Talk around the campfire

carlj,

Some would say where you no longer have mobile phone service.

Some might say when you start to get other drivers waving to on coming vehicles

My daughter says it is just after the last McDonalds

Wayne

At the NSW and NT border !!!

I would say anywhere over the range

Carlj,

I'd suggest anywhere west of the Great Divide. The attitude of people certainly changes and life slows down.

I was reading the Road Ahead this afternoon and was reminded of Paronella Park. Really it doesn't matter whether you're in the outback or not we have some magic places.

Kev

depends which way your house faces. if you drive to the rearward direction your 'out the back ' . or if you go to the front yard direction youv gone 'outfront'..............

***At a camping trip the question was asked where does the Queensland outback start?***


When you see the first WANTED Poster !

It doesn't start anywhere!

It's always at least another 50km from where you are........

Hi All

West of the Darling Downs, even past Roma / Mitchell area, where
you see the Utes with the big Bull Bars and the Spotties on the
roof, and the big Mack Truck Mud Flaps, and if you have a problem
on the side of the road, they will pull up to see if you are OK.

Cheers
Daza

If you are near the coast then you go 'in'- land to get to the 'out'-back. If you are in the 'out'-back and leave to go 'in'- to the city you have to go out to get out. An obvious Irish ancestory 'in' there somewhere :-)

.

If you go to Roma there is a sign stating 'the Start of the Outback', when you go to Blackall you can see 'the Black Stump' - these places now have bitumen roads to and from. When I was a kid going to Charleville on the dirt road, which finished at Roma I think, was a HUGE adventure. Having now lived in Birdsville for about 14 years - and wearing a shirt with the motto -"This is the real outback" - I'm still not sure. I certainly don't feel isolated here but I have lived in central Queensland 10 klms from a small town and felt totally isolated at times.
Possibly when you get off the bitumen - maybe that's the start - when driving back to Birdsville as soon as you turn off the bitumen outside Windorah onto the dirt - with about 300 klms left to Birdsville - that starts to feel like 'home'. When you live without mobile phones on a day to day basis - running out of phone range doesn't really make much difference. (Travelling to Brisbane it's a nuisance when coming into mobile range and the phone goes off and you can't find it or work out what the noise is).
I agree with using the Great Dividing Range as a marker - maybe it's because Toowoomba is like a big country town - lots of former outback people live there.
I can't help wondering if the outback is now further west - not even the Simpson - but I'm wondering if it's in western NT and WA (places I haven't explored yet).

Don Cooney ,author of Bells of the Australian Bush,and a good mate of mine, was raised and lived out near Eulo
I visited him on his son in laws property a couple of weeks back and he showed me an ancient sand dune. Don belIeves the Outback begins here.The Dune is about 5 meters high and many many meters long . The property is about 100 k Sth West of Eulo.
His book has some good yarns about the early days in that area as well a history of bush bells.
Jeff.O

Hi,
I'm not sure the "outback" as a geographical thing exists as we thought we knew it, I think it's more an emotional thing.

When your in a place where time is unimportant, the people are warm and accepting of others and a spirit of "mateship exists" & your not surrounded by concrete and glass, you've got room to breath, then I think you are in your idea of "The Outback".

But Wayne's daughter hit it on the head with her comments about "Mc D's" so that makes Alice Springs no longer part of the outback!!!!.

JMHO, Colin.

Outback in Qld is anywhere that the Labour Party does not hold a seat ,,then again if you saw ,have seen, the monstrosity that is being built in Barcaldine nowhere in Qld is now "outback"

No idea about Qld.
I always felt that when the roads weren't fence anymore it was the outback....

But now there is at least a two strand fence almost everywhere!

As soon as I walk out the rear door at home.
Then I'm out back :-)

I always think it's when the soil starts to show red
jules

I also believe it is when oncoming travellers return your wave & people you see on the street when walking smile and say 'hello'.

That is where the 'outback' is to me.