Chapter 5 – Down the Track

The expression ‘down the track’ is one of the more frequently used Australian idioms. It conjures up feelings of remoteness, of going to places where few others venture, of the dry, dusty environment that is so often the heart of Australia. Whether it refers to a time, a place, or a direction, it is as part of the everyday Australian vernacular as “g’day”. It is also a throwback to the days of an earlier Australia when to ‘hump the bluey’, to ‘waltz matilda’, or go down ‘the Wallaby Track’ were an accepted part of the itinerant workforce lifestyle and lexicon. It is a throwback to a time very different to the Australia of today. Yet there are still parts of Australia where it remains possible to go ‘down the track’ physically and philosophically. Many of these tracks are through remote and vast expanses where the Australia of today resembles the Australia of those long gone days in many ways. Similar to those times, it is in those places the allure and quiet of the bush can still be found. Not only is it where Nature’s propensity to set out its teaching clearly and precisely can be easily discerned. It is where the freedom and space encourages an understanding of this teaching in a way few other places do.