Outback - Tourism

Tourism

There are many popular tourist attractions in the outback. Some of the well known destinations include:

• Alice Springs, Northern Territory
• Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame
• Birdsville,Queensland
• Broken Hill, New South Wales
• Broome
• Coober Pedy, South Australia
• Devils Marbles
• Kakadu National Park
• Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Western Australia
• Kata Tjuta (The Olgas)
• Katherine Gorge
• Kings Canyon (Watarrka)
• MacDonnell Ranges
• Monkey Mia
• Mount Isa, Queensland
• Mount Augustus National Park
• Tennant Creek, Northern Territory
• Uluru (Ayers Rock)
• Willandra Lakes Region

Visitors to the outback often drive their own or rented vehicles, or take organized tours. Travel through remote areas on main roads is easily done and requires no planning. However travel through very remote areas, on isolated tracks, requires planning and a suitable, reliable vehicle (usually a four-wheel drive). On very remote routes considerable supplies and equipment may be required, this can include prearranged caches. It is not advisable to travel into these especially remote areas with a single vehicle, unless fully equipped with good communication technology (e.g. a satellite phone, EPIRB etc.). Many visitors prefer to travel in these areas in a convoy. Deaths from tourists and locals becoming stranded on outback trips occasionally occur, sometime because insufficient water and food supplies were taken, or because people have walked away from their vehicle in search of help. Travellers through very remote areas should always inform a reliable person of their route and expected destination arrival time, and remember that a vehicle is much easier to locate in an aerial search, than a person, so in the event of a breakdown, they must not leave their vehicle. The outback is home to a diverse set of animal species, such as the kangaroo, emu and dingo. The Dingo Fence was built to restrict dingo movements into agricultural areas towards the south east of the continent. The marginally fertile parts are primarily utilised as rangelands and have been traditionally used for sheep or cattle grazing, on cattle stations which are leased from the Federal Government. While small areas of the outback consist of clay soils the majority has exceedingly infertile palaeosols. Riversleigh, in Queensland, is one of Australia's most renowned fossil sites and was recorded as a World Heritage site in 1994. The 100 km2 (39 sq mi) area contains fossil remains of ancient mammals, birds and reptiles of Oligocene and Miocene age.