Those of us who live here know how inaccurate and inadequate the many of the popular stereotypes of Outback Australia are. Contrary to these stereotypes, we know that Outback Australia is a living, vibrant place inhabited by an amazing variety of people engaging with an incredibly rich and diverse range of lifestyles, ideas and activities.
The Australian desert has a central and mythical presence in Australian culture. While distant and unknown to most Australians, the Red Centre has become a symbol of the country and is now a site of cultural transformation defined by palpable and genuine multiculturalism, racial reconciliation, the transition to world leading renewable energy-powered communities and eco-tourism projects, and world leading arts practice. Outback Australia is no utopia, but neither is it the quaint cultural backwater our over-worked and over-regulated city cousins often imagine it to be.