The Outback

“Outback” – What Does It Mean?

Along with “swag”, “damper” and  “a cold tinnie”, “Outback” is one of those great Australian terms that conjures up images in everyone’s mind.

Huge, empty, hot, dusty and dry might just go with “Outback”. But for sure there’s got to be heaps of red dirt. That amazing pindan colour that paints everything and leaves an image on every memory. The red dirt that soon flakes and powders into bulldust. You can see it hang in the still late afternoon air as a vehicle bounces down the dusty track not far from your camp. You feel it parching the back of your throat in the still of that same late afternoon. It coats your vehicle and paints the outside of your swag – the swag that sits on the roof-rack roaring through the sea of red dust thrown up by the dusty vehicles that make their dusty way down the dusty track.

So lets define outback as the vast, arid and remote areas well away from Australian civilization. Further away than “the Bush” and probably out beyond “the Black Stump”.

What does Outback mean to me?

It means driving long distances on isolated roads. Dodging stray stock and squinting into the blackness trying to keep your eyes wide open on the outback highway. In the real off-the-highway outback we don’t drive at night however.

You trundle along the bumpy dirt road, adjusting your speed to the size of the corrugations. By around four in the afternoon you start looking for a friendly place to pull over and roll out the swag. That afternoon red dust coats the back of your throat and you can almost feel the first cold beer sliding down once the swag is off the roof.

Outback – that place where stout hearts and belly laughs travel with you.

Where the chill of the morning brings a walk up a spinnifex covered hill to gaze across flat plains to the dull mauve coloured ranges in the distance as warm yellow rays light your surroundings. Where red dirt tracks are framed by strikingly blue skies as you park in the middle of the red dirt track knowing another vehicle may not come by for an hour or three. Where the local bar greets you with a set of bull horns jutting from a bleached white skull of a massive beast, hanging from the tin roof while a fire burns in a forty-four gallon drum surrounded by rustic benches cut from the local timber. Where the only petrol station for a couple hundred kilometers sells fuel at astronomical prices. BUT – they do let you fill up your water tanks from the garden hose for free!

Outback – where you have to be prepared for the worst. Spare tyres, tyre plugs, UHF radios, first aid kit, plenty of water, maps, GPS – you name it – might come in handy.

On most late afternoons the magic of the light, the stillness in the air and the beauty around you transform any roadside camp into a beautiful place. If you are fortunate, the still, dusty outback air will echo with the cries of cockatoos perched in nearby shady trees. The motionless afternoon air, weighed heavy by golden rays from the sun blankets you in a serenade from those cheerful birds. This magic afternoon blanket brings with it its own special smells. Wood- smoke, from dry, good timber hangs in the air; perhaps the smell of a steak sizzling on the grill over glowing coals; that indefinable smell of moisture that hangs in the small valley creek-bed nearby. And that beautiful silence, punctuated occasionally by the crackle of the campfire, the cockatoos in the trees and some evening crickets.

The campfire flickers in the fading afternoon light, sometimes steaks sizzle on the hotplate over the coals or maybe the camp oven has a stew or a roast simmering away.

Golden yellow light paints pretty pictures on the red dirt and the red rocks.

You crack a cold tinnie, sit back and soak it up.

Don’t need to talk much to your companions.

Late afternoon in the outback.

Red, dry dusty day blends into still serene and peaceful evening.

The air is magic.

You forget about the heat and the dust and the trials of the day just ending.

Outback, still solitude.

Peace.

Fact File:
Getting There:
Take the highway for a day or three. Then hit the dirt road out past the black stump. Drive a long way through the dust.

Best Time to visit:
Any time you can get away, but avoid the rain and avoid the very hot weather.

What to Take:
A sense of adventure.
A good friend or three.