I Cannot Forget the Outback Dawn

I have known the outback dawn, the stillness as time waits for life to begin again, and I cannot forget. No matter how far I go or where I find myself in the years ahead, written on my heart in red dirt will be the rhythms and heartbeat of the desert.

I don’t think you can ever forget Alice Springs. You can leave it physically – run as far away from its challenges and shadows as you like. But if you’ve really seen it during your time living there, for better or worse, you will not be able to completely erase it from your memory. 

Dawn in Alice Springs (Photo credit: Vicki Hutchinson)

For some, the land gets in their blood. For others, the heartache and challenge of such a remote environment force their departure. Either way, they cannot unsee the patterns of the days spent in Central Australia. It is unique and extraordinary, something that some us don’t understand fully until we move elsewhere. Days in Alice can run into each other, more of the same, and it only hits us when we relocate to the city that actually our prior life in the Red Centre was special after all.

People come and go from Alice Springs frequently. The town is known for its transience. It is also known for the stories, art and music it spawns, and the way it speaks so that a nation can hear it, even though it is tucked away in the Northern Territory. It is the iconic town of the Australian Outback. The heart of its people and the heart of this landscape resonate with me through voices I cannot forget. This is why, no matter where I find myself, I remember and count myself lucky that I have crossed paths with the Central Desert and seen the outback dawn.