ABOUT THE OUTBACK

THE ANGLICAN OUTBACK FUND
(National Home Mission Fund)

Latest News | How to support the Fund | Contact Us | Photo Album

ABOUT THE OUTBACK

Where Australians Live

For climatic and other environmental reasons, Australia’s settlement of people is one of the most heavily concentrated in the world. Ninety percent of Australians live in about three percent of the land. These Australians live mainly on the coastal edges or in the fertile areas that are usually closer to the coast line.

These Australians live close to one another, have ready access to a wide range of human services, including educational, medical, transport, social, cultural and recreational services – even churches.

Approximately ten percent of the remaining Australians live in rural areas with a minority living in the remote or “outback” areas of Australia

Outback Australians

“Outback” is a word used to describe the vast inland and sparsely settled areas of Australia that are “out-back” and remote from where the majority of Australians live. An average of only around 0.03 people, per square kilometre live in the outback of Australia.

These Australians, often including indigenous Australians, live in small towns and communities or in isolated places. They do not have access to the human and other services that the majority of Australians usually have readily available.

Outback Australia is a place of contrasts. Its environment is often harsh, with long crippling droughts. Sometimes droughts will last ten or more years and they take a terrible toll on people and stock, outback industries and communities, flora and fauna. Sometimes floods follow droughts and another terrible toll is taken.

The contrast is the beauty of the outback – the rich Australian colours of land and sky, the silence of the outback, the outback trees and flowers, the soaring wedge tail eagles, the brolgas dancing at water holes, and the prolific and iconic kangaroo and emu.