THE OUTBACK MADE EASY

Dreaming of an outback adventure but don’t quite know where to start? Read right on...

How old is the outback?

This is a ‘tree falling in the forest’ kind of question, and the answer depends on how you look at things: while the landmass of Australia began to form up to 500 million years ago, it is thought that parts of the northern outback were first inhabited up to 65,000 years ago, with movement into other arid regions 35,000 to 45,000 years ago.

Why is it called the outback?

The term outback originated in the 19th century to describe inland areas that were considered far away: they were ‘out the back of ’ the furthest place most people knew of.

How big is the outback?

It’s estimated to be somewhere near 5.6 million square kilometres, which would mean that it covers about 70 per cent of the mainland continent of Australia. That makes it bigger than the entire European Union or more than half the size of the United States.

Where exactly is the outback?

While it is an imperfect science to say exactly where the outback starts and finishes, in more general terms it encompasses all of the Northern Territory (with the exception of the greater Darwin region), large swathes of Western Australia, South Australia, and Queensland, and the north-western corner of NSW.

How many things in the outback can do you damage?

Not everything in the outback is out to get you. True, the arid regions of far west and southwest Queensland, far west NSW, the northeast corner of South Australia, and the southeast of the Northern Territory are home to the inland taipan, the most poisonous snake in the world. But the inland taipan is kinda reclusive and won’t come looking for you, and you probably won’t see hide nor hair of a western brown snake even if you visit its outback habitat on multiple occasions. You can swim with freshwater crocodiles, which are found in billabongs and waterholes throughout northern Australia and, while they might occasionally take a nibble, it is almost never fatal; saltwater crocodiles, on the other hand, do attack and kill humans, so it is important to check before swimming in the Northern Territory’s river systems and always obey warning signs.