Our Continent

New Zealand has been known as the land of the long white cloud. Why can't we in Australia have an "endearing" nickname for Australia as well?

Perhaps the size of this continent may provide the answer.

At present we have a cyclone crossing the coast north of Cairns and threatening to flood and devastate quite large parts of North Queensland. One commentator has managed to compare this area with the size of France. Just think about it folks, mere parts of North Queensland are larger than the the whole of France.

My partner and I have spent many happy months exploring France and all the delights that it has.

I'm afraid I can't say the same for North Queensland or indeed for many other parts of this continent. However I suspect that with the right equipment we could probably spend several months beginning to explore parts of Queensland as well.

Meanwhile, in the south eastern part of the continent, from Canberra right down to Melbourne, the weather seems to be threatening lengthy spells of exceptionally high temperatures, thereby creating the risk of huge bush fires in much of the countryside that is still in drought. Meanwhile, we have not even mentioned what the weather is going to be like in South and Western Australia.

With variations in temperature, rainfall, cyclones, bush fires etc. How is it possible to give a singular description, much less a cute one to this tremendous landmass?

I was watching a show on TV the other day, helping people learn to "four-wheel drive".

Fascinating.

Can you imagine having a large four-wheel-drive, fully loaded with both passengers and other gear, towing a caravan, no doubt also built for outback conditions and also filled with all the necessary equipment for a lengthy journey into our outback environment.

If you have this picture in your head let's proceed little.

As soon as you manage to get off the main highways you may find yourself on roads that can run for hundreds if not thousands of miles with neither hide nor hair of bitumen. These roads are dirt, sculpted by the wind and weather into either sand traps of monumental proportions or corrugated (dare I call them) roads that appear to be designed to test and probably wear out your suspension and all the other aftermarket shock absorber accessories that you bought to deal with these "little issues".

This particular show demonstrated how at slow speeds, say 20 to 40 km/h both your four-wheel-drive and your caravan are able to cruise along the rutted roads in a way that enables your suspension to work well as designed. They also demonstrated how at higher speeds, say 80 to 100 km/h, the tyres managed to touch the top of the ruts only, thereby giving you a "smooth" ride, but reducing the level of traction to almost zero. They then demonstrated what it would be like to encounter a problem like a simple turn at almost zero traction. I'm sure that your imagination does not need to work overtime to picture the overturning of both the four-wheel-drive and the caravan it was towing. Equally I'm sure the imagination does not need to go into overdrive depicted travelling along thousands of miles of corrugated road and 20 to 40 km/h.

Driving in different types of sand was also demonstrated because the sand dunes both in Central Australia and sometimes along the coast in areas where roads are not yet available, can provide for some exciting, but potentially dangerous driving situations.

Another part of the demonstration was to show you what it's like to cross creek in flood.

The first and most obvious part of the lesson was to try and find a spot where the entry into the water was at a very low angle and where the water was likely to be at its shallowest. There was also some advice particularly for diesel drivers about why it was important to have a snorkel attached to your vehicle. There was a clear demonstration about how you can breast the water and provided that you continue as slow and steady pace how the machinery will continue to work just when you think it is unlikely to do. By the end of the demonstration most drivers would have learnt the lesson about slow and steady wins the race.

Anyway I am not here to teach people on how to drive. I am here to suggest that the complexity and size of our continent is such that no single endearing comment can possibly describe it adequately.

So welcome to our large and complex continent.

We may not have a cute name like New Zealand, but we do have a terrain that is many times the size of France and where I hope you can continue to have endearing experiences as you travel in the outback.