Australia is a big place. Divided into seven states that span 7.7 million square kilometres it ranks as the 6th largest country in the world.
To give you an idea of how large it is imagine fitting the United Kingdom inside Australia. Now imagine that 32 times.
Australia is nearly the size of the United States.
In fact, it’s the world’s biggest island.
And still it’s the world’s smallest continent.
With a population of 22 million, Oz only houses 2.6 people per square kilometre. 215,000 of which live in the Northern Territory. Which makes the great outback more like my backyard. Only with 18 of the world’s deadliest snakes, emus that evolved from velociraptors, and drop bears.
Okay maybe you’re right. My backyard is a little bigger.
The truth is that the further we travel the less it feels we’ve travelled. Despite the great distances between towns, it seems that everyone in the Northern Territory knows each other. Even more surprising are the recurrent and coincidental encounters with friends we’ve made in previous towns.
Unless they weren’t coincidental and we are being followed…
From running into the same backpackers town after town to nearly running over our wailing Uluru media officer while in the streets of Alice Springs, we just can’t seem to escape the places we’ve been. It kind of feels like we have this travelling gypsy family. Except we’re not family.
And it just gets smaller. School of the Air, the largest classroom in the world, provides education via computers to isolated students and indigenous communities throughout the country. Likewise, the Royal Flying Doctor Service flies to the most remote locations in Australia to offer medical services to those who may not have received them otherwise. These organizations are further able to bridge the gap between people in the bush.
In Australia, no matter where you are, you’re only ever a hop, skip, and a drop bear away from where you were.
By: Willie Concepcion
April 4, 2010
