The Real GOLDEN OUTBACK
Warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that the following article includes names of people who have died.
“It's nice to escape to somewhere remote and experience a new challenge travelling solo,” I replied to a retiree who queried why I was in this fiery outback setting on my lonesome. He soon delighted me with his wholesome yet polar opposite intention — “We come out here for the comradery.”
Despite searching for opposite things, we both found ourselves under wide-open skies away from the big smoke — city-wise, that is — embracing the simple pleasures of rural living.
There were fewer than a dozen of us seated around the sundowner campfire, happy hour drinks in tow as we swapped stories on what brought us to Melangata Station in Western Australia's Gascoyne-Murchison. It's a bit of a trek to get there, just over 560km north-east of Perth, with the mid-west region's conditions less than desirable. Think blaring heat, a constant cyclone of flies, long distances, and barren lands. But with its discomforts, it does teach a thing or two about the resilience required to explore red earth country.
“Despite searching for opposite things, we both found ourselves under wide-open skies away from the big smoke.”
While the fire continued to spit out flickers of gold under a slowly emerging silver
