The Snake Track

By Stephanie Jackson

 

If there's a difficult or an unconventional way to do something, I'll usually find it, and "difficult" and "unconventional" are words that accurately describe one of the routes that links the NSW coastal town of Eden to the southern highlands town of Bombala. 

 

There's a well-maintained dedicated tourist road but I had something different in mind.  I was looking for a road that offered a driving challenge, one that would trigger the bursts of adrenalin that are my drug of choice and I found it.

The track along which we would shake, rattle and roll on our way through the ranges begins 13 kilometres south of Eden and, although only 90 kilometres in length, would ultimately take six adrenalin-soaked hours to negotiate.  And as it speared into the forest and began its seemingly endless climb up through the ranges, the reason for its official name of "The Snake Track" soon became obvious.

 

 

 

 

Sunsets and bulldust

By John McCann

 

Visitors travelling through the small town of Winton in northwest Queensland are often surprised to find out just how much there is to see and do in this remote part of Outback Australia.  Apart from being close to where Banjo Patterson wrote our most famous song, Waltzing Matilda, in 1895, the little township bristles with other memories from our pioneering past.

 

This out-of-the-way region sparkles with natural gems as well, including the rugged Bladensburg National Park.  Situated only 20 minutes by road south of Winton, the 85,000 hectare park protects mulga and gidgee woodlands, along with large areas of Mitchell grass plains that are home to a number of endangered species

 

 

 

 

 

Pilbara's past

By Catherine Lawson & David Bristow

 

Western Australia's Pilbara region has long led the state's resource boom, a burgeoning industrial hub of monstrous iron ore ports, salt mines and Australia's largest liquefied natural gas plant.

 

Incongruous against such a backdrop, the historic town of Cossack has been painstakingly restored as an outdoor pioneering museum that visitors can walk, drive or cycle around.

 

Located north of Karratha, roughly halfway along WA's immense coastline, Cossack dates back to 1863 when the fledgling port of Tien Tsin was busy building the northwest's first pearling industry.  Predating Broome as a multicultural settlement, Tien Tsin drew together Malays, Indonesians, Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos and Ngarluma Aboriginal people who worked as pearl divers, port workers, miners and graziers

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