My Australian Adventure

by Emily Laird

My family and I spent some time travelling the centre of Australia and these are some of the interesting places we visited.

Aboriginal Signs

Aboriginal people use different sings to show different things in their maps or dot paintings eg. emu, person, meeting place

Aboriginal Dot Paintings

Dot paintings are type of aboriginal art that is done in the Northern Territory. Dot paintings are known all across Australia but are only created by aboriginals that come from the Northern Territory. These paintings are used to tell stories or to show a special event, as we would use a picture. It was really interesting to see how the aboriginal people lived and how they were treated by the white people, it really made you realise how smart and resourceful they used to be.

Why is the dirt red?

The dirt in central Australia is red because of small pieces of iron that have been infused with the dirt. When the iron oxidises (combines with oxygen) it’s turns red, meaning that if you dug down far enough the dirt would still be brown.

Visiting Uluru

The walk around Uluru is a total of 10km but is more like 14km once you walk from the car park to the start of the walking track. There is a road that follows roughly the same track, but you can’t go in and see the old aboriginal camps and water holes.

Coober Pedy

Coober Peedy is a town that is known for opal mining, the Main Street is full of shops trying to sell you jewellery. Many of the buildings are underground because the temperature is more stable.

Oodnadata Track

The Oodnadatta track is a 672km off road track in the middle of nowhere. The track passes through many small towns, one of them being the town of Oodnadatta where the pink roadhouse is situated, this town is known as the hottest and driest place in Australia.