Travel: Freedom in the Skies over the Territory

Over the tropics and desert of the Northern Territory, the vast sky is woven with threads of light. When holidays beckon, airports fill with trickles and storms of people leaving the Territory’s isolated places, ready to wing their way to other spots around Australia and the world.

Often, people elect to cross the borders into the outback by driving, but there is something special about flying. If you leave from Alice Springs, you see the ochre earth below and the veins of the ranges crawling across the desert. Flying from Darwin provides a view of the blue ocean, pulsing with heat and humidity, depending on the time of year. Sometimes, take-off occurs in the midst of a storm, and the clouds hang low over the landscape, droplets spattering against the aeroplane windows.

Flying Out of the Territory (Photo credit: Zoe Coyte)

The sky represents freedom. Freedom to come and freedom to go. Flightpaths cross-cross Australia like latticework, connecting families and friends, creating highways for travellers. The Territory is known for its freedom, lack of formality, and the easy-going ways of its people. However, it hangs together, tightly glued by community and a shared future despite the challenges.

Those who leave the Territory by plane for a holiday know they are returning home at some point, back to the harbour or the desert. They will taste another place for a brief time and then fly back into the north, ready for the next Territory adventure. Those who leave permanently take with them memories locked inside their hearts. And despite their choice to leave, they never truly forget; under the sky, the heart of the north beats strong.