The rains and floods that have turned many outback areas into havens for wildflowers and birdlife in recent years are missing this time around… but grey nomads are still heading inland in huge numbers.
It seems that while the experience may be different, the lust for adventure is just the same.
“The tourists that want to come out and see the birdlife and the greenery and all that, they don’t come,” the mayor of Queensland’s Diamantina Shire, Geoff Morton, said. “But the ones that want to see the dust – and how it usually is – the numbers still will be good.”
And there will be plenty of dust. More than a third of Queensland is officially in drought, with many other regions suffering well below average rainfall.
Mr Morton told the ABC that the contrasting conditions that can be experienced in the Outback is what drew many visitors back again.
“The ones that have seen it good, they probably want to come back and see it bad so they can get the two balances,” he said. “It is a cycle … that is what living in the bush is all about.”
He said that the dry time is what the ‘normal’ Diamantina Shire is.
Would you rather visit the Outback when it is lush and ‘blooming’ or dry and dusty? Are you finding travelling inland a different experience to previous years? Comment below.
We have come to see the Outback in all its starkness, dry and dusty. We are Kiwi’s and have plenty of green grass back home.
That’s why we go to Europe for our holidays. What do I want to see dust for.