Sturt’s Steps has a really “big” environmental message.

Corner Country, in far north-west NSW, played a significant role in Charles Sturt’s pursuit of an inland sea. Now, environmental groups, governments and others are using sculptures to raise the profile of the area – and reintroduce some old friends.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
In eighteen forty four, explorer Charles Sturt set out for
central Australia in search of an inland sea, believing it
was his destiny to find it. Fifteen men, two hundred sheep,
six drays and a boat traveled through northwestern New South
Wales along the Murray and Darling Rivers before passing what
would later be Broken Hill. After drought and then rains,

(00:24):
Sturt pushed on across what's now known as Sturt's Stony
Desert and into the Simpson Desert. So what's this got
to do with Australia's love of big things? Keep listening
and you'll find out. I'm Amanda Keller and we're taking
a big trip for brain fuel, great Ausy stories from
the road, fueled by Ampol, Australia's own I know big

(00:49):
things are usually just funny and oversized, but here's a
project that's actually using them to help the environment. It's
called Sturt's Steps and a eleven hundred kilometers circular route
that will link Broken Hill to towns like Tibberborough and Milporinka,
up to Cameron's Corner, through Sturt National Park and back

(01:10):
to the Hill again. Lori Mode is the project manager
helping to make it all happen.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah, it's a great little touring route and I think
it's just exploring areas that certainly have so many stories
that people don't know about, right from our indigenous traditional
owners and cares of the land, right through to how
stations operate every day, how there's one cop in town
and in tiber Borough and that manages the whole region.

(01:38):
You know. I think stories like that and people don't
realize the extent of really how outback operates, and this
touring route hopes to tell those tales.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Laurie's team works with all the stakeholders in Corner Country
where the new South Wales, Queensland and South Australian borders
all meet. That takes in Sturt National Park three hundred
and twenty five thousand, three hundred and twenty nine hectes
of red Earth, wild emuse and outback adventuring. One of
the park's goals is to reintroduce locally extinct mammals that

(02:12):
haven't been seen in the area for more than one
hundred years, and they're raising awareness in that tried and
true Aussie way with big things.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
They have an arrangement with a project called wild Desert
to look at endangered species and reintroducing them into the
Isralian climate so that they can flourish. And three of
the species that they're looking at are the bandicoot, quoll
and the bilbid. And so in testament to that, we
knew that we wanted to put in some sculptures to

(02:44):
interpret stories along the route because this terring Root is
about eleven hundred k's and those sculptures could be representative
of different stories.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
The first three sculptures are made out of wire leftover
from fencing a different endangered species area. Further supporting the
environmental message, artists came up and constructed a big bandicoot,
a big bilby and a big quoal, all pretty notably
small animals in real life, but crucial to our wildlife.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
We put them in a different visitor service areas within
Stert National Parks so that visitors can engage with them.
But then it prompts that question of why the bandicoot?
Why are the bilbi?

Speaker 1 (03:24):
With the addition of new museum spaces, interpretive signage, and
even more sculptures, Lorie Hope's visitors will follow in Sturt's
footsteps learning about the outback and of course share their
experience with friends back home.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
And they're the first three that are out. We've got
other sculptures going in, so we're going to have a
big camel appearing in Tiberborough in not so distant future.
And again just trying to prompt our visitors to understand
more about the history and how these towns have got
to where they are today. We try to bring the
story to life in these sculptures or in these big

(04:00):
things and it's giving people a reason to stop understand.
But also that infamous selfie.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
From exploring st steps to whatever your journey. Ampole is
the fuel that gets you there. Make sure you follow
our adventures for free in your favorite podcast app. I'm
Amanda Keller and this is brain Fuel.