Where Do Outback Roads Lead?
Outback roads are a pathway for weary travelers, linking the far-flung communities of this vast continent. Sealed and unsealed, they hold the promise of newness, cutting across the heart of our country, edged with silver gum trees and olive shrubs, making a way through the sunburnt fields and red earth. But where do outback roads lead?
Australia is geographically huge and diverse. In many ways, it is a land of extremes. Its people have emerged from thousands of years of traditional custodianship blended with the new arrival of recent settlers. The cities dotted around the coast are hectic and run to tight schedules. In leaving them, one sees the inland acres of bush and ochre-coloured soil. Roads cover this land, keeping it open, and revealing the quietness and aloneness of the bush.
Where does life
take us? We follow life through the lens of time, not always knowing what the destination
will be like. We keep good faith, and we follow its road up and over hills,
down slopes, and when it is rocky. We lose when we stop,
and we win when we arrive…only to find another road that takes us further.
Australia’s story is still being written. It has some dark chapters. Its passage has been soaked with blood and touched by war and depression, but also by joy and hope. It has traversed the centuries, culminating in the present moment. A virus lingers over this country and brings with it unique challenges. But the road leads on, through this season and this wasteland, to the future. The shape in which we arrive depends on what we do now. The days are crucial, the responsibility heavy.
We walk this
road together. We are apart because of hardened borders, watching one another from one end of the country to the other. Technology connects us, but so do our
hearts and minds. Separated as we are, we have one spirit. We have one goal: to
make it to the end of the road. And then to watch as the dawn breaks anew and we
see that the road continues, and the darkness is a memory, and the morning is
fresh. No one can guarantee the destination, but we know that hope will get us
there. May we follow the road to the future.