The Wind on the Red: Outback Breezes

The still of the Outback; everything waits underneath a clear sky. Over the top the breeze skips, ruffling the unmovable, blowing cold or hot depending on the season. It is felt on bare skin, through clothes, and across the landscape, and it brings with it the scent of freshness and red earth.

Outback breezes can be gentle and light. However, they can be sharp as a razor and cold as ice in winter. They creep in under scarves and jackets and they pierce to the bone. When you are hiking Central Australia's trails, these breezes become your steady companion, filtering the sunlight and cooling you amid the burn of traversing mountains and valleys.

The wind creeps across the landscape at Uluru (Photo credit: Tracey Allen)

In summer, outback breezes are cloying and stuffy. They fill every crevice; there is no escape. They blow the dust of the dry landscape into life. Willy-willies smudge the horizon, spinning from east to west like small dustbowls. They stalk across the ground, sweeping up tinder-dry leaves, ripe for grass fires.

Breezes do not always stay breezes. The wind can kick a storm across the heavens, carrying rain and accompanying thunder. It has the potential to rip branches from trees and upend houses and blow carnage across a town, tearing it limb from limb. Winds can fuel a burning fire across a million acres in a location too remote for people to combat. It might propel smoke long distances, as grass and scrubs crumble to ash.

Outback breezes bring both beauty and terror. They cleanse and change from gentle to fierce. Without them, the landscape would lose its breath. It would be dry and still, part of its expression gone. The wind on the red earth of the desert changes the environment.

It both gives and takes away.