The animal world in the Australian outback is unique. Nowhere else can you find kangaroos, koala bears, wombats or platypus in the wild. And its uniqueness is evident even in the chalk deposits in the Western Plateau – with its million-year-old fossilised crayfish, ostracods, isopods, worms and snails.
The outback could be defined as meaning “far from civilisation”. In Western Australia the outback is dry and hostile, while in the east of the continent it is an untouched tropical rainforest. It is difficult to draw an actual dividing line. Where does the Australian outback begin?. In the end, it is all a question of perspective. For the inhabitants of Sydney, for example, it often starts 60 or 70 miles outside the city limits.
The continent of Australia split off more than 200 million years ago, allowing a unique animal and plant world to develop. About 85 per cent of the some 20,000 native plant species can only be found there. These include the eucalyptus tree, which is so typical of Australia, and of which there are several hundred species – ranging from small bushes to gigantic trees which can reach a height of 90 metres.
Ayers Rock, Australia’s most famous monolith, is now known by its original name given to it by the Aborigines – Uluru, which means “great pebble”. For the Aborigines, Uluru is a holy mountain that may not be climbed, nor should it be photographed from certain important cult sites.
The Aborigines, the original inhabitants of Australia and Tasmania, encompass many peoples and tribes, for example, the Palawa, Wonghi and Pitjantjatjara. Some of them called themselves Anangu, meaning people from Australia’s central desert area – in contrast to the white conquerors. Today it is sign of great acceptance for a non-Aborigines to be addressed as Anangu.
According to the myths handed down by the Aborigines, ancestral spirits such as the kangaroo man and the bower bird woman formed the mountains, valley and trees – and created man to inhabit this world. In Aboriginal religious ceremonies, the didgeridoo plays an important role, as do cultic cave drawings, which were repeatedly renewed in order to keep the stories of their ancestors alive.
