Colours of the Outback

The dim evening is when the shadows stretch long and the moon is ivory. From dawn to dusk, the light on the MacDonnell Ranges is ever-changing. All of us, from different backgrounds, call this place home. Our stories and experiences of the outback are as diverse as the images nature paints.

The view a stockman sees on a station when the morning breaks over his land is different from the view of a person in Alice Springs who walks the sandy bottom of the dry Todd River. The adventurer investigating waterholes and landmarks in Central Australia sees the ripple of the current and the red rocks, whereas their traveling counterpart stares down an endless outback road.

Red rocks at Simpson's Gap, Central Australia

The outback is presented in so many ways. Its harshness and ruggedness are retold, as are stories of those who die in its extreme conditions. Others talk of social issues in remote towns and communities and the fractures of poverty and race. This is all true, but so is the fact that people feel a connection to place, which binds them as one and glues society together.

The crimson of sunset and the falter of dawn bookend days spent out here. The green spinifex and the black cockatoos add their own vibrancy to the landscape. Silhouettes of emus and the well-paced paws of dingoes all colour the outback. It has a thousand stories to tell; listen to the endlessness, and you will hear them.