Outback

The Outback is a large region covering most of the centre of Australia, including inland areas of New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

The outback is home to the Australian feral camel, donkey 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 area contains fossil remains of ancient mammals, birds and reptiles of Oligocene and Miocene age.

Visitors to the outback often drive their own or rented vehicles, or take organised tours. Travel through remote areas on main roads is easily done and requires no advance planning. However travel through very remote areas, on isolated tracks, requires advance 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 (eg 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, invariably because insufficient water and food supplies were taken, and/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.