Outback Articles

What is Outback Australia?

Outback Australia is the vast, remote, arid area of Australia, although the term usually can refer to any lands outside the main urban areas. The term "the outback" is generally used to refer to locations that are comparatively more remote than those areas named "the bush"

The Australian Bush is something unique, referring to landscape generally of dry soil, thin to thick woody shrubs and bushes under a sparse canopy of eucalypts trees.

Early explorers found the Australian outback extremely harsh but with persistence they identified area’s that had enough water to support repeater stations that would allow them to establish the Overland telegraph line around the 1870’s.

The bush was admired as a source of inspiration by the likes of poets Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson.  Through their poems and stories these poets allowed the reader to identify with the outback in their own way.

Relating to the bush in this way was a big step forward for the early Australians as they struggled with the outback.

The legacy of the harsh but fragile Australian outback is rich in the spirit of the bush.

Even in this rugged natural beauty there is plenty of wild life, though sometime hard to see as they hide in the bushes during the day to keep cool, venturing out in the evening and early morning.

Birdlife is abundant around the watering holes at dawn and dusk in the outback. You will see unique Budgerigars, Cockatoos, Galahs and many little varieties of finches, a must for bird watchers with a camera.

In central Australia camels thrive, used by early explorers for transport and to carry packs, they were abandoned when no longer needed and now roam the inland free with Brumbies – horses that have escaped from stations and become wild.

Horses are still used on outback stations although with the requirement to move cattle quicker, many stations have advanced to 4WD’s, motor bikes and helicopters.

Still there is the need for experienced outback station all-rounders – Jackaroo’s and Jillaroo’s to work and look after the livestock.

If it weren’t for the early explorers who risked their lives to open up the Australian Outback to settlement and those that continued in their footsteps, we would not be able to enjoy what the spectacular Australian Outback has to offer.  

Many of our early stock routes are now the highways we travel to access the numerous outback towns of Australia and the use of camels “Ships of the Desert” have become popular with tourism and camel racing in the outback.

June 16 2011