Not A Plain Old Nullarbor

(This really is a land of sweeping planes)



Australia's Nullarbor Plain gets its name not from an explorer called Mr Nullarbor, it gets its name from the combination of two Latin words ``nullius'' and ``arbor'' meaning ``no trees''.
And they're not kidding. There really are no trees.

There are no tree surgeons on the Nullarbor. In fact, there's not much on the Nullarbor. Nothing apart from stunning desert flowers could possibly grow in such an arid expanse.

If you're driving across the Nullarbor, you need to pay attention to the signs that tell you where the next service station is, because it's not the sort of place you'd want to run out of fuel. No, not even in the month of April, when you could blame it on the undeniable fact that it's April Fuels Day.

It is a vast, treeless plain that can be as daunting as it is starkly beautiful.

You wouldn't want to lose your bearings anywhere on the Nullarbor, simply because there are no significant geographical features.

I once took a series of pictures encompassing the full 360 degrees from where I stood near a white four wheel drive. The first photograph in the series showed the open right-hand passenger door of the 4WD, just for a point of reference. The earth was red and flat. The scrub was a combination of brown and dark green and no more than ankle high. The sky was cloudless, spanning every shade of blue conceivable, like a giant paint palette.

Every picture in the series looked the same. If the negatives themselves hadn't been in a numbered sequence, I would never have known what the correct order was. There are no geographical clues. The last picture in the sequence has the white 4WD in it once more.

That's why I've used two easily distinguishable pictures with this post. The one above, taken by me in September 1999, shows a signpost for the Nullarbor Plain.

And what about the second picture, which I took during the same trip? Ah, that must be the Nullarbor Plane.