Hi All

Gary, thanks for the glowing testimony to my home state, Queensland, and my home town, Brisbane. Wish all our visitors were as pleased, but I haven't heard anyone complaining yet.

The Outback is more where you can walk off over a rise and not see a single sign of human life to the horizon on the otherside. Partly why topping a dune in the Simpson is so deadly for the unwary - there's nothing to give you a hint of where a road might be.

Alternatively I think you're outback when you drive a couple of hours at 140 km/h to visit friends and that's still your local area. Australia has huge areas of land that just ignores our efforts to tame it.

In the USA there are signs of humanity virtually in every direction even in deserts - 15 times as many people crammed into the same area. Or Europe, which could fit neatly into Queensland with land to spare. Any wonder Belgians are the biggest foreign owners of land here?

Adam