Outback Australia Trip 2009

I encountered a timeless land of ancient gorges carved long ago when abundant water once flowed. A land of long-gone seas and ground down mountain ranges where shifting sands and sediments created the layered sandstone rock which today has been carved into amazing shapes by the passage of time and weathering. The adaptation of life to a changing drying climate over many millions of years has created a great diversity of delicate small leafed plants, many of which were showcasing their tiny but vibrant flowers in the dry desert winter. For nine weeks over June and July I did not see a cloud in the sky.

Places that I visited included Lawn Hill Gorge, Kakadu, Katherine Gorge, the East and West MacDonnell Ranges, Uluru and Kings Canyon. Place names I have long been familiar with, but places I had never been. Variations in local climates, types of rock, weather patterns and the presence (or lack of) water made each destination different. The fine red sand of the Uluru region was quite different to the river sands of Katherine Gorge or the coarser glittering jewel-like sands of Finke Gorge.

The arid country surrounding Alice Springs is far from desolate. A myriad of hardy plant life covers the red sand and many small lizards and birds are to be seen in the daytime. The small mammals tend to come out at night. I was unprepared for the sheer beauty of this harsh environment. The vivid reds of the earth, the deep blue of the sky, and mottled greens and silvers of the vegetation were unlike anything to be found on the eastern coast.

Kakadu was very dry and dusty in June with numerous hazard reduction burn-offs in progress. Much of the river water had dried up, waterfalls had ceased to flow, the wetlands had become largely depopulated as migratory birds had travelled north for the winter. The upside was that the salt water crocodiles were concentrated into the remaining wetland areas and easy to spot. I saw some huge crocodiles. I shall return one day to see Kakadu in the March-April period when it is at its best.

Lawn Hill Gorge in the north west of Qld has a swift flowing azure coloured spring-fed creek winding through towering red cliffs with cabbage tree palms and pandanus. A true oasis in the surrounding dusty gulf country. Well worth the long drive over rough roads to get there. Perhaps the most remote of the destinations that I visited.

Gosse Bluff is a spectacular site where a comet slammed into the Earth 142 million years ago. Much of the crater is worn down but it is well worth a visit. Rough track and 4WD access only.

Finke Gorge was a very scenic place. Scientists have determined that the Finke River is the oldest existing river in the world. Truely ancient. The jewel-like rich red sand, arresting wind-carved outcrops of red sandstone, gnarled river red gums, and the rare red cabbage palms found no where else on Earth. Access is via a 4WD trek along the dry, sandy and rock strewn river bed.

Kings Canyon was the most scenic and spectacular of the many gorges I visited. Fractures in the rock and vast numbers of centuries have carved out one of the most impressive landscapes in Australia. Towering cliffs of ochre coloured rock loomed over the immense span of the gorge. Beehive like domed outcrops of rock and ‘paved’ roads seem to be part of a lost ancient city. You could spend weeks exploring this amazing time-worn mountain range.

The Breakaways near Coober Pedy in South Australia was a landscape unlike anywhere else I have been. Multi-coloured hillsides in rich ochre colours eroded into fascinating shapes with a backdrop of a flat expanse of a long-dry inland seabed make for a truely alien looking landscape - a region which has featured as a location in several recent sci-fi movies.

My first brief experience of the central Australian deserts was in 1982 when I drove from Adelaide to Darwin over seven days. Back then the road to Alice Springs was a rough gravel surface and the single lane of chewed up bitumen from Alice Springs to Darwin was little better. That has all changed, with a modern highway making light work of what used to be an arduous drive. I came away from my recent trip with many inspiring photographs. I ask myself why I took so long to go and see this amazing countryside which forms so much of the Australian landscape. It is a region I shall definitely be visiting again.

I used a 21 megapixel Canon EOS 5D Mk II digital SLR camera during my journey. I used a Canon EF 24mm-105mm f4 IS wide angle zoom lens and a Canon EF 70mm-200mm f4 IS zoom lens. I shot all the photos in RAW. In all, I took around 17,000 images and field edited these down to 10,000 for later processing. I accumulated a very large number of big files. To cope with such big file storage requirements, archiving to DVD was not really a viable option. I used a Western Digital 2 Tb (2,000 Gb) RAID HDD and an Apple MacBook Pro 17" laptop. Both were powered by two 80 watt solar panels through an inverter. This worked fine for me over the four month period of my trip. I had clear skies for much of the time. Had there been significant cloud, I would have required some other form of power such as a small generator.

Many of the locations that I visited could not be captured within the field of view of a single photograph so I took many high resolution multiple image panoramic photos. These images will end up over 10,000 pixels wide and will be able to be printed to the size of a house door on its side. I have not yet processed all of the panoramic images.

For those with an interest in motorhome setups, here is a page with info about the vehicle I used and my slide-on camper home during this journey. Northstar and Ford Ranger 4WD.