Posts tagged as:

outback

Outback Sunset

by Robbo on February 11, 2010

@sandnsurf likes to post sunsets from the country town of Perth and @dmriver puts up a few sunset pictures from his semi-rural location(?!!)

I couldn’t let them get away with putting up their wussy sunsets. Here’s an outback sunset taken this evening in the middle of a thunder and lightning storm with rain approaching on the Warburton-Jameson road..

Some of the pics are a bit grainy as they were taken on my little indestructible camera.

Unfortunately I had to stop taking pictures as the storm bore down on me. It is not until you are in a metal box surrounded by lightning that you realise how many exposed ridges you drive over and how sparse the tall trees really are!

If I have any decent vids of the drive I will put them up in a later post here!

Enjoy.

Tagged as: Jameson, outback, sunset, thunderstorm, Warburton

{ 19 comments }

Wilcannia

by Robbo on February 1, 2009

in Indigenous,PSA - Pleasant Sunday Afternoon,Remote Living

Welcome to another Pleasant Sunday Afternoon.

New South Wales has the highest number of indigenous people in Australia. Many are in rural areas. Most of Australia’s rural areas are in decline, some in particularly severe decline due to drought and also as Australians move to the cities, making us one of the most highly urbanised populations in the world.

One area in severe decline is Wilcannia. It was once a thriving town. A recent comment to myself described an old man in tears when he revisited the area at the end of last year. It is not hard to find comments from people on the internet about avoiding the area as they have heard only bad stories. Unfortunately many of these are based around the aboriginal population which make up the majority of the population.

There is another side to the story. In November 2008, The Age newspaper’s Traveller section had a small article on Wilcannia that starts with:

The image of Wilcannia that most travellers along the Barrier Highway have is of a town with a lot of Aborigines standing around in the main street. It is a very racist preconception but one which nearly everyone who has travelled through the town enunciates. It is also fuelled by the bigots of Broken Hill and Cobar who are only too eager to divert travellers to their own centres.

There are a few gems. And many of them are the people. You just need to stop and get out of the car.

Here’s a tour of Wilcannia:

Listen to some of the kids from the Barkindji mob of Wilcannia perform their version of M.I.A.s “Mango Pickle Down River”

Watch some parkour outback (or parkOUrTBACK!) in Wilcannia and other areas of outback NSW.

Some people from the Central Darling area have put why they love the area on YouTube including this by Barkindji man Murry Butcher who states:

I just love the place because it is part of us.

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Tagged as: Australian, Indigenous, outback, Plesant Sunday Afternoon, PSA - Pleasant Sunday Afternoon, remote, wilcannia

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PSA – Oodnadatta Track

by Robbo on September 28, 2008

in PSA - Pleasant Sunday Afternoon,Remote Living

The view from a station track as it enters the Oodnadatta Track. This was from a few years ago and you have to wonder why it is there. These days, with the track usually in great condition with many more tourists travelling it in the nice (i.e:cooler) seasons the stop sign is now accompanied by a gate and fence to stop vehicles entering the track.

Oodnadatta Track

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Tagged as: outback, PSA - Pleasant Sunday Afternoon

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PSA – Abandoned Homestead Strzelecki Creek

by Robbo on September 21, 2008

in PSA - Pleasant Sunday Afternoon,Remote Living

This homestead was built early last century some kilometres from the Strzelecki Creek in north-east South Australia. This is normally dry but flows once every 25 years or so, breaking its banks to spread many kilometres wide. As this homestead found out. The new homestead is about 90km from here.

Note the long drop dunny in the foreground. It had a great view.

PSA stands for Pleasant Sunday Afternoon. It does not stand for my professional body – The Pharmaceutical Society of Australia. Mere coincidence.

If you like this post why don’t you subscribe so you can be notified when more great stuff appears. You can do this by full text RSS feed (the orange button) or by email. The email subscription is just under my profile picture. Or you can visit my subscription page.