The Australian Outback - Journey To The Centre

Sonia Nazareth finds the Australian outback formidable, poetic and illuminating.

- Sonia Nazareth

There’s a faint breeze blowing, but I’m perspiring nonetheless. Flies buzz overhead like a halo. But these trifling irritants are worth enduring in the Red Centre of Australia’s Northern Territory—where beauty is anything but banal. An expansive view over the red desert unfurls before us—like an ornamental placemat. In the distance I hear voices ooh and aah as the sun sets over the huge red monolith that is Uluru (Ayers Rock)– one of the world’s most iconic rock faces of arkose sandstone, rising like a phoenix some 348 metres above the desert sand.

But while the Ayers Rock and the National Park that contains it are formidable, the ostensible reason why writers from different parts of the world have assembled is for the opening of British artist Bruce Munro’s Field of Light. For those who came in late, Munro, best known for producing immersive light-based installations, was inspired into new creation on a visit to Uluru in 1992.

It’s the sheer scale and execution of his work that has our eyes at the edge of their stalks. 50,000 slender stems crowned with radiant frosted-glass spheres, spread over an area the size of four football-fields, and illuminated by solar power, hypnotise us as they come to life by the fading light of the sun. Shimmering in shades of pink, white and green, under a sky blazing with southern stars, one gets an immediate feel for the artistic muse that the Outback can be.

For those who haven’t hired 4WD vehicles to get around, there are plenty of guided tours. Most of these lead obviously into the National Park. Even without the additional spiel of Uluru being one of the world’s natural wonders and the 36-domes of Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) with its deep valleys and gorges, having aficionados run superlatives ragged—it’s the obvious draw.