A first-time guide to outback Australia

02.01.2025 - 20:51 / lonelyplanet.com / Red Centre / Alice Springs

Jan 2, 2025 • 12 min read

The Australian outback is a place that goes by many names – the Bush, the Back of Beyond, the Never Never – and has no actual boundaries. It is as much an idea as an actual place: A world of big horizons; of deserts and tropical savannah (“the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended,” in the words of Aussie bush poet Banjo Paterson); of small, isolated towns hundreds of kilometers from the nearest settlement; or cattle stations and national parks the size of small European countries. And like everywhere else in Australia, the outback has for millennia been the realm of Australia’s First Nations people who, in many places, still inhabit the land, maintain deep connections to it and know it best.

Very often, as much as the attractions it’s the journey itself – to get here, to explore its inner reaches – that showcases the best of the outback. Such journeys take place along long, straight roads frequented by road trains (freight trucks with multiple trailers) traveling through big, empty landscapes, roads like the Eyre Highway across the Nullarbor Plain, or the Stuart Highway through the arid heart of the continent. Or they could take you along remote and unpaved “roads” like the Outback Way, the Birdsville Track or the Oodnadatta.

So why should you visit? Because the outback is Australia at its vast, wild and remote best.

The outback is frequently confused with being synonymous with Australia’s Red Centre – a region in the Northern Territory that’s home to Uluru, one of Australia’s most storied destinations. 

In reality, the outback is much bigger and more expansive, touching nearly every state in Australia. 

It’s most often defined as anywhere in Australia’s inland that’s removed from large human settlements. Australia’s Outback Magazine defines it as “beyond the city” and “anywhere that is remote, different, challenging, non-urban.” Others just say that you’ll know it when you see it.

Yes, it includes Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and Alice Springs, but it’s also home to attractions as diverse as Queensland’s tropical savannah, South Australia’s underground mining town of Coober Pedy and the country’s largest national park, Kakadu.

Given that the outback covers a significant proportion of one of the largest countries on earth, the best time to visit can vary, but perhaps not quite so much as you might imagine.

As a general rule, the outback is at its best from around May to September. This is when you can expect cooler, drier conditions. In Australia’s desert interior, April and October might also be okay, but daytime temperatures can be punishing, as they usually are from November to March. 

If your outback adventure takes you to tropical and subtropical regions such as the Top