In The Outback

Australians romance the outback, but few get there on account of vast distances and often harsh climate. I have seen a lot of the real outback, which lies hundreds of km outside of the capital cities. Armidale is NOT outback territory, and is part of the agricultural heartlands stretching 4000km from coastal north Queensland to South Australia's Eyre Peninsula.

Longreach, where I have just been for a few days on research for the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC), is true outback. Its region, Central West Queensland (CWQ), is the size of Germany and France together and accommodates the princely total of 15,000 people. It is largely flat grasslands, which support an extensive pastoral (cattle and sheep) industry. It is crossed by massive drainage channels which often have little or no water, although 2009 is different. This year, the creeks turned to raging torrents after much of Queensland went under water and there is still some water in them funnelling towards Lake Eyre (20m below sea level). Lake Eyre, which is normally a dry salt-pan, floods once in 6 to 10 years, and 2009 was one of those years kick-starting a massive rise in wold-life and a huge tourist industry. Because of all the rain, CWQ is currently a Garden of Eden, and we saw countless Kangaroos, Wild Pigs, Eagles and other birds of prey (e.g. Kites), Bustards (plains turkeys - pictured), Brolgas, and parrots.



The kangaroos seemed intent on committing suicide and it was fortunate that my colleague, Richard Stayner, had hired a massive 4WD Toyota Landcruiser. It was also useful for navigating water damaged unformed roads as we visited the odd rural property up to 60km from town. We were interviewing business, government and community leaders - mainly in the Blackall and Longreach districts.



Blackall lies on the Barcoo river (pictured), one of the heavily braided creeks flowing towards Lake Eyre, and that town has water reminding us of Rotorua. It is one of the few places where domestic water is never heated. It comes out of the ground from bores and is already over 100 degrees C at the time. So the problem is cooling water, not heating it. Alas, the water is heavily mineralised and smells just like the bubling mud-pools of NZ's Rotorua. Taking a shower is therefore a smell hazard, though the water itself is medically harmless.

Even though it is mid-winter, the daytime temperatures were high (up to 25 degrees C), but the starry nights were cool (about 4C). The clarity of the atmosphere (no pollution at all) and the brightness of the light were magical.

AS