The Australian Outback

" I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains,

of rugged mountain ranges,  of droughts and flooding rains. "

- Australian poet Dorothea Mackellar

Famous Australian poet Dorothea Mackellar penned this now famous verse of My Country while holidaying in England in 1904, perfectly summing up the dynamic South Australian Outback. In today's modern world of clutter, frenzied work lives and urban sprawl, we struggle to define an area as vast and isolated as the Australian Outback. Early pioneers were overwhelmed with its size and complexity - in 1888 it was written that

 " imaginations were exhausted in picturing the physical

appearance of the mysterious interior "

Ernest Farenc, The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888.

As early as 1911, the war historian CEW Bean predicted that " ......the life of that mysterious country will affect the Australian imagination much as the life of the sea has that of the English"  and he was right. Even though 86 percent of the Australian population lives near the coast, the Outback is enshrined in the national psyche, fascinating poets and artists and our self character. 

A unique tourism experience

At about a million square kilometres ( 379 922sq miles ) it is one and a half times the size of Texas and its largest salt lake is the size of Singapore.

South Australia is a state of contrasts - despite vast areas of desert to the north, in the southern regions it is distinctly mediterranean. More than 4800km ( 2982 miles ) of coastline boast some of the worlds more unique tourism experiences such as swimming with the sealions, whale watching from clifftops and scuba diving with sharks. It is also home to internationally recognised wine regions the likes of the Barossa, McLaren Vale and Coonawarra. 

A short drive from Adelaide

From Adelaide Airport to the Outback it is a drive of about three hours - making Adelaide the perfect city a gateway to one of the earths most fascinating regions. Interstate borders make the South Australian Outback quite easy to define - at least in geographical terms. Stretching from Western Australia in the West, the Northern Territory in the North, Queensland and New South Wales in the east and the Flinders Ranges in the South, in all the South Australian Outback measures some 700,000sq kms.

Rich in history

It is a place rich in Aboriginal history, where precious opals lie hidden beneath the red crust and within the Lake Eyre Basin - range free beef that is farmed in some of the cleanest pastures in Australia.

Whether following the green ribbon of the Coopers Creek in the Strzlecki Desert, where most of the nation's desert birds breed, soaking in the thermal waters of Dalhousie Springs or fishing on the edges of the tranquil waters of Algebuckina on the Oodnadatta Track, the Outback has something for everyone.

This is where you will find Neales River Livestock.

Information courtesy of the South Australian Tourism Commission