Mildura Campus

Mary Beth Butler

After 5 months in Australia, I finally look the right way when crossing the road, have picked up most of the slang, and don't even have to study my coins anymore when paying for something. But as of 2 weeks ago, I still felt like something was missing from my Aussie experience… a trip to the Outback. Now, after spending 6 days way out back, photographing some of the most spectacular and bizarre locations I have ever seen, I finally feel as if I understand what Australia is all about.

We hopped onto our 22-seater bus early in the morning; 11 Americans, ready with our 2 cameras each and our funny accents. Less than an hour out of Mildura and we watched the buildings fade away while the bush sprang up. I woke up a while later and looked around. Will took a 360-degree glance around, too, saw nothing but flat land, a dirt road, and a few kangaroos and sheep, and wisely stated, "So, this is the Outback."

I quickly learned that the Outback was the Australia I had pictured before I came here… dusty, little towns in the middle of nowhere, kangaroos and emus every hundred or so meters, and kilometers of dirt roads that leave trails of dirt clouds behind your tires (and force you to duct tape the cracks around the windows to keep it from suffocating you).

It's a place of sketchy pubs in towns with a population of about 20, of lakes that haven't seen water in 10,000 years, of kangaroo and Johnny cakes cooked over a fire, and, of course, a place where pushing your car out of a rut in the road may be a daily requirement.

There's a simple four words that can sum it up pretty well:

"Welcome to the country."

Mary Beth Butler

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