Faces People, Places, and World Culture for Kids and Children November/December 2015

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF when you hear the term “the Outback”? Do you picture a desolate landscape teaming with kangaroos and crocodiles? In some ways, you are correct. The Australian Outback is about 2.5 million miles of desert and wilderness. Here are five facts to start you on your adventure! 1. The majority of houses in Coober Pedy are underground! That makes sense in a place where the daytime temperature can reach 114 degrees F. The town even features underground bookstores and restaurants. 2. Before the Ghan, a railroad that runs the length of Australia from north to south, goods were moved by camel caravan. Many of those first camels escaped and resulted in a large population of feral (wild) camels. In fact, the Outback is home to the…

Location: The Australian Outback makes up most of the central part of the Australian continent. It does not have fixed boundaries. Area: 2.5 million square miles (about 70 percent of Australia’s total landmass) Population: 60,000 Terrain: Central areas are mostly desert, but the Outback also includes tropical areas in the north. Climate: Deserts see temperatures as high as 120 degrees F during the day and 15 degrees F at night. Temperatures in the tropical north are not as extreme.…

In the bird world, the emu has serious street cred, as the national bird of Australia, the largest bird in Australia, and the second tallest bird in the world (behind the ostrich). TOP FLIGHTLESS SURVIVOR The emu is well adapted for survival in the Australian Outback. It has a long neck, sharp beak, and two sets of eyelids – one for blinking and one to keep out dust. Shaggy, gray-brown feathers with dark tips hide its tiny wings. Though the emu can’t fly, it extends its wings to stabilize itself when running. The emu’s beak is black and its eyes are reddish brown. Each foot is equipped with three forward-facing toes with long talons (sharp claws) for fighting, and its powerful legs propel the emu along at speeds of up…

For most of us who haven’t been lucky enough to visit the country of Australia, we think of it as a vast area with very few people or cities. Actually, Australia is one of the most urbanized countries in the world. But most of its population is concentrated in areas on its southern and eastern coasts or areas close to those coasts. The only exception is the city of Perth, which is on the southern west coast. Basically, everything else in the middle is the Australian Outback! That’s about 2.5 million miles of desert and wilderness, with only about 60,000 people who live there. So the Outback is not one single location, but the name for all of the empty, remote, huge distances of inland Australia. Not only does the…

COOBER PEDY — A MOONSCAPE? Visitors to Coober Pedy always comment on how different this place is from many others in Australia. The lack of grass, or vegetation in general, is striking. The pinkish-orange soil is something to see. And woo-ee, when the summer sun beats down on this Outback outpost, it is fierce. Just how hot does it get? Temperatures commonly reach 114°F (46°C)! Talk about toasty! People often compare Coober Pedy’s landscape to a moonscape. About nine miles (15 kilometers) from the town’s downtown row of shops and businesses lies a place called Moon Plain. Walking on the soft soil here feels strange underfoot. Its vast expanse of rocky plains is littered with clear gypsum crystals – and even some gemstones. It’s hard to believe that more than…

Open Wide! When it’s snack time, do you reach for a bag of chips, fresh fruit, or yogurt? How about trying a handful of trail mix made with nutty wattle seeds and raw witchetty grubs? If you’re super hungry, why not tuck into a cup of hearty ’roo tail stew or a few goanna nuggets? Now don’t go all wobbly, mate! These are just some examples of traditional Aboriginal food, or as they say down under, “bush tucker!” Bush tucker refers to any type of food found in the wild, from herbs and flowers, to mammals and insects. For more than 40,000 years, Aboriginal people have survived off the land. Until recently, they never tended livestock or raised crops on farms. Semi-nomadic, Aboriginals often traveled miles every day in search…