Outback

This article is about the interior of Australia. For the American restaurant chain, see Outback Steakhouse. For other uses, see Outback (disambiguation).

Outback
Area
View across sand plains and salt pans to Mount Conner, Central Australia
View across sand plains and salt pans to Mount Conner, Central Australia
Red and dark red areas form the legally defined Outback, dark red and striped areas forms the modern Outback.[a]
Red and dark red areas form the legally defined Outback, dark red and striped areas forms the modern Outback.[a]
Coordinates: 25°S 130°E / 25°S 130°E / -25; 130
CountryAustralia
ContinentOceania
Population
 • Total
607,000 (Rangelands)[b]
Tourism sign post in Yalgoo, Western Australia

The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass a number of climatic zones, including tropical and monsoonal climates in northern areas, arid areas in the "red centre" and semi-arid and temperate climates in southerly regions.[1] The total population is estimated at 607,000 people.[c][2]

Geographically, the Outback is unified by a combination of factors, most notably a low human population density, a largely intact natural environment and, in many places, low-intensity land uses, such as pastoralism (livestock grazing) in which production is reliant on the natural environment.[1] The Outback is deeply ingrained in Australian heritage, history and folklore. In Australian art the subject of the Outback has been vogue, particularly in the 1940s.[3] In 2009, as part of the Q150 celebrations, the Queensland Outback was announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for its role as a "natural attraction".[4]


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  1. ^ a b "The Modern Outback". pewtrusts.org. Archived from the original on 18 December 2016. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
  2. ^ "FROM THE PRESIDENT | Australian Rangeland Society". Archived from the original on 8 March 2024. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  3. ^ Splatt, William; Burton, Barbara (1977). A Treasury of Australian Landscape Painting. Rigby. p. 56. ISBN 9780859020138. Archived from the original on 31 October 2021. Retrieved 31 October 2021.
  4. ^ Bligh, Anna (10 June 2009). "PREMIER UNVEILS QUEENSLAND'S 150 ICONS". Queensland Government. Archived from the original on 24 May 2017. Retrieved 24 May 2017.