IT IS very hot, very flat, and very bare. You might also consider it very ugly. Explorer Edward John Eyre, the first European to cross it in 1841, reportedly described it as “a hideous anomaly, a blot on the face of nature”. Others find its bleakness perversely beautiful. At first glance, it may look like a whole lot of nothing, but there is far more to the Nullarbor than meets the eye.
The name comes from the Latin “null” for “nothing” and “arbor” for “tree” – an appropriate name for the 1200-kilometre-wide swathe of desolation straddling the border between South…
