The area known as the Australian Outback, has no boundaries, nor locality. It is a place engendered by the human spirit. A place deep within ourselves, where we instinctively recognise ourselves as being a primeval soul and at-one with nature; or in conflict with our world.

Places known as 'The Outback' are many in Australia. They cover vast regions. However the one thing which they have in common is a sense of isolation, a sense of being a mere, small creature in the greater scheme of things. They are places where the laws of the land are muted by the demands of survival. This is 'The Outback' and it is what strikes the greatest awe, or fear within the heart of the civilized individual.

In visiting 'The Outback' you have a vast choice of places to go. However in making that choice you also have a responsibility to attend to the demands of surviving your tour. Following are some of the outback regions that will hopefully bring to you a sense of what it is that stirs the hearts of Aussies when you mention 'The Outback'.

At the southern end of the continent, the Great Australian Bight is where the Nullarbor Plain dramatically ends in a vast, sheer cliff-face of limestone. An escarpment that plummets into the Southern Ocean, stretching for over 200 klm in an unbroken cliff line believed to be the longest unbroken cliff line in the world. The Nullarbor is a enormous flat-topped plateau stretching some 800 klm in distance and covering around 200,000 sq klm, where vegetation is exceptionally sparse (nulla arbor meaning no tree). The Nullarbor however receives much more rain than many regions, but it is the underlying limestone which being so porous gives little chance for vegetation to benefit.

It is this place which gave rise to the fictionary Lillyput of the Gulliver legends. Cold cloudy rain is not uncommon yet it is when the wind swings and blows from the hot interior that the temperatures soar on the glaring white limestone plains. Evidence of ancient tribes dates back some 24,000 yrs into a time when places such as the Koonalda caves were prized for their permanent water and their deposits of flint stone used in the making of ancient tools.

Plains often visited by carpets of wildflowers which come after the flooding rains; and common are the grass fires, struck by lightning, which turn the plains into a blackened landscape broken only by the roadside strips of greenery which feed the animals and birds of the plain.

In many places the limestone plain is bordered by the deep rich loam to the west and the reddened deserts of the 'Centre' which support different worlds. However at the head of the Bight (at its eastern edge) vast coastal dunes roll across the land forming a rampart against the Southern Ocean.

One of the greater mysteries of the Nullarbor is found far beneath the desolate flat surface. Here are the vast subterranean cave systems which support rivers, lakes and caverns and which stretch for kilometre upon kilometre. They hold a majestic beauty in their cathedral chambers and mirrored lake surfaces. The vast subterranean lakes and caverns hold not only the whispers of mystique but also the mummified and fossilised remains of animals from migrations across the eons of time. Many of the caverns and tunnels remaining unexplored and unmapped to this day due to their isolation and inaccessibility.

To travel across the Nullarbor is a desire struck firmly into the heart and soul of many Aussies. To face the endless road stretching into the horizon forever on a flat tabletop surface. A road which brings you to the golden mile of Kalgoorlie-Boulder and Coolgardie. Reputed to be one of the richest gold bearing areas in the world and where Australia witnessed one of its last great goldrushes at the turn of the century. Or to breech the plain in the rail link which stretches from the eastern shores to the western shore, in a tour that takes days upon days.

Another noteable event in the district of Kalgoorlie was the legalisation of the game "Two-up". A game favoured by convicts of old and miners alike and played with a coarse board called a kip, and two pennies tossed into the air at the call from the spinner. Bets being laid on the fall of the coins. It is a game adopted by Australians and which has the reputation of being probably one of the fairest and least 'fixable' gambling games in the world. Although illegal it flourished in the fledgling communities of the continent until a raid took place during Kalgoorlie race week. A number of notable personalities were caught in the police net, and fearing a thoroughly embarrassing outcome, the state government decided to legalise the Kalgoorlie game. It's one proviso was that women, formerly barred from the excitement of the tin walled "two-up" ring, should now be allowed to participate in the game. Some believe that this proviso was allowed to encourage the men to modify their gambling.

Of the Nullarbor Plains, the Dreaming legends of the Aboriginies tell of a great snake called Ganba or Jeedara who lived in the subterranean labyrinth. The sounds of his breathing can be heard in the strange gurgling which sometimes emanate from the subterranean blow holes of the plains. To journey the Nullarbor is a journey into a timeless and unforgettable land.

The great red deserts of Australia are vast and time worn worlds of the ancient spirits and Dreamtime creatures. A place where the footsteps of men and animals alike have left their mark, baked into the hard earth by the often indescribable strength of the sun. The deserts are timeless plains and dunes, drifting sands and tortured trees and scrub. However buried like time capsules in lost pockets can be found tropic wonderlands and lost ancient places, which nurture and foster life in splendid isolation like small worlds scattered through out the timeless heavens.

The desert sands are baked relentlessly by the sun, mellowing their colour, but beneath the surface the ore rich red can be seen where flood waters have carved a path in the shifting ground. The deserts are not all sandy dunes. Formed thousands of years ago they contain gibber plains, large areas covered by small, rounded pebbles, rocky ranges and low scrubby vegetation.

Extensive salt lakes and dry watercourses also are features of this tortured landscape. It is a fascinating place for travellers and scientists alike. The Great Deserts cover a vast region stretching through three of the five states and one of the two Territories of Australia.

On the western side of the continent, near Broome, the desert tumbles into the broad shallows of the Indian Ocean. Western Australia, the largest of the Australian States and Territories, is mostly desert, three quarters the size of Europe. The Great Sandy Desert, one of the greatest of the deserts which covers an area that could accommodate Italy and Great Britain with little trouble, stretches from the Northern Territory border to the Indian Ocean and only a fool would believe that it were an abandoned waste. Though it remains to this day a sparcely populated region.

Underlying the shifting sands, flooded annually in the drainage of the 'Big Wet' season, are the huge sedimentary basins thought to contain vast fields of oil and natural gas. Also known to be rich in gold and other precious metals, and yet unmapped fields of precious gems and stones such as the Argyle diamond fields in the northern Kimberly region, discovered in 1979. The Argyle mines are now the worlds largest diamond producers in terms of carats, with some 5% of output being precious gems. Including the lustrous, delicately pink diamonds that are unique to the Argyle mine. Prospectors and miners however are often defeated by the heat, lack of water and remoteness. Leaving bones, parched and dry, littering the desert sands over history.

Traveling across this vast landscape in a family car from south to north, commonly refered to as "going up through the Centre", you are confined to the one road. This is the Stuart Highway, also known fondly as 'the track', linking the southern continent edge to its northern edge. 'The track' is some 3,200 klm in length and aside from its beginnings in Adelaide, and its endings in Darwin, has only two towns of notable size along its length. These being Alice Springs and Catherine. However places of notable interest are much more frequent.

Although tourists have been know to undertake the might of 'the track' on such things as a push bike, many more have died in the undertaking. Each year 'the track' takes its share of victims and vanquished alike with little remorse.

In arterial roads leading off 'the track' you can visit such wonders as Uluru (Ayres Rock), Kings Canyon, Catherine Gorge, Mataranka (a place of beauty made famous by the movie "We of the Never Never") and a myriad of other places of majestic beauty and timelessness. You can delve into the world of opalised wealth found at Coober Pedy and visit the hilarious waterless boat races of the Todd river.

The crown of the central desert region though is Uluru and its sister outcrop Katatjuta. But that is another adventure worthy of a place of its own. Traveling the vast 'Outback' region requires preparation, fortitude and wisdom. It is not an undertaking taken lightly, nor is it one you would survive with any degree of foolishness. With air travel people are frequently lulled into a sense of security which has costs more than one life each year.

The hazards of the 'Outback' are as numerous as they are indescribable. However, what commonly delivers people to their fate is lack of understanding, lack of preparation and arrogance in their unfailing faith in their ability to survive. It is a Dreamtime world of great beauty and great danger. It is a vast wilderness about which, comparitively few, have a true and realistic understanding. It is not a world one ventures into without considerable preparation, but for those fortunate to experience 'The Outback' and its many shades of reality... it is an unforgettable adventure.