Northern Australia’s rugged outback is the home of outsized crocs, cattle and cowboys. There’s no shortage of adventure here, for sure.
The film camera sweeps across the sunburnt country, taking in a dramatic landscape so vast, so endless, it makes your eyes ache. The horizon — where the dusty red earth meets the deep blue sky – is occasionally interrupted by shy, quiet rivers and the dusty country towns that define the Australian Outback.
The colours are brilliant, but the emptiness makes you yearn for human companionship. This is the perfect setting for a timeless romance in a timeless land. This is Australia, the new movie by Baz Luhrmann, the genius behind Strictly Ballroom and Moulin Rouge.
Scott Witham in his bizarre bull buggy.This World War II-era movie, which opens around Christmas, has already been hailed for its cinematography and its pairing of Australian film stars Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman.
Luhrmann spent two years creating the biggest movie ever made about Australia. Set on the explosive brink of World War II, and filmed against the harsh but beautiful Outback of Western Australia and the Northern Territory (NT), it recounts the story of a feisty English aristocrat, Lady Sarah Ashley (Kidman), who has inherited a cattle station about the size of Selangor.
When English cattle barons plot to take her land, Sarah reluctantly joins forces with a rough-hewn stock-man (Jackman). Together, the two embark upon an epic journey, droving their 2,000 head of cattle across hundreds of miles of the world’s most beautiful but unforgiving terrain, only to face the bombing of the city of Darwin by the Japanese.
The couple, of course, fall in love, offering just the kind of improbable riches-to-rags-to-riches romance that’s sure to be a winner.
The Australian Tourism board, as it is wont to do, suggests that the real star of the movie is the country itself . . . In an effort to replicate the so-called “Crocodile Dundee Effect”, which saw the arrival of thousands of visitors back in the late 80s, the tourism promoters are again counting on the landscape’s natural beauty to lure moviegoers to the Northern Territory.
The NT is arguably the wildest and most naturally gifted of all of Australia’s seven states. The land is hugely diverse, encompassing everything from cyclone-swept tropical islands in the north to the dusty bare bones of its interior. It’s a hard, unforgiving land, but few would deny its beauty.
Termite moundsBut what’s interesting about the NT is that most Malaysian visitors are so fixated on the big cities far to the south that few of us ever make it to Darwin, the NT’s capital. But that is quickly starting to change as more and more Malaysians look for more than just a shopping trip or a package tour.
The latest trend is to go look for some adventure — safe, yet exciting enough to get the heart racing a bit. And this is where the NT has an edge. All the adventures that visitors come for – bushwalking, crocodile spotting, horse riding, campervanning and just exploring — are within a few hour’s drive from Darwin.
But is the real Outback and the celluloid Outback really one and the same? I recently went to find out.
Darwin has possibly the most curious history of any Australian city. A bit over 100 years ago, during the boom of its pearl and gold mining industry, Darwin was a mostly Chinese city, with Asians outnumbering the Europeans six to one!
Even today, only a fraction of Darwinians are actually originally from here. Most Darwinians come from elsewhere in Australia or from overseas. As such, it is more multicultural for its size than any other city.
Darwin was nearly destroyed by Japanese bombers during World War II. Few know of Japan’s repeated bombardment of the city in 1942 and 1943. The movie’s WWII scenes were mostly filmed in the exact places where those deadly bombing raids took place. More than 900 people were killed, and many Darwinians today feel that the movie honours those nearly-forgotten victims.
A great way to get a feel for Darwin’s history is to take the fabulous Darwin Walking Tour. Steve Noble, a charming local history expert, conducts a two- to three-hour walking tour of downtown Darwin. Along the way, Noble provides lively commentary about the city and the NT’s unique history, Aboriginal culture and WWII.
Visiting the Darwin Wharf precinct, he takes visitors behind the scenes of the Australia movie, revealing some interesting stories that only a local would know.
Later in the day, if you haven’t had enough of Australia-related experiences, you might want to join a three-hour sunset cruise around the harbour on the beautifully restored pearling boat, the Anniki.
A road trainThis photogenic yacht features in the movie (look out for it!).
After I “did” Darwin, I was getting itchy to see the wild hinterland. I rented a 4WD car, stocked up on water, snacks, sunblock and petrol, and headed out onto the Stuart Highway, the main artery that links Darwin and the NT to the rest of Australia. Also known, with good reason, as the Explorer’s Highway, it runs straight south for nearly 3,000km!
I headed south to the tiny township of Adelaide River, just 90 minutes away. This quiet riverside community was once at the centre of Australia’s remarkable but little-known role in WWII. Soon after the bombing of Darwin started, the Australian military moved its command centre, troops and military hospitals inland here. It was from this quiet cattle and mining town that the Australian armed forces managed to fight off the Japanese
Today, little is left of those “glory” days, except a beautiful and poignant WWII cemetery. It’s well worth a visit. Read the epitaphs of the fallen soldiers. It will leave a lump in your throat . . .
And if that’s not for you, then at least stop in at the Adelaide River Inn for a cold drink and a chance to see the stuffed water buffalo that Crocodile Dundee tried to hypnotise in his first movie. Remember that?
It’s a great little pub with genuine Outback charm, that just happens to include the stuffed water buffalo (whose unblinking eyes seem to follow your frosty, well-deserved beer around the pub wherever you move).
The bush around Adelaide River is a harsh but beautiful environment, no doubt. Huge crocs — 6m long — haunt the calm waters of the river. And when the river floods, people are advised to stay indoors as these crocs can be found swimming up and down the main street!
But the rewards, locals will tell you, more than make up for the hard life.
In the cool of the evening, the cattle ranchers and farmers come to the pub. As I mingled with the locals, I met a burly rancher named Scott Witham. At a towering 2m tall and with hands like baseball gloves, he was almost too stereotypical of the Outback character. Over a beer, I asked him what he liked best — and worst — about life in the Top End.
Adelaide River military cemetery
He talked like an old pioneer from a century ago, with the same hopes and fears: “What’s the best part? The Land. Being this close to nature, growing things. The fruits of your labour are so tangible. I grew up in Western Australia but we always had drought, so I moved my family up here a couple of years back, you know, to start over again.
“The land up here has such great potential. We get regular rain up here. It keeps the grass green and the cattle fat.”
Then he stared right through me and continued.
“The smell of dew covered kangaroo grass in the mornings and the sight of elegant Jabiru cranes and their reflections gliding across our billabong [pond] . . .”
“What’s the worst part? The elements: Fire, too much rain sometimes, floods, even cyclones. And the crocs.”
Our gaze slowly drifted to a large shelf above the bar that was the permanent resting place of a huge crocodile skull the size of a large suitcase. And it was smiling.
It turned out that Scott and his wife Sue run a B&B alongside their cattle ranch just outside of town, but with a twist. Visitors can stay on their functioning cattle ranch, and go horse riding through the wilderness and spot water buffaloes, kangaroos and wild horses.
Every activity is guided by either the Withams or knowledgeable local guides.
You could simply stick around the ranch and witness the daily running of a cattle station. It’s fascinating to watch the highly trained Kelpie dogs instantly obey Scott’s every command.
Brumbies/wild horses
Scott drives an oversized jeep with heavy metal bars welded all over it which he uses to “encourage” the more stubborn bulls to move by nudging them! He calls it his Bull Buggy and he’s happy to give visitors a ride around his property in it.
Oh, and there’s a swimming pool where you can jump in to escape the dust and heat when you’ve had enough. I decided to stay a couple of days.
On my last morning on the cattle station, Scott picked me up at sunrise in his outlandish Bull Buggy, and drove me up to the top of Mt Bundy for the view. As the sun slowly crept over the hilly horizon, drawing long shadows in the lightly wooded bush all around us, we saw a timeless scene: wild brumbies quietly grazing in the shade of a eucalyptus grove, a huge water buffalo and her baby cautiously drinking from the Adelaide River, being aware — by instinct or by experience — of the crocs that lurk in the inviting water, and elegant Jabiru cranes silhouetted against the deep-orange sun.
And everywhere there was a dreamy mist that made this scene feel more like the dawn of Time than the dawn of a new day . . .
This land has the sort of raw, unpretentious, uncoerced appeal that is only now being discovered by both visitors and recent migrants. Want proof? On my last day in the NT (Nov 6), the headline in the Northern Territory News was: Nicole dreams of a home in the Top End.
Ahh, I’m a sucker for love stories.
o The movie Australia opens Dec 25.
Travel tips
1) Mount Bundy Bed & Breakfast
Adelaide River
Owners: Scott and Sue Witham
2) Darwin Walking Tours
Guide: Steve Noble
3) Anniki Pearl Lugger Cruises www.australianharbourcruises.com.au/anniki
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