Sweeping for mile after mile across the heartlands of Australia, and throwing out some of the weirdest and wonderful natural sites this colossal country has to offer, the Outback is one of the most iconic images of Down Under.

Hardly visited but held in awe by so many, this windswept, dust-clad section of the land is peppered with mining towns like Coober Pedy, White Cliffs and the legendary Silver City of Broken Hill, all places where opals and precious stones and metals are pulled from the ground daily. Outback tour guides typically recommend starting around Alice Springs right at its heart. Here, begin by casing out the startling formations of Uluru, rising in a truly dramatic and magnetising fashion. The Ayers Rock and the Kings Canyon make for the star attractions, along with boulder-dotted Alice Springs Desert Park that is home to the thorny devil and plenty of roos’. Other gems include the gorges and chasms of the West MacDonnell Range and the endless grasslands of the Stuart National Park in New South Wales. Then there are the Devil’s Marbles, stacked like hoodoos in the desert, not to mention intrepid travel routes like the Gibb River Road (passing the cliffs of El Questro Wilderness Park and the watered gorges of Windjana), and the great Ghan Railway, striking right through the heart of the country from north to south!