Food (in)security - The Nation Reviewed

Australia’s supply-chain network is at more risk than ever before

Leaving Darwin, you drive along a three-lane highway that’s lined with industrial estates, supermarkets, furniture stores and megabrands. It’s a colossal stretch of concrete, plastic signage and petrol stations that repeat in conformity as theoretical suburbs pass you by. Everyone drives a white RAV4 or a ute with huge bull bars that are not meant to repel kangaroos, but water buffalo. Huge road trains roar alongside. If you’re lucky enough to have air conditioning, the shock of the warm air never fades each time you go outside.

Once you get past Coolalinga, about 25 minutes out, you’re on your own. And you better have packed something to eat. There are only two supermarkets on the Stuart Highway between you and Alice Springs, 1500 kilometres away.