The Outback in Style

Outside the window of the nine-seater plane, there are miles of emptiness. There’s not a town or village to be seen. The land is a rusty brown embroidered with sparse vegetation. I can see no roads, no cars, no people.

The Outback is a god-forsaken place. No wonder most Australians live on the coast. The vast interior, ‘back o’Bourke’, is shunned by sleek city dwellers. ‘Woop, woop’ or ‘Never never’ they call it with a sneer and make fun of the ‘stockmen’ and ‘jackaroos’ who work on country-sized cattle stations.

So, why would tourists want to visit? There’s Uluru of course, that great monolith, sacred to Aborigines, which draws hundreds of thousands a year to watch its colours seep into the sunset. There are other geological wonders – Katherine Gorge, King’s Canyon and the Kimberley mountains, where millennia old ochre rocks fold and ripple and ancient waterholes offer cool comfort from the desert heat.

But not many tourists would go to the Outback just ‘to be’. Until now that is. Voyages Wrotham Park Lodge is a boutique hotel built on a 6,000 square kilometre cattle station where 35,000 hump-necked Brahman cattle wander among the scrub. By day, it is either baking hot or humid and flooded (when it is closed).

We land on the dusty airstrip, bumping to our journey’s end. It has taken under an hour to fly from the lush green forests and blue seas of Cairns to this corner of the ‘Red Centre’. The dry heat hits as we step onto the sandy ground. There to meet us is Mat Daniel, the manager of the Lodge. He looks the part, dressed in his ‘Akubra’ hat and khaki shirt. He could be one of those stockmen, but instead of cracking open a can of beer and making a lewd joke, he offers us cold towels scented with lemon myrtle and eucalyptus to cool our brows. This is obviously the Outback in style.

In the smart 4x4, he drives us past the termite-hill-like terrain of the eroded river gorge where the lodge is sited. We pass what look like wooden sheds with tin roofs. These, I learn are our ‘quarters’. I have a moment of panic. Perhaps we are to live like jackaroos after all? There’ll be centrefolds from girlie mags on the walls and the searing heat will only be alleviated by a cold XXXX. But, no, it is an illusion. They are ‘sheds’ from behind, but the front has a verandah with a daybed and a large sliding glass door through to a coolly comfortable bedroom in earthy tones. There is a wet room with an enormous shower against a full-length window.

Canapés and meals are served in the central ‘homestead’ which has a lip pool overlooking the river gorge where bee eaters flit. Mat holds ‘whip cracking’ lessons on the wide decking, under the starry Southern sky. There aren’t many hotels where the manager is equally at home wrestling a bull to the ground as he is talking about the extensive wine cellar.

This is a relaxed and friendly place to holiday, where the informality and natural peace of the Outback blends perfectly with a look that could be lifted from a glossy interiors magazine. Vernacular materials: rusted steel, corrugated iron and multi-coloured hardwoods are softened with city style – high thread-count cotton sheets, fluffy cushions and mood lighting. Food is not served from a Billy can, but presented on large white plates with a glass of best Australian viognier. Menus are breathless. ‘Queensland red-clawed yabbie (crayfish), avocado and apple salsa on buckwheat blini with wakame seaweed salad and lemon aspen dressing’ is my choice for lunch. It is delicious.

But a stay at Wrotham Park Lodge isn’t all chi-chi indulgence (although it can be), there are half-day tours of the cattle station, admiring the old wooden ‘yards’, where cattle are sorted, like data in some primitive computer. There are macho cowboys. If you’re lucky you may see them lassoing truculent steers. Back at the Lodge, there are kayak trips on the river, nature walks, fishing and morning horse-rides through golden grass. At night, dingos howl and the moon hangs low over the river.

This is the Outback, there’s no doubt about it. But it’s the Outback in style. Pack sensible shoes and sling backs.