dry in summer and during droughts but spring quickly back to life in a spectacular fashion when it rains. If you witness this phenomenon after a long, dry spell, then, you will likely ask the question: “where did the fish, frogs and other water life come from?”
• Sleep under a galaxy of stars in an Aussie ‘swag’ – your very own camp bed set beside the fire in an uncovered camp site. • Take a visit to a country town where you can experience firsthand the lives and rituals of Outback locals who regularly gather in the main street on a Saturday morning to shop, have a haircut and to compare grain, livestock and wool prices. Time your visit to the local races, rodeo, dance or fete and join in the party atmosphere or visit a local agricultural show to see the best cooks, creators of arts and crafts and breeders of livestock in the region.
• Explore by self-drive car, 4WD or on tailor-made tours with naturalists, guides, bush tucker experts or fishing experts and discover many other facets of Outback life. If you do go exploring by yourself, ensure you take plenty of water and fuel – and let people know where you are going – as Australia’s Outback can be very unforgiving. The Outback is as much an idea as a place. It simply gets in your blood.