A typical outback scene, somewhere north of Coober Pedy.
The outback is the remote and usually semi-arid interior of Australia. The marginally fertile parts are used for sheep or cattle farming—apart from this, tourism and scattered mining are the main economic activities in this vast and sparsely settled area. Due to the size of the outback, the total value of mining and farming is considerable.
Over 90% of the Australian population lives in urban settlements on the coastal fringes. Despite this, the outback and the history of its exploration and settlement provides Australians with a mythical backdrop, and stories of swagmen, squatters, outlaws such as Ned Kelly (though Ned Kelly spent virtually all his time in the relatively temperate Great Dividing Range) and so on are central to the national ethos of the country. The song Waltzing Matilda, which is about swagmen and squatters, is the popular traditional Australian song.
The outback is now the only place where Australian Aborigines still live in a more or less traditional way.
Tourism
There are many popular tourist attractions in the outback. These include:
The total population of the AustralianOutback increased by just 310 or 0.2 per cent to reach 184,464 at June 1998, although this is a long way short of the national average of 1.2 per cent over the same period.
Outback towns on the up and up are those which are based on an expanding mining industry such as Kalgoorlie, Roxby Downs and Leonora, or which serve as administrative and regional centres such as Alice Springs, Katherine (which includes the Tindall RAAF base) and Tennant Creek.
The AustralianOutback is vast and sparsely settled.
Seven female grey kangaroos, together with the wallabies, are happily nestled in the middle area of the exhibit that is interspersed with semi-arid and marginally fertile ground.
Other animals found in the zoo's "AustralianOutback" include the cassowary, emu, brolga, tree kangaroo, blue-tongue skink, bearded dragon, frilled-neck lizard, and the carpet python.
The "AustralianOutback" reflects the rugged beauty of Down Under.
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