Vacation in the Outback Australia

Melbourne :: Sydney :: Hobart :: Adelaide :: Brisbane :: Outback

Outback, Northern Territory Must See (2 days)

Vacation in Australia – Uluru

Uluru – see the world’s largest monolith, located near Alice Springs in the Australian ‘Red Centre’.
Uluru is a spectacular sight, rising out of the rich red ground. This is a visual experience, not only because of its size, but also because of the colours that constantly change hour by hour, culminating in a glorious finale at sunset when the rock glows, bright orange.

‘Fly the Outback’ Private Charter Plane 5 States, 6 days

Your vacation journey departs Melbourne and crosses the entire Australian state of Victoria, then South Australia. Stop at Coober Pedy, an opal-mining town with a climate so hot that its residents live in houses underground. Then onto the Northern Territory to Western Australia. See the Bungle Bungles mountain range comprising the most unusual rock shapes. Stop at El Questro, a million acre wilderness vacation resort. Here there are vacation ground tours to see Aboriginal Cave Art, rivers and scenic gorges.

Chieftain 10 Seater Light Plane Charter

Your Australian vacation outback journey returns flying over Uluru and the Macdonnell Ranges. Stop over at an outback station (ranch) near Alice Springs. Fly over the Simpson Desert and visit Broken Hill, a remote mining town in New South Wales. A personalized itinerary that shows you highlights of the great Aussie Outback!

Vacation Day 1 - Personalized Itinerary

States - Victoria, South Australia, Northern Territory
Towns - Mildura, Cobber Pedy, Alice Springs

Northern Territory - Coober Pedy residents live
underground to escape the heat

Depart Melbourne, stop over in Mildura, then onto the opal mining town Coober Pedy where miming hillocks create a visual moon landscape. You tour this unusual town where houses and hotels are underground because of the heat. You visit the four star ‘Desert Cave’ Hotel and there’s time to shop for opals. In the early evening you arrive Alice Springs and stay overnight in the town that is the ‘Centre of Australia’.

Vacation Day 2 - Personalized Itinerary

States - Northern Territory, Western Australia
Sights - The Kimberley Region comprising the Olgas, Bungle Bungles
You fly over desert country seeing 'Uluru', the largest monolith, and Wolf Creek, meteorite crater. Stop at The Olgas, mountains formed of rounded rocks that, like Uluru, are also revered for their brilliant and changing colours. Mid-afternoon you reach the Kimberley Ranges and view the Bungle Bungles before landing at El Questro Resort.

Western Australia - Kimberley Waterhole

Vacation Day 3 and 4 – Personalized Itinerary

State – Western Australia
Region – The Kimberley, El Questro Resort, Million acre wilderness
The station is large, covering an area of 80 km (50 miles) and most of its vast area has never been settled or explored.

There are a variety of journeys here to see Aboriginal rock art dating from 45,000 years, fishing and exploring scenic gorges and waterfalls. El Questro accommodation will not disappoint, the rooms are set in a garden comprising lawns that run to the edge of a river gorge. Quiet and idyllic.

Vacation Day 5 - Personalized Itinerary

State – Northern Territory
Region - Macdonnell Ranges
Accommodation – An outback Cattle Station
You fly south to the Macdonnell Ranges and land at Alice Springs. Overnight is spent at a cattle station with deluxe accommodation set in spectacular countryside.

Vacation Day 6 - Personalized Itinerary

States – Northern Territory, New South Wales, Victoria

Spectacular Simpson Desert, Northern
Territory /South Australia

Regions Simpson Desert, Broken Hill, Melbourne
Your vacation journey crosses across the spectacular Simpson Desert and includes a stopover at the mining town of Broken Hill. The town is a mix of public buildings of heritage architecture and tin houses set against a backdrop of tall mine shafts. Broken Hill is a haven for filmmakers. The profoundly deep blue, clear skies and pure sunlight produce film of perfect clarity, and the countryside is a perfect backdrop for scripts demanding remote wilderness. Mel Gibson’s Mad Max 2 was filmed here.

Your vacation journey concludes re-entering Victoria flying over the Murray River and landing in Melbourne early evening. A Meridian Tours escort will meet you and transfer you to your hotel.

Aboriginal Culture and History Tour, Mungo National Park, Southern New South Wales
Located 600 miles north west of Melbourne, Victoria.
How to get There:
Flight from any major Capital City to Mildura, Victoria.
Your Meridian Tour Escort will meet you at Mildura Airport.

Background

Australian Aborigines have the oldest continually maintained culture in the world spanning possibly 60,000 years. Their art, stories and systems of beliefs are undoubtedly the oldest on earth.

A journey to Mungo National Park provides visitors on a personalized vacation with experiences of how the Aborigines lived and adapted to social change in a country that is the driest and most climatically hostile of all continents. Mungo is a fossil landscape largely unmodified since the end of the Pleistocene ice age over one million years ago. It is World Heritage listed to preserve both its Aboriginal Heritage and ancient landscape.

Australian Aborigines Today

Aboriginal tribes no longer inhabit Mungo National Park. Families live in small townships nearby either finding employment locally or living on government grants. They are renowned for their skills as stockmen and are employed by owners of large properties cattle properties here and elsewhere in the state.

The Landscape and Ecology

The region gradually transformed over hundreds of thousands of years from rainforest with flowing rivers and lakes full of fish, and groves of casuarina trees to the dry and
semi- desert that it is today. The topography in other parts of this region is ‘Mallee’ country, with saltbush and tea-tree.

On your vacation journey your personalized itinerary will visit:

The Walls of China - crescent-shaped sand dunes formed by winds blowing sand to a height of 30 m (98 ft) for 30 km (19miles).

Remains of an early white settlers cattle station and a perfectly intact 1860s woolshed

Stone Quarry - ancient artefacts such as axe and spearheads and grindstones

Wild life -emus, pink cockatoos, mulga parrots, honey-eaters and crested bell birds, kangaroos, geckos, lizards and small mammals.

Fossils of giant marsupials from 90 million years ago

Thegoa Lagoon - a journey revealing early campsites and with a variety of 'bush tucker' for visitors on vacation to experience how early tribes lived here.

Thegoa Lagoon shows evidence of intense habitation with scarred trees, middens (campfires), and burial sites, and an abundance of bush tucker, majestic river gums, bird life and wildlife.

Personalized Itinerary

Mungo is the ancestral land of the Barkindi, Mutthi Mutthi and Nyiampaa tribes. Your vacation here will include a journey of discovery. The landscape is rich with burial sites, ancient artefacts and early campsites. In the mid 1960s two skeletons were discovered, preserved under sediments of a dried-up lakebed for a period of 45,000 years.

This momentous discovery re-wrote the history of human habitation in Australia. It was thought that Aborigines had lived in Australia for a period of 8,000 years. A personalized vacation here will leave you wondering how, at such an early date in history, did the first Aborigines cross 100 km (62 miles) of open ocean from Asia to arrive in a land they did not know was there?

Best Experiences on Your Vacation

The Walls of China - its high dunes have been sculpted by wind into a variety of forms changing colour throughout the day from white to vibrant orange. At sunset, the view and the silence is an ultimate experience!
Star Gazing - Because Mungo Park is 100 km (66 miles) from the nearest town lights, the air is clear and pristine and the sky luminous with masses of constellations.

A magical experience. Meridian Tours trusts your personalized vacation here will be memorable. In a land of immense age and heritage, everything is a new experience!

Your journey is on the ancestral land of the Barkindi, Mutthi Mutthi and Nyiampaa tribes. Meridian Tours respectfully acknowledges its Ancestors and Elders as the traditional owners of the land.