Outback Tour Australia

The Australian Outback is one of the last true travel frontiers of the contemporary world. A vast and sometimes unforgiving land, it is always endowed with spectacular beauty, astonishing variety and intriguing history.

The word Outback is not easily defined, but rest assured you know it when you see it. The Outback is the mythical essence of Australia, and is in many ways the authentic Australia, with around 75% of the Australian continent sharing the arid desert climate and landscapes that help define the Outback. There is no such thing as a lifeless desert in Australia ... the Outback is always teeming with life, colour and diversity!

With its awesome expanses of open space, many consider the Northern Territory, and Central Australia in particular, to represent the real Outback. The Northern Territory is certainly a major travel destination, and Alice Springs in Central Australia is often referred to as the unofficial capital of the Outback. But many other areas of Australia also qualify for the title of Outback tour destination: The Pilbara and Kimberley in Western Australia; Mount Isa, Birdsville, Boulia and Longreach in Queensland; Oodnadatta, Coober Pedy, Maree, Innamincka, the Simpson Desert and the Birdsville Track in South Australia; Broken Hill and Tibooburra in western New South Wales.

Organised outback tours are becoming inceasingly popular, although many Australian and international tourists prefer to travel in their own vehicles. Such self-drive tours, particularly on the more remote outback dirt roads, require careful planning and an appropriate vehicle, usually four wheel drive. On remote outback tours, plenty of supplies and equipment including food, water and fuel should be carried. Some tours in more remote areas of the outback should not be undertaken with a single vehicle: a convoy approach (or tag-along tour) should be considered instead. Deaths from tourists becoming stranded on outback tours are infrequent but do occur, and poorly prepared tourists are regularly rescued when stranded by breakdowns or bad weather.

Among the most popular Outback tour destinations in Central Australia, the true 'Red Centre' of the Australian outback, are Uluru (Ayers Rock), Kata Tjuta (The Olgas), Kings Canyon (Watarrka), Alice Springs, Palm Valley, the West MacDonnell Ranges and the East MacDonnell Ranges. Few places in Australia or the world can match the allure of Central Australia's rugged natural beauty, its diverse, unique flora and fauna, or the vitality of its living indigenous cultures.