Question 1

What other Outback Australia tours are offered?

Accepted Answer

Odyssey has a collection of Australian Outback tours for small groups that seek to provide a travel experience that foster a greater understanding of the outback, the communities who live here today and in the past, the landscapes and the wildlife. The Australian outback tour collection are an adventure with a tour director and tour guide who know and understand Outback Australia. As a tour operator focused on knowledge sharing when we operate a tour, each of our outback small group tours are different, they are designed for couples and the solo traveller who enjoy being in a smaller group when they explore. For example Odyssey will take the senior traveller on a guided tour into the Northern territory with a tour of Australia’s red centre and the Canning stock route or up into Kakadu national park. As well, there is the Outback Australia tour offered as an outback experience as a guided tour of South Australia Flinders range for 14 days including the Oodnadatta track. The Flinders range outback tour also includes the option of a scenic flight over Wilpena pound. Then in Western Australia our Outback tours of Western Australia include a tour of the Kimberley region featuring the bungle bungle range. These Western Australia discovery tours are trips that start on the west coast in Broome on the Kimberley coast. These smaller group tours of Western Australia on the Kimberley coast introduce the traveller to the pristine beaches before turning inland across Western Australia to Kununurra close to the border with the Northern Territory. From here our discovery tours of Western Australia head to the bungle bungle and then returns across the Kimberley region to Broome over several days where this Western Australia tour finishes. From Broome there are regular connecting flights to Perth and across to Sydney or Melbourne. The Outback Australia tours from Broken Hill take the traveller on a outback adventure across three states, New South Wales, South Australia & Queensland. The outback experience included on this trip includes time in Birdsville with guided tour of the surrounding desert environments, before returning back along the Birdsville track to Broken hill via Aarkoroola.

At the moment Odyssey does not offer small group adventure tours to Uluru ( Ayers rock ) or Cairns to reach the Great barrier reef. There are many many choices of larger group tour operators who can provide experiences such as an Uluru tour to here and other high demand destinations than Odyssey can provide as an experience in the ” aussie outback “.

Question 2

What are the places you choose for a group to stay in and the food like?

Accepted Answer

The places available to stay in are clean the food is typically good too, though often oversized portions. Though there is a notable absence of bedside reading lights in the hotel bedrooms in the outback… it is simply lights on or off, much to any travellers puzzled look.

Question 3

The regions and Covid-19, what do we know?

Accepted Answer

The people are keen and willing to share the stories and history and they are just great insights into contemporary and historic life that is very much respected.

Also to be respected is that no Regional town or community encountered seeks to be exposed to Covid-19, cleanliness and registering at the door of places visited is keenly monitored as the external traveller/visitor represent a potential Covid-19 source into the local community.

Awareness of and respect for the need for social distancing is very important. This is a good thing, because sometimes where we live in the urban metros we can become relaxed about the threat Covid-19 poses simply because medical resource is often close to hand, I suggest.

Question 4

Why is it called the Outback?

Accepted Answer

The term ‘Outback’ comes from the idea of ‘Back country’, which was used in the early colonies (with recorded uses as early as 1800) to refer to land beyond the settled regions. With the spread of settlement, ‘Outback’ came into use to describe the inland, arid and semi-arid centres of Australia. ‘Outback’ was first used in print in 1869, when the writer clearly meant west of Wagga Wagga, NSW.

‘Outback’ has a number of variants, including ‘Back o’ Bourke’, ‘Back of Beyond’, ‘Back Country’, and ‘Beyond the Black Stump’ (the precise location of which varies according to local folklore!).

Question 5

How hot is the Outback in Australia?

Accepted Answer

The Queensland Outback can get pretty hot! Summer temperatures average between 35-40 degrees, though some towns can get a lot hotter than this. Temperatures cool down between March and October, with the coolest month (July) averaging in the mid-late 20s in most towns.

Reflecting this, Odyssey Traveller has scheduled our Outback Queensland small group tours to leave from July – October and Feb – March 2020 and 2021.

Question 6

Where does the Outback start in Queensland? Where is the Outback in Queensland?

Accepted Answer

Everybody has their own ideas of where precisely ‘the bush’ becomes ‘the outback’. To avoid controversy, we’re going with the offical map on outbackqueensland.com.au, which defines Outback Queensland as beginning somewhere east of Roma, stretching south to the NSW border, west to the South Australia/Northern Territory borders, stopping a bit north of Mt. Isa, where the tropical weather of the ‘Top End’ begins.

Tours

Small group tour of Queensland - 11 days

Small group tour of Queensland

Small group tour of outback Queensland

Small group Motorcycle tours; Broken Hill and back

Small group tour; Broken Hill and back

Long tour of Australia for a small group

Queensland