The Outback sets Australia apart from every other corner of the planet. Whether you’re fossicking for opals, having a bet at a dusty race meeting, bending an elbow with the locals in a classic country pub or boiling the billy around a campfire, NSW has Outback experiences in abundance.
Australia’s unique plants and animals, including the eucalypt and the kangaroo, created a sensation among 19th century naturalists and, along with the landscape and its Aboriginal culture, continue to fascinate visitors today.
Nowhere is the individuality of NSW more striking than in its interior. Here, on the earth’s driest inhabited continent, plants and animals have evolved unique characteristics to enable them to survive, often acquiring a stark and surreal beauty in the process.
The most famous of the NSW Outback’s natural wonders is Lake Mungo . This ancient dry lake bed has revealed the remains of Mungo Man and Mungo Woman, whose ritual burial provides evidence of an age-old and complex Aboriginal culture.
The earliest footprints in Australia – estimated to be more than 20,000 years old – were also discovered at Mungo National Park .
Outback characters
The Outback fosters a distinctive kind of character – dry, down-to-earth and hilariously larger than life, with a personality that seems to swell to fill the giant void in the landscape.
The locals are best seen at one of the unique celebrations that are a feature of Outback life. Take in an Outback race meeting – such as the famous Louth Races – a rodeo, an agricultural show, an outdoor music festival or one of the many special events – such as the Great Goat Races in Lightning Ridge – and you’ll meet some of the special people who have shaped, and been shaped by, this unique part of the country. For many of the people who live on isolated properties, these events are some of the very few times they can get together with friends and neighbours – and they’re occasions for a big celebration.
