There's a corrugated highway
Leading north from Port Augusta
Lined with ratted cars that didn't rate a tow
The Salt plains out of Pimba
And your eyes begin to stream
On to Kingoonya huddled dusty by the road
Romantic notions shattered
Like the tyres that didn't hack it
This has got to be the country's last frontier
Where a sports car's next to useless
Running cattle grids and river beds
We drove a van from 1963
Someone mentioned walkabout
And kiss your job goodbye
Just to see the country shimmer through the windscreen
Drinking beer, telling stories
While laughter filled the night
And flexi-time's behind you like a bad dream
You got a flat on Anzac Highway And Lawson on your shelf
It's a Southern Comfort, air-conditioned rage
Where a homestead's more than just a cheap print
Dangling from a wall
And mateship's more than lines upon a page
We went looking for Australia In between the TV lines
'Cause the ABC just couldn't make it real
Colour documentary
From a beanbag on the floor
Never shows as much as it conceals
A stark and blistered Alice Springs
And a river runs with shame
And you wipe the sheets of bulldust from your eyes
Another country's uniform
And the mirage it falls apart
To the open gap between the truth and lies
Go and see your country, mate
The travel agents scream
Politicians sell it's hard to score a pasttime
Signs and high-wire fences
Hold the land where I belong
It's as if I'm in the outback for the last time