41-600: Tarcoola is a town in the Far North of South Australia 416 kilometres (258 mi) north-northwest of Port Augusta . At the 2016 census , Tarcoola had no people living within its boundaries. Tarcoola was named after Tarcoola the winner of the 1893 Melbourne Cup horse race. The horse Tarcoola had been raised on Tarcoola Station on the Darling River in New South Wales. It means river bend in
82-581: A designated place of archaeological significance. In 2017, WPG Resources commenced mining an open pit at Tarcoola intending to mine for at least two years, and transport the ore to the Challenger mine for processing in the facilities there. Tarcoola is now best known as the northern junction of the Sydney-Perth and Adelaide-Darwin railways , which share approximately 530 kilometres (329 mi) of track between Tarcoola and Crystal Brook . There
123-470: A long way from anywhere, or a long way away. The well-watered north of the continent is often called the " Top End " and the arid interior "The Red Centre", owing to its vast amounts of red soil and sparse greenery amongst its landscape. The outback is criss-crossed by historic tracks. Most of the major highways have an excellent bitumen surface and other major roads are usually well-maintained dirt roads. The Stuart Highway runs from north to south through
164-523: A low human population density, a largely intact natural environment and, in many places, low-intensity land uses, such as pastoralism (livestock grazing) in which production is reliant on the natural environment. The Outback is deeply ingrained in Australian heritage, history and folklore . In Australian art the subject of the Outback has been vogue, particularly in the 1940s. In 2009, as part of
205-629: A museum and underground accommodation where opal is mined, natural springs, and vast landscapes of salt lakes, sandstone tablelands, and vividly coloured hills. Permits are required to enter Aboriginal-owned land . As of 2023 , a National Parks and Wildlife Service South Australia Desert Parks Pass was also needed to visit the Simpson Desert Conservation Park and Regional Reserve and east of Dalhousie Springs in Witjira National Park . A tourist pass
246-465: Is a triangular junction at Tarcoola which joins Crystal Brook, Darwin and Perth. Another triangular junction at Crystal Brook joins Tarcoola, Adelaide and Sydney. The Ghan and the Indian Pacific passenger services through Tarcoola both run once per week in each direction all year round, and twice per week at various times. The mail for Tarcoola arrives by train. Tarcoola is located within
287-593: Is a major component of national tourism incomes. Tourism Australia explicitly markets nature-based and Indigenous-led experiences to tourists. In the 2015–2016 financial year, 815,000 visitors spent $ 988 million while on holidays in the Northern Territory alone. There are many popular tourist attractions in the Outback. Some of the well known destinations include Devils Marbles , Kakadu National Park , Kata Tjuta (The Olgas), MacDonnell Ranges and Uluru (Ayers Rock) . Other than agriculture and tourism,
328-452: Is claimed that the saloon, named after the nearby Black Stump Run and Black Stump Creek, was an important staging post for traffic to north-west New South Wales and it became a marker by which people gauged their journeys. "The Never-Never " is a term referring to remoter parts of the Outback. The Outback can also be referred to as "back of beyond" or "back o' Bourke ", although these terms are more frequently used when referring to something
369-622: Is considerable. Major mines and mining areas in the Outback include opals at Coober Pedy , Lightning Ridge and White Cliffs , metals at Broken Hill , Tennant Creek , Olympic Dam and the remote Challenger Mine . Oil and gas are extracted in the Cooper Basin around Moomba . In Western Australia the Argyle diamond mine in the Kimberley was once the world's biggest producer of natural diamonds and contributed approximately one-third of
410-430: Is full of very important well-adapted wildlife, although much of it may not be immediately visible to the casual observer. Many animals, such as red kangaroos and dingoes , hide in bushes to rest and keep cool during the heat of the day. Birdlife is prolific, most often seen at waterholes at dawn and dusk. Huge flocks of budgerigars , cockatoos , corellas and galahs are often sighted. On bare ground or roads during
451-513: Is in Outback Australia, was fully certified as organic farm production, making Australia the largest certified organic production area in the world. Tourism is a major industry across the Outback, and commonwealth and state tourism agencies explicitly target Outback Australia as a desirable destination for domestic and international travellers. There is no breakdown of tourism revenues for the "Outback" per se . However, regional tourism
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#1732783633018492-788: Is known as the unincorporated area , municipal services to communities outside of the foregoing local government areas are provided directly by the South Australian Government via the Outback Communities Authority . It is within the extent of the state electoral districts of Giles and Stuart , and at a national level the Division of Grey . The region has abundant national parks and reserves and widely scattered tourist attractions and facilities. Experiences and attractions include farmstays on sheep stations , unique native flora and fauna,
533-514: The Eyre and Western region. Colloquially, South Australians regard anywhere north of Port Augusta as the Far North. The Far North is by far the least populated region of South Australia. The landscape comprises mainly rugged outback wilderness and desert, including some of the most arid parts of the continent, with a Köppen climate classification of BWh hot desert . In the north-east are
574-651: The Q150 celebrations, the Queensland Outback was announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for its role as a "natural attraction". Aboriginal peoples have lived in the Outback for at least 50,000 years and occupied all Outback regions, including the driest deserts, when Europeans first entered central Australia in the 1800s. Many Aboriginal Australians retain strong physical and cultural links to their traditional country and are legally recognised as
615-696: The Simpson Desert , Tirari Desert , Painted Desert and Pedirka Desert . To the north and north-west is the Great Victoria Desert . The Far North is also known as the Arid Lands as a more descriptive term than " desert ". The Far North includes the following local government areas : Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY), City of Port Augusta , District Council of Coober Pedy , Flinders Ranges Council and Municipal Council of Roxby Downs . Since most of it lies within what
656-557: The Woomera Prohibited Area . Mineral exploration continues as new mineral deposits are identified and developed. 2002 was declared the Year of the Outback. While the early explorers used horses to cross the Outback, the first woman to make the journey riding a horse was Anna Hingley , who rode from Broome to Cairns in 2006. The paucity of industrial land use has led to the Outback being recognised globally as one of
697-600: The Australian state of South Australia . It extends across the entire width of the state – about 1200 kilometres (750 miles) – for approximately the northernmost 750 kilometres (470 miles). The state government defines the Far North region similarly, although it separately delineates the Maralinga Tjarutja Lands, the Yalata Aboriginal community and other unincorporated crown lands in the state's far west, which are officially considered part of
738-563: 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 km (39 sq mi) area contains fossil remains of ancient mammals, birds and reptiles of Oligocene and Miocene age. The largest industry across
779-416: The Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass a number of climatic zones, including tropical and monsoonal climates in northern areas, arid areas in the "red centre" and semi-arid and temperate climates in southerly regions. The total population is estimated at 607,000 people. Geographically, the Outback is unified by a combination of factors, most notably
820-401: The Outback, culminating in successfully reaching the north coast of Australia and returning without the loss of any of the party's members' lives. This contrasts with the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition in 1860–61 which was much better funded, but resulted in the deaths of three of the members of the transcontinental party. The Overland Telegraph line was constructed in the 1870s along
861-675: The Outback, in terms of the area occupied, is pastoralism , in which cattle, sheep, and sometimes goats are grazed in mostly intact, natural ecosystems. Widespread use of bore water, obtained from underground aquifers, including the Great Artesian Basin , has enabled livestock to be grazed across vast areas in which no permanent surface water exists naturally. Capitalising on the lack of pasture improvement and absence of fertiliser and pesticide use, many Outback pastoral properties are certified as organic livestock producers. In 2014, 17,000,000 hectares (42,000,000 acres), most of which
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#1732783633018902-648: The Traditional Owners of large parts of the Outback under Commonwealth Native Title legislation. Early European exploration of inland Australia was sporadic. More focus was on the more accessible and fertile coastal areas. The first party to successfully cross the Blue Mountains just outside Sydney was led by Gregory Blaxland in 1813, 25 years after the colony was established. People, starting with John Oxley in 1817, 1818 and 1821, followed by Charles Sturt from 1829 to 1830, attempted to follow
943-402: The aboriginal language of the area around that Tarcoola Station. Tarcoola lies on Kokata land. The Tarcoola Goldfield was discovered and named in 1893, but it was in an isolated arid area, and there was little development until 1900. A Post Office opened on 18 August 1900 and the town was proclaimed on 21 February 1901. The goldfield's heyday was from about 1901 to 1918. A government battery
984-416: The adverbial phrase referring to the back yard of a house , and came to be used meiotically in the late 1800s to describe the vast sparsely settled regions of Australia behind the cities and towns. The earliest known use of the term in this context in print was in 1869, when the writer clearly meant the area west of Wagga Wagga , New South Wales . Over time, the adverbial use of the phrase was replaced with
1025-524: The centre of the continent, roughly paralleled by the Adelaide–Darwin railway . There is a proposal to develop some of the roads running from the south-west to the north-east to create an all-weather road named the Outback Highway , crossing the continent diagonally from Laverton, Western Australia (north of Kalgoorlie , through the Northern Territory to Winton , in Queensland. Air transport
1066-520: The environment, so time and money is spent eradicating them in an attempt to help protect fragile rangelands. 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 movements of dingoes and wild dogs 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
1107-509: The federal division of Grey , the state electoral district of Giles and the Pastoral Unincorporated Area of South Australia. Tarcoola has a desert climate with hot, dry summers and mild winters and sparse rainfall throughout the year. A record high temperature of 49.1 °C was recorded on 24 January 2019. Far North (South Australia) The Far North is a region that covers about 70 per cent of
1148-555: The lack of proper medical facilities and trained personnel. In many outback communities, the number of children is too small for a conventional school to operate. Children are educated at home by the School of the Air . Originally the teachers communicated with the children via radio, but now satellite telecommunication is used instead. Some children attend boarding school, mostly only those in secondary school. The term "outback" derives from
1189-631: The largest remaining intact natural areas on Earth. Global " Human Footprint " and wilderness reviews highlight the importance of Outback Australia as one of the world's large natural areas, along with the Boreal forests and Tundra regions in North America, the Sahara and Gobi deserts and the tropical forests of the Amazon and Congo Basins. The savanna (or grassy woodlands) of northern Australia are
1230-508: The largest, intact savanna regions in the world. In the south, the Great Western Woodlands , which occupy 16,000,000 hectares (40,000,000 acres), an area larger than all of England and Wales, are the largest remaining temperate woodland left on Earth. Reflecting the wide climatic and geological variation, the Outback contains a wealth of distinctive and ecologically rich ecosystems. Major land types include: The Outback
1271-532: The main economic activity in this vast and sparsely settled area is mining. Owing to the almost complete absence of mountain building and glaciation since the Permian (in many areas since the Cambrian ) ages, the outback is extremely rich in iron, aluminium, manganese and uranium ores, and also contains major deposits of gold, nickel, copper, lead and zinc ores. Because of its size, the value of grazing and mining
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1312-610: The present day noun form. It is colloquially said that "the outback" is located "beyond the Black Stump ". The location of the black stump may be some hypothetical location or may vary depending on local custom and folklore. It has been suggested that the term comes from the Black Stump Wine Saloon that once stood about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) out of Coolah, New South Wales on the Gunnedah Road. It
1353-500: The route identified by Stuart. In 1865, the surveyor George Goyder , using changes in vegetation patterns, mapped a line in South Australia , north of which he considered rainfall to be too unreliable to support agriculture. Exploration of the Outback continued in the 1950s when Len Beadell explored, surveyed and built many roads in support of the nuclear weapons tests at Emu Field and Maralinga and rocket testing on
1394-492: The westward-flowing rivers to find an "inland sea", but these were found to all flow into the Murray River and Darling River , which turn south. From 1858 onwards, the so-called "Afghan" cameleers and their beasts played an instrumental role in opening up the Outback and helping to build infrastructure. Over the period 1858 to 1861, John McDouall Stuart led six expeditions north from Adelaide, South Australia into
1435-446: The winter, various species of snakes and lizards bask in the sun, but they are rarely seen during the summer months. Feral animals such as camels thrive in central Australia, brought to Australia by pastoralists and explorers, along with the early Afghan drivers . Feral horses known as ' brumbies ' are station horses that have run wild. Feral pigs , foxes , cats , goats and rabbits and other imported animals are also degrading
1476-554: The world's major manganese mines. Aboriginal communities in outback regions, such as the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands in northern South Australia, have not been displaced as they have been in areas of intensive agriculture and large cities, in coastal areas. The total population of the Outback in Australia declined from 700,000 in 1996 to 690,000 in 2006. The largest decline
1517-516: The world's natural supply, but was closed down in 2020 due to financial reasons. The Pilbara region's economy is dominated by mining and petroleum industries. The Pilbara's oil and gas industry is the region's largest export industry, earning $ 5.0 billion in 2004/05 and accounting for over 96% of the State's production. Most of Australia's iron ore is also mined in the Pilbara and it also has one of
1558-704: Was also required to enter the Woomera Prohibited Area . Some significant roads in the area include the Stuart Highway from Port Augusta to Alice Springs , the Oodnadatta Track , and both the Birdsville Track and the Strzelecki Track to Queensland. Outback The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia . The Outback is more remote than the bush . While often envisaged as being arid ,
1599-464: Was built to process ore from small mines. Between 1901 and 1954 the field produced about 77,000oz (2.4 tonnes) of gold, most of it from the Tarcoola Blocks mine. The Trans-Australian Railway was built through Tarcoola in 1915, and in 1980 it became a junction station when the Adelaide–Darwin railway diverged from Tarcoola to Alice Springs . The link from Alice Springs through to Darwin
1640-573: Was eventually completed in 2004. The town is almost completely deserted today except for transient railway maintenance staff and geological exploration teams. The original Tarcoola goldfields are long closed. However, there is now new exploration for minerals in the wider area, including the Challenger Mine . The Tarcoola Goldfield, Battery and Township is listed on the South Australian Heritage Register as
1681-544: Was in the Outback Northern Territory , while the Kimberley and Pilbara showed population increases during the same period. The sex ratio is 1040 males for 1000 females and 17% of the total population is indigenous. The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) started service in 1928 and helps people who live in the outback of Australia. Previously, serious injuries or illnesses often meant death owing to